What Makes Jon Special...

Living with Jon for the past week and a bit has been quite an adventure. It's also highlighted a lot of those things that make Jon, well, Jon. Those of you who know our wayward friend may nod your heads knowingly while sporting a half smile on your face. The rest will probably shake your heads in confusion.

I provided an example of absurdity in my April 19th entry, but that's just a small dose of the Jon experience. It often seems like hardly an hour goes by without a definite 'Jon Moment'. For example, the other day our flagship radio station 101.7 was playing an operatic piece, and Jon began to dance, or 'move' with the music. It's impossible to adequately explain, but Jon's dancing moves far overshadowed the tenor coming out of the stereo.

At night time, James and I are treated to what I call Jon Snores-a-lot. It's amazing, the types of sounds that manage to escape from his prone form (with a left eye that manages to stay half open). We observed it for awhile last night, and were dumbfounded by the occurence of different finger movements coinciding with different snore-styles. One moment, we hear a basic snore, the next he sounds like he's choking. After that subsides, the sounds of lip-smacking precede a noise that can only be described as a gust of wind pushing through an unsealed window. We tried to stifle our laughter, but it was just too much. Jon woke up, and claimed that he had been awake the entire time.

After we ate the meal I cooked last night (it went over quite well I might add), there was an amusing discussion about the dishes. Jon asked James and I if we had been taking our turns doing the dishes. James looked baffled, then informed Jon that we'd been doing dishes every day since we arrived last week. Jon replied, "Oh, I did them once. Um, i don't, I, I'm not saying I won't do them, um ok, ah, I guess I'll do the dishes." Jon has also vowed that while James and I are gone on our bike trip across Europe, he'll be keeping the flat nice and clean, just like we've been keeping it. No return to the dirty days of old!!

Air Hockey has been another brilliant experience. We have a little table that we put on the floor and play on, the playing surface about 20 inches long and 12 inches wide. The circular paddles and pucks measure in with an inch diameter. We do all we can to keep our hands in positions where they interfere the least with the game, but it doesn't always work. In fact, Jon has managed to bloody himself during one lively contest with James.

The problem is that we don't like to sit back and watch the other player dabble around with the puck, we tend to play hard forechecking games. This more often than not results in injuries. Jon's playing style leads to the most; the way his hand rests on the paddle - his knuckles are facing out like daggers, and he's completely unafraid to barrel into his opponents, wherever the puck may be. Jon forechecks the hardest out of anyone. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. A few days ago Jon and I were playing for the "Stanley Cup" of Air Hockey. I had defeated him in two previous best-of-seven contests 4 games to none. For the final series, Jon really turned up the intensity, forechecking relentlessly and showing no fear whatsoever, amid potentially broken fingers and scathing commentary, we found ourselves tied 9-9 in the final game, with the series tied 3-3 (Each game goes to 10). Jon managed to push through the final goal to win the Cup, and the cheer was amazing. It was like a group of children from Tuktoyuktuk that had just been told they're being taken to Disneyland. The look of pure joy on Jon's face was priceless, he scrambled to his feet; then hooted and hollared some more while jumping up and down. James and I looked on in amazement. It was past midnight.

Today we started a new series of Air Hockey, we made up a schedule, standings, and a playoff tree. After going 2-11 in his first 13 games, Jon concluded that James and I were playing too hard, because he wasn't trying. James, who was favouring a hand damaged in a very intense series against Jon, commented that if that wasn't trying - then he'd hate to see what Jon breaks out in the playoffs.

It's not like any of these things make Jon a bad person. These, and so much more, compile to make Jon an extremely unique person. Jon is Jon, quite simply - he's a really good guy. I simply thought I'd share a few more of our experiences for everyone's enjoyment.

Onto some of those things that make the Scots special...first is the accent. Scots have to r-r-r-r-roll their tongues for every 'r' there is. Along with that, it's perfectly ok to r-r-r-oll words together. If there's an 'r' anywhere in the word, it can be combined with the next one. Also, it's important to push when you speak. Think of sitting on a toilet, and there's just that one last turd that won't come out. Speak like that, and r-r-r-roll as much as possible. If you randomly yell something out, that's also normal. So far, everyday we've been here, we've heard or seen people yelling out. Either at someone, or at nothing at all. Just simply yelling. We've noticed that a lot of male Scots seem to be perpetually aggressive. If there's a fight nearby, they'll be ready for it, and if there isn't, ,they're ready to start one. The women on the other hand, can be the picture of meek. I can't count the number of women I've seen navigating the streets, head down and quick-stepping their way to safety. I suppose it's all a symptom of the prevailing character of Scottish society - they're a rowdy bunch. A couple days ago we saw a man try to steal a Dominos Pizza moped in broad daylight, from right in front of the Dominos. When the workers confronted him, he protested vociferously that he wasn't doing anything wrong.

There's more stories, but I'm being kicked off the computer. The library is about to close. So, I'll just say that the Scots are interesting, not as bad as I've probably painted them to be to everyone. We've met a few polite Scots, it's just the bunches of others that stick out. Such as it always is.