Expat Jon takes on the world (well... Sweden)

My overall feeling about my very young stand-up experience is encouraging.  People laugh when I tell jokes on stage.  That's a good sign.  I think I have the luxury of having felt like I've been on stage my entire life.  My family is full of funny storytellers.  Every time I'm home, my aunt asks me to tell a funny story that she's heard before.  She laughs every time.  Different people are around every time.  I began to learn to pull the humor out and time the punchlines of the story just right.  It's almost like stand-up comedy boot camp.  The main difference is the real audience.  These family members and friends didn't come over expecting one person to make them laugh.  Plus, my aunt is setting up the jokes.  Stand-up is normally one person setting the jokes up and following through on them.  Lots of responsibility. My first sets went well.  Last night was my tenth time out and it may have been my best. ...

I consider myself a tipper.  Not an especially big tipper, but I am generous when good service comes my way.  It's always been a part of my personality.  If a person takes that extra effort to make my experience better, then they deserve a few extra bucks.  I like the system in the US for tipping.  It sounds messed up on the surface.  Service employees make below minimum wage (normally around $2.10 per hour), which is supposed to be the incentive for that employee to work extra hard and be extra nice to get 15% of your check.  I knew the game and I played the game.  Any good service deserves my money.  As a matter of fact, if I'm just satisfied with my service I give 20% (partly because the math is easier).  You blow my mind and I really  hook you up!  Swedie has told me to chill out before.        - She was good Jon but calm down with that. The system doesn't work like that in Sweden.  In Sweden se...

Now that Bash has started day care, we want to be sure to keep the schedule.  Eventually he should figure out that weekdays are when we will drop him off with those other kids and those nice ladies and then weekends are when he gets to have Mommy and Daddy all day.  I knew this would happen. My mom used to have a day care.  I saw it every day.  I never thought about it from the parents' perspective though. Leaving Bash every day is tough.  I'm glad I'm able to do it every morning because I think it would be extra difficult for Swedie.  He's a very happy kid normally.  That's not the case when I drop him off, though.  As soon as I say, "Bye Bash" and head for that door, he breaks down into real sobbing.  It makes my heart heavy.  I know he is in good hands.  It's just that I know that I can't explain that to him yet.  He doesn't get the concept of Daddy coming back.  He just gets that Daddy is leaving.  And technical...

Why I'm ecstatic Probably only Swedie, Bash and my friend Peter (who comes over just about every day) can understand how freaking excited I am about the fight that's happening TOMORROW.  The fight was made official on February 21st and I have been obsessed with it ever since!   I'll start by saying that I am a huge Mayweather fan and I am 98% certain that he will win the fight.  But I'll get into that later.  I have been a boxing fan since I was about six years old.  My father told me about this guy named Roy Jones Jr.  He was an amazing boxer that fought with a "dangerous" style (keeping his hands at his waist) but he was so quick that it didn't matter.  Roy Jones Jr. was representing the US in the Olympics and got robbed of what should have clearly been his gold medal.  My dad was so angry and so was I.  I was hooked on Roy Jones Jr. and I wanted him to win every fight ever after that ridiculous decision [the Korean boxer that wa...