Spoofy Randomness

Location: Lincoln, NE

  • 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).

  • 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!

  • Curse the British Influence

    Curse the British Influence

    I really don’t have anything against Britain itself, but I can’t stand mineral water and I kept accidentally drinking it when I did my study abroad in Wales.  And yes, this probably more of a European influence than specifically Britain, but Britain speaks English, so therefore I blame them for a lot of things here.  Luckily, once I arrived I discovered that they had left regular bottled water, not mineral water. Phew!

    Drinking bottled water has been a change for me.  I never was big on it to begin with (a large part being the cost in the States), but when I went to Japan for the Fulbright Japan-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program for Education of Sustainable Development (which really needs a shorter name), a lot of the teachers on that trip had pledged to refuse water bottles entirely, and that rubbed off on me.  But here, DON’T DRINK THE TAP WATER.  So bottled water it is.  Oh well.

    Cats are hard to draw.  (And in case you were wondering, my sister is taking care of Gidget while I’m abroad.)