Spoofy Randomness

Character: Meagan

Stretch’s girlfriend living her own awesome life in the States while Stretch is in Egypt. She’s basically a more awesome combination of Wonder Woman and Supergirl.

  • LDSG: Not Always An Adventure

    LDSG: Not Always An Adventure

    From Meagan: 

    Oh, look – there I am crying on Skype. That’s an exaggeration. That never happens *cough*
    Early on when Jake left, it was really hard for me for a lot of reasons but one of those reasons is that I felt like the least-interesting part of the relationship. Talking to him about establishing his new life in a foreign country made me feel like mowing my lawn and joining the YMCA just paled in comparison. Not that he felt that way, of course. Hearing about my more “normal” life helped us feel connected and helped him feel a bit more grounded in the reality of home.
    Then there were all kinds of questions about him, of course. It’s not that I minded the questions, but there were lots of instances where there was clearly more interest about how Jake was doing in Egypt than about anything I was doing in my own life without him. It was easy for me to feel like somehow the most interesting part about me was the fact I had a boyfriend in Africa. That didn’t feel good. I was an interesting person on my own before I even knew Jake existed, and I’m still an interesting person now.
    One of the things I actually looked forward to with Jake leaving was being able to really focus on me again. He got the offer for this job about a week after we started dating, so suffice it to say that this experience has really been at the center of our relationship. So much of my time and energy went into getting HIM ready to leave, but nothing was left over to help ME get ready for him to leave.
    So finding that balance of focusing on myself again, while talking to curious, well-meaning people who centered Jake in our conversations was difficult. Everything has gotten much, much better since then. But make no mistake – I wouldn’t want to do those first couple of months over again.
    From Stretch:
    A lot of people do have this impression that I’m always off exploring or something. But just like back in the States, most days I teach and then come home and crash. Not exactly the life of adventure! Meanwhile, Meagan is working on her house and doing half-marathons and whatnot.  And yet, just because I’m in Egypt, it’s considered more exotic or something? Early on, it took a bit of convincing that I do enjoy hearing about Meagan’s life and that it wasn’t boring, but we got there in the end.
    On the technical side of things, I think every cartoonist worries about someone accidentally viewing an antagonist as being based off of them. Now, throw in the fact that I have real people in the comic… I wasn’t sure how to show a generic character without accidentally making it appear like someone–and then I remembered that I had an entire cast I developed for five years that I could throw a cameo role in with. And Sally would be more interested in what people would be doing abroad (after all, she was crushing on the Canadian).
  • LDSG: Sync

    LDSG: Sync

    From Meagan

    Technology is a beautiful thing! Especially with Egypt post not sending to United States, I don’t know how we’d make it without Google Hangouts, Skype, and AppleTV. It’s the little things that make me feel so connected to Jake. They go a long way.

    And Supergirl especially is “our” thing. I’d never seen it until we watched it together for the first time on the night we decided to be in a relationship, and it’s been our show ever since. So still being able to share that is really meaningful. And there are some kind of heart-wrenching plots in that show that really resonate with us, our relationship, and being long-distance. Our song even came from a musical crossover between Supergirl and the Flash.

    But it’s all these little things and 1,000 more that don’t just make me feel connected, but allows us to continuously work on growing closer despite our distance. I think life is mostly little things and if we can find little things to share while we’re apart, it’s going to make sharing little things that much more special when we can finally be together again.

    From Stretch:

    Technology is a beautiful thing…but frequently is under threat of defenestration from me. We’ve had a few canceled or ‘Semper Gumby‘ dates because of it. But yes, it is wonderful, and I can’t imagine doing this without it.

    Credit to my friend Sheila for the TV idea; she used it to watch Grey’s Anatomy with a friend the first year we met and the idea apparently stuck with me for several years.

    One of my big points of life is to take joy in the little things, and I am fortunate to have found a partner with the same belief.  I will elaborate more on this in a future comic.

    I am not satisfied with my coloring of Bosco in this comic. I may redo that some day if I ever find the time.

    Also, I didn’t realize that I would be posting a comic ON Valentine’s Day until I went to save the sketches and had to put in the date it would be posted. Cool.  Our first Valentine’s Day, I introduced Meagan to the Nebraskan tradition of having chili with cinnamon rolls (it’s amazing).

