Met this guy called Jon. I parked next to him at a Starbucks in Toronto east end after dropping off my sister for dinner with her boyfriend. As I got out of my car, he was getting to car to grab something, and made a comment about how he was thinking of buying himself a Mini Cooper, asking me which year’s model my car was. He told me to look at his license plate: it was from California! I asked him about the weather and life down there versus here, and he
We ended up bumping into each other inside the Starbucks, and I chose to sat down
He’s a musician and educator. Records jazz, performs gigs, and teaches music. Certified teacher in Ontario, long career teaching college, high school, and middle school in Ontario and California. Produces music, and actively taking gigs these days (very good travel opportunities, e.g. cruise ships, weddings).
He emigrated to California in younger days, returned to Toronto in recent years. He says he’s returning to California to take up a teaching job in Bakersfield, although (obviously) his choice was mostly for the lifestyle.
Very religious guy. Says he accepted Christ as his saviour in his early twenties, at a bad time in his life. One of the first of his family to go to school and complete university, eventually becoming a teacher himself!
He seemed very open and receptive to new opinions, and I was super pleased to have chatted with him.
Jotted down his website at the end: http://www.jonroblin.com/
(His site is one of those old, pragmatic site designs whose designs have stood the test of time IMO. Could definitely use a tech update, but it works with the look and feel analogous to that of an old Volkswagen Beetle. Gets the point across, no bullshit. That’s what I miss about websites of the 90’s.)
One of the bands he produced and recorded for, Loyalty Band, is on Spotify. I played their album in the car on my way from Richmond Hill to Waterloo right after. It’s great jazz music, I was pretty surprised and impressed by that. Most of the indie jazz musicians I know do an OK job with finishing their tracks, but Jon and his crew did a really clean job of theirs.
We talked about education, investing in real estate, and philosophical discussions about how technology is changing how people interact with communities. We inquired about each other, learned about each other and each others’ values, and discussed random ideas with each other.
I felt a relaxed, engaging connection with Jon. One where I felt like I could be completely transparent, non-judgemental, and open minded with this guy. That doesn’t happen to me much these days, not event with the people closest to me.
It was a real surprising twist, meeting this guy on Sunday. It felt like a rather enjoyable easter egg cutscene, like one in a film or a video game. Makes me inclined to be a little more adventurous, spontaneous with everything I do. If I had never chosen to go to that particular Starbucks just to kill time before picking up my sister, I never would have met Jon and had such an uplifting chat with him. We would have remained strangers in this universe — that would have been a real shame.
Chilling… whenever shit like this happens, I think back to how I met Jingyi.
If hadn’t chosen to drive from Markham to Waterloo for just the night of December 31st, 2014, to go party at Beta with my boys Misha, Mark, and Vlad (and Asad had dinner with us too but passed up on Beta) and meet Mark’s buddies visiting from London, I never would have met Jingyi. I was fresh 6 months out of my last relationship, and I partied particularly hard that term.
At the time, Jingyi was going through a rough patch coping with lies and disrespect from a boy, Sami, whom she liked. So she decided to tag along with her friend Arun and his crew to Waterloo, where the she hoped to party hard and get her mind away from her frustration with Sami. It so happened that someone in her crew knew Mark, so we decided to meet up inside the club.
Drinks were on the house that night, and I wanted to cover up my embarrassment of her seeing me dance with zero restraint (and zero skill too) at the front of the dance floor in front of the DJ, so the first thing I did was grab two shots of vodka, shoved one into Jingyi’s hand, and ganbei-ed with her, wishing her to drink to a happy new year. What a memorable first encounter… just minutes into the new year too. 2015 ended up being a pivotal year for me.
So Jingyi and I were both just tagging along with our friends in Waterloo that night, out of the blue. I shiver to imagine the completely possible alternative timeline, where one of us chose not to go, or something prevented us from meeting that night.
In that timeline, we would have never met each other, never known each other. Our relationship, the years of our lives that we’ve shared together, the love and happiness I’ve known and learned from being with Jingyi for the past two years… none of that would have happened if we didn’t go to Beta that night. We would have remained strangers to each other in this universe.
Thankfully, we didn’t stay strangers. Life would have been very different.
OK I didn’t intent to make this a post. Originally, I was just jotting down notes from my memory of meeting Jon as I skimmed over a note on my phone. I’ve found my memory somewhat unreliable especially when it comes to people, personal details, and of encounters with people, so I’m trying to make a habit of writing notes about those things while they’re still fresh in my mind. Sometimes I end up piling more and more thoughts that it becomes a diary entry like this one.
I really should get back to studying stats. Brainpower is scarce, and I’ve been squandering it so far. Finals are going to be hard.
But it feels wonderful to be writing again. I’m suddenly recalling the feeling of using this outlet for my thoughts and emotions. I need more of this in my life.
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