Two weeks after we came home, I had to introduce Governor Schwarzenegger at the monthly luncheon of the Sacramento Press Club. I've been the president of the club now for three years, and every January "Ahnuld" pays us a visit.
Needless to say, I wasn't working at the time... still home full-time with Elena... and was pretty jumbled as I put on a suit and headed in to town.
So I'm waiting backstage for the Terminator to arrive. Once he does, he walks up and smiles and says, "John, how ah you doing?" (That's written a little in Arnold-speak). One of his staffers then congratulates me on Elena... and he whips around and says, "Oh, thaht eez wunderfuhl."
Later, after his speech, he took questions from the audience. I was running around the room with a wireless microphone so the questions could be heard (there were about 250 people there).
Well, I apparently didn't get to someone fast enough... and Arnold made the following comments, found in the official state transcript of the event (the "Q" is me):
GOVERNOR: You're very slow today, since you have a new baby.
Q: I know.
GOVERNOR: You don't get enough sleep. Let's give a hand for the new baby. Come on, now. He's doing a great job. (Applause)
Q: She'll be very pleased.
What I wanted to say in response was "actually, Governor, I'm accepting donations to her scholarship fund today... would you like to make one?"
But I didn't. By the way, my mom was in the audience (she was here helping us with Elena) and loved the whole thing.
If you want to see the video, click here, then click on "Video" in the top right hand corner and it's at 33:33 in the video where Elena's big moment happens!
