Another Tragedy

Jon Paine a friend from Neways who I worked with for a couple of years passed away January 6th. He recently got married about 3 ½ months ago. It was just a shock to hear about it and I am still shocked. I just find it unfair that he and his wife were only able to have such a short time together but at the same time I am happy that they were able to find each other and be happy even if it was only a short time….moments even.

I would just like to share some memories of Jon and I hope that you enjoy it.

I don’t know the exact day I met Jon but I do remember it, he just seemed so quiet almost shy…..boy was I wrong! We started working together in the Archive room and at the time I was a pretty shy chick and jut kept to myself most of the time. I had worked with so many people who came and went that I was always so nervous that I would have to work with some weirdo. Jon was weird but a good weird…he was a great guy with a great sense of humor. He was always so nice and ALWAYS joking around. He was always so smiley and happy about everything. I don’t recall ever seeing him mad….annoyed sure but never mad. Not a day went by when we didn’t laugh with him or at him!

I sat right across from him at work and sometimes he would start laughing for no reason and I would ask “what is so funny?” He would say “Oh, nothing” as he is laughing his head off. “Come on Jon, you have to tell us, or else you just look crazy” “Ok, Ok.” So on he goes about what he is laughing about…. “Uh, Jon, I think you were better off letting people think you are crazy”. He would remember something random and it was one of those you had to be there type things. He did it all the time, after awhile we would laugh but at him laughing about it.

One time I had gone to lunch with him and a couple of other co-workers. Adam was driving and Jon was in the passenger seat, Charity and I were in the back. Charity and I were just chatting away when suddenly Jon makes this obnoxious loud noise that scared the crap out of us! It was like a honking/donkey sound. He and Adam were just laughing away…..we said “what was that about?” I don’t really remember his explanation but it was pretty funny though. I didn’t think it was humanly possible to make a noise like that. Another time he did that but I wasn’t the victim. We were in the Archive room and two other co-workers were having a really serious discussion and I think Jon was annoyed by it. So he whispers to me “should I do the noise?” I just looked at him and said “no, they are having a serious discussion.” He said “I know, that is why I want to do it.” I said “well do it if you want but wait until I plug my ears.” As soon as I covered my ears and looked over at Erica and Lindsay I hear a HOOOONK!! It was so loud I’m glad I covered my ears! The look on their faces was absolutely priceless! I think they jumped a few inches off their chairs too. I could not stop laughing, Jon was laughing so hard that I thought he was going to pass out. Erica and Lindsay were so confused….I think they were annoyed but it was certainly hilarious for us! That was the best!!

Another thing I remember about Jon is that he was really clumsy; oh I thought it was great! He could trip over anything, his own feet , a piece of paper, ANYTHIHG…..I like to laugh at people when they trip (as long as they don’t get hurt) it is just the funniest thing to me. So anytime he got up to go somewhere I would stop what I was doing because I just knew he would trip and he almost always did. I had some good laughs with his clumsiness!

He liked to pull pranks too….I guess you can call them that. One day we were talking about middle names and he was not going to tell us his, he said it was embarrassing (we found out later anyway). Adam was there too and he wouldn’t give his up either. Later on Adam left and Jon told us he knew his middle name but didn’t want to tell us because Adam would kill him. Well, he ended up telling us anyway and it wasn’t that bad. I can’t remember how it got to Adam that we found out but Jon had told us that Adam was furious about it so I was all freaked out. I didn’t want Adam to be mad! Later on Adam comes into the Archive room and he just looked pissed off. I admit I was a little scared. He came over to get Jon for lunch I thought to myself “If he is so pissed why is he going to lunch with Jon?” So the whole day I was thinking that Adam was pissed and I was worried that he would be mad a Jon forever. Toward the end of the day I finally asked Jon if Adam was still angry. He just looked at me and started to laugh and said “did you really think he was mad?” “Yes! He looked like he would kill the next person to anger him more!” Meanwhile Jon is laughing his head off! I was a little mad about it because I was seriously worried….I could have choked they guy!