  • LDSG: The Journal

    LDSG: The Journal

    From Stretch:

    It’s February! And that means Valentine’s Day! A day to spend with your loved one…who is ten thousand kilometers away. Oh. So instead, Meagan and I decided that we would present a monthlong ‘survival guide’ about relationships abroad.

    I was really looking forward to sending the journal back and forth, and the occasional letter as well.  It never crossed my mind that Egypt Post wouldn’t send to North America (apparently this is a recent development, and yes, they do send to Europe).  We do still send the journal back and forth, just not as frequently as we hoped, and I’ve taken advantage of situations like my sister coming to visit to get the journal overseas, along with some postcards that I had promised to send before I knew.  It is really nice to get it and read something that Meagan has physically written in (and adorned with ALL THE STICKERS).  And yes, the Arabic comment actually happened. This is why I don’t hand-letter comics.

    Been in a long-distance relationship? Have some useful stories? Comment below!

    From Meagan:
    I stole this idea from a friend who was long-distance with their partner domestically, and never really entertained the idea that it would be such an expensive hassle to have it mailed back.

    The bonus of getting the journal by DHL is that it will arrive in about three days. The downside of sending it back to him via USPS is that it takes three weeks or longer, and I’m worried the entire time that it has gotten lost somewhere in Egypt. So I get pretty anxious when I mail it. Every time we send it, it gets that much more valuable and important to me. It’s one of my favorite things.

    That being said, I’m so glad we’re doing this. It’s such a special and exciting day when I receive it. There’s just something really personal about getting to see his handwriting (even if I can’t always read it), and knowing that I’m holding something he’s held. It helps me feel that much more connected. It’s always full of interesting goodies like ticket stubs from all the cool places he’s been. And I’ll put in pictures and QR codes to different videos and really anything else I can think of.

    Communication is critical in any relationship, but especially when you can’t share a physical space, so having different avenues for that communication is really beneficial. I like to use it as an opportunity for Stretch to learn more about me.

  • Disco

    Disco

    I mentioned in a previous commentary about the water heater. Working on grading and I am IN THE ZONE, when all of a sudden loud banging and popping comes from my bathroom.  I go in, and the entire top of the water heater pops off and boiling hot water starts gushing out.  Of course, the shutoff is BEHIND the boiling water.  Finally get everything shut off and call Ahmed from the school (he handles all the apartment stuff).  However, it took a week (and poor Ahmed calling daily) to get a new water heater–the school wound up buying one and then took the cost out of the rent–which meant that I had a week of cold showers.  UGH.

    Souq is definitely an oddity.  It has a lot, but a lot of it is novelty versions of essential things.  My first experience was when I couldn’t find, of all things, a drain plug for my sink.  I found one…with a little hand coming out of the drain.  Hey, it works.  And now I have a shower head with alternating LED lights.

    Apparently now it’s tradition for expat teachers to draw themselves naked for the first time in their comic? Two counts as tradition, right?

    And yay, Meagan’s back in the comic! She should show up more.  We have been able to use Google Hangouts almost every week, which has been nice, and of course we talk fairly non-stop (when we’re both awake at the same time) on WhatsApp.  Yay technology!

  • Off I Go!

    Off I Go!

    Hey look, we’re almost to comics actually in Egypt! Those will FINALLY start next week.

    In the days leading up to my departure, I naturally tried to cram in as much time with friends and family as I could.  FYI, in Panel 1, we’re playing the Widow’s Walk expansion of Betrayal at House on the Hill.  You get a random scenario each time you play.  It’s pretty awesome, and often ridiculous.  That same day, I also wound up trying to assemble all the monsters to accurately put on the Monster Mash.  And yes, Joshua is who Jorocks was originally modeled after (although I took steps to separate the two, including giving Jorocks a beard…which then Joshua promptly grew).

    Meagan also gets all the awesome points (as usual).  I am a decent packer, but she spent a significant chunk of her life when she worked for ΑΦΩ traveling and is thus a WHIZ at packing, and she did it willingly!  This help was greatly appreciated!