I am not one to pull pranks on people I think it is sort of rude unless they really deserve it and well Jon definitely deserved it! One day at work I saw a little note on my desk, we can say it was sort of a love note but it was very cheesy and pretty funny. Lindsay (different Lindsay than mentioned before) had written it and put it on my desk but I can’t remember why though. All I can remember is it saying something like “I love your small dainty hands…” it was way dorky. Somehow we came up with the idea of confronting Jon about it as if he had written it. They really had to talk me into it, I just didn’t think I could pull it off without starting to laugh and plus I have no acting skills. At this time I didn’t work with Jon anymore he had a different position and worked in the other building. So off we go to pull off the prank…we get there and there are others there who share an office with Jon. I was nervous about doing it especially with so many people, there were like 6 or 7 in that room including me and Jon. The other co-conspirators went to talk to the others while I stood right by Jon at his desk and I said to him “Jon, did you write this?” He starts reading it and laughs “No, I didn’t write this.” I look at him very seriously and say “Jon, it is ok if you wrote it, I would just like know if it was you.” In a nervous are you crazy sort of tone he says “It, wasn’t me! That isn’t even my handwriting, you know my handwriting sucks!” “Oh, come on Jon you can have nice handwriting if you try really hard.” “No, I don’t! Adam, you know my handwriting always sucks even if I try really hard!” Meanwhile everyone else has secretly been told that it is a prank. So Adam says “I don’t know Jon, sometimes you can have really nice handwriting.” At this point Jon’s face is bright red but I don’t know if he is embarrassed or what. He looks up at the ceiling and covers his face with his hands at just starts laughing and says “Look, I really didn’t write this! I would never write something like this!” “Jon…..I know. Lindsay wrote it.” “Wait, what!” “Yeah Lindsay wrote it to be a dork so we just thought it would be funny to put the blame on you.” So now he starts laughing again but relieved that it was just a joke. Everyone had good laugh.

Jon was also pretty picky about spelling and grammar….mostly spelling I think. One day Melissa was E-mailing him and they were just goofing around and making fun of each other if I remember correctly. She had copied me on one of the E-mails and I noticed that she had misspelled something so I said to her “oh, you misspelled this word. Jon is going to be brat about it.” She was like “oh crap”. Sure enough he E-mails back and points it out being a brat about it. So she replies and again copies me on it. “Uh, melissa, you messed up on another word.” She says”Oh sh**!?” “Yeah now it is going to get worse.” It did. Finally, she just ended the conversation. Melissa says “what a punk!” I said “Yeah, let’s make him think that you thought he was being really rude and that he hurt your feelings.” Bright eyed she says “Ok”. I send Jon and E-mail “Jon, you know at first it was pretty funny that you were catching Melissa’s mistakes but towards the end I really think that she was hurt by it.” He replies “oh whatever, I wasn’t being rude.” “I don’t know, she seemed upset and just left the room.” “Really, well what did she say?” “She didn’t say anything; she just had a serious look on her face and left the room.” “Well, I was just joking around; I wasn’t trying to be rude.” “Well, I think she felt you were.” “Crap! Now I feel bad!” I am reading to Melissa everything we are saying and we were just having a good laugh about it. Later on he came in for something and Melissa wasn’t there and he came up to me to ask if she was ok and if she still looked hurt. I finally told him we were just joking around because he was being a brat. He was definitely relieved that it was a joke. That was a good one too!

I don't know if many people know this but Jon had a band a long time ago and he let me and some others listen to one of his songs that he had recorded. He was shy about it at first but we really wanted to hear it. I thought it was great! I am glad that he let me hear it. His favorite band? Van Halen forever man!

Jon was the pickiest person I ever met when it came around to dating. So when I saw him this this summer with a girl I knew he was in love with her. He looked so happy! I said to myself “it is about time he found someone!” Then when I heard he was getting married I was so excited for him. Elena and I went to the reception and the look on his face said it all. It was truly the happiest day of his life…..he looked like the happiest man on Earth! I was able to talk to him before I left the reception and he just couldn’t stop smiling. Elena just loved him she would blow kisses at him and give him big smiles all the works! I am glad that she got to meet him.

I will always remember Jon and I will remember how I saw him last…..as the happiest man on Earth.