    Now, a bit of REAL TALK. This comic was scripted before I left, and reality hit a lot harder than this comic shows.  If you are a teacher looking to teach abroad (or really, anyone looking to move far away), I highly recommend talking to your doctor about getting some anti-anxiety medicine before you leave.  I did not, and didn’t think anything of it as I was surprisingly calm leading into my departure.  And then I was sitting in the airport in Istanbul and unexpectedly had a full-blown panic attack, to the point where I needed medical attention. (Thankfully, I had an 8 hour layover, so I had the two and a half hours to spare for that without missing my flight.)  I was still coming off of that when I got to my apartment in Egypt, and it turns out that one of the only medicines you CAN’T buy over the counter is most anti-anxiety meds.  Luckily, after a couple tries and some help, I was able to get some medicine, and after a few days the anxiety wore off and I haven’t had any problems since (and no more meds needed!).  But yeah, talking to your doctor about some preventative medicine is a good idea.

    On a lighter note, there’s a Firefly reference hidden in the comic somewhere.

    Last Saturday’s sketchbook was the last I have queued up, but if you want to see more on a regular basis, don’t forget to subscribe to Patreon! If I can raise $20/month, you will get weekly sketchbooks!

  • Supergirl

    Supergirl

    A bit fancier than the usual sketchbook! Decided to try adding shadows for the first time in eight years of making comics. As any professional cartoonist knows, IT’S ABOUT TIME.

    That, and I really wanted to draw Meagan as Supergirl. As stated before, she pretty much is.

  • Misconceptions Part 2

    Misconceptions Part 2

    Before I go off on a soapbox moment, this is the first NoaC comic I made in color.  I decided to go to color for various reasons, one of which being I am actually producing comics faster than I expected! Yay!  I do plan on coloring the earlier comics, so if you are from the future and wonder what I’m talking about because they’re all in color, that’s why.  (Also, I just realized that this comic’s initials are the same as the National Order of the Arrow Conference, which makes me happy.)

    And now, SOAPBOX.  Like I say in the comic, a lot of the misconception about where I am was just not being aware of what Egypt is actually like, but I did come across a few people who were pretty overtly racist about the region.  I tried to use it as a chance to educate, which got through to some people, but some were pretty adamant in their ideas and seemed to think that they have more expertise in the area than people who had been there.  That was frustrating, but what was even more frustrating was what Meagan had to (and still does) put up with.  Again, a lot of it was genuine curiosity and concern, but some of it was outright RUDE.  I frequently had people try to convince me that Meagan needed to quit her job to come with me even after I explained that she has her own career she is working on, and this shocked more people than I care to admit (it’s the 21st century, come on!).  I dodged most of it though, as people were more interested in what I would be doing in Egypt.  Meagan got an almost daily deluge of personal questions about our relationship, including the ones shown above.  I expect some insensitive questions coming from my students, but hers were coming from grown adults.  Again, yay for you for being concerned and light questions are fine (although the monotony of answering the questions got old real quick) and if you’re a close friend you can get more personal, but when is it EVER appropriate to ask some of those questions? And the ridiculously high number of people who asked “have we talked about it?”  What, you think we’re just gonna ignore the fact that I’m moving 6000 miles away?  The other thing that drove both of us crazy is how Meagan basically got treated as an extension of myself instead of her own person.  Even now, when people greet Meagan, they’re always asking about how I’m doing (many of which have never met me) and don’t ask about other things in her awesome life.  I do think most of these people really do mean well, but…yeesh.

    tl;dr Think before you speak and mind your own business.

  • To Help Or Not To Help?

    To Help Or Not To Help?

    This is pretty much how that conversation went.  I had mentioned to Meagan about wanting to teach abroad at some point in my life, but actually having the interview took it from dream to reality.  And poor Meagan got caught between her job as a career coach and encouraging people to pursue their dreams and realizing that pursuing said dream means her life just got harder.

    But in the end, she did help me, especially with coming up with questions to ask.  🙂  I actually had four interviews that week; two were also at a school system in China, and I was offered that job but wanted to go to a completely different part of the world (I had spent time in Japan in 2014).  I also had applied to teach in the UAE, but took this job before I completed the interview process there.

    It’s weird, but I’m actually stressing more about having to interview to get a job when I come back than I did about these interviews…

    Just a reminder that I would love your support on Patreon!

    Edit: Color added 4 Sept 2017