Banter Friend

From our first conversation on the phone, I have one friend with whom talking resembles an episode of Gilmore Girls.  This is great since it's one of our favorite shows for both of us.  Apparently, it's a bit fast for most people to keep up with.

Guitar Hero or Studying?

About a year ago I started working for Outward Bound.  One of the best things is getting mail while you are on course.  It reminds you that, yes, you do have a life beyond this craziness.  This comic was sent to me during a course last fall.  One of my friends was getting ready to graduate, and as you can see not really concerned about it.

Pigs Flying

It's moments like these when you find out how your friends really view your study/work habits.  Of course, you're just as excited as they are to find out you actually can complete tasks ahead of schedule.

Writing a Paper

This is a very funny, and true moment.

If you haven't read it yet, here are the steps to writing a college paper in 36 easy steps. :)

More Adventures with Caffeine Girl

Here are a few episodes from my Caffeine Girl collection.  Enjoy!

The Adventures of Caffeine Girl

Caffeine Girl has probably been around for quite some time.  She was revealed to a bunch of friends during a trip to California.  It's amazing what an extra large Kona coffee can do to the usual steady energy of an introvert.  She was later found skipping down the sidewalk and acting suspiciously like an extrovert.  

Tattoos

There are typically a lot of places to get tattoos in my town.  This theory apparently fails at 11pm on a Sunday.  A friend came to visit and one of the activities on the itinerary was going to get tattoos.  This was my first tattoo, so I was already a bit nervous.  We waited for about an hour for our turn.  As we left we both commented on how they didn't make us sign any liability paperwork.  It was henceforth known as the shady tattoo parlor.

For some strange reason I went back to this same place for my second tattoo over a year later.  One of the friends I went with refused to touch anything in the place.  We waited for about five minutes and no one even came to the front to see what we needed.  This was taken as a sign to not get our tattoos at this place.  Turned out to be a good decision, because I ended up going to a really good tattoo artist about two months later and I'm really happy with his work.

Worst Class Ever

Last year one of my friends was taking what apparently was "the worst class ever."  She sent me a couple comics inspired by, and probably written during, this class.  There seems to have been a few people that found productive ways of surviving during the lectures.

Second Guess Accountability

This is probably my favorite comic in the collection in regards to total theme and details.

Sunset Thoughts

Another Myers-Briggs comic.  My extrovert friends have just learned to laugh when I express 'random' thoughts. They have come to realize that there was probably a complex thought pattern that logically led to my comment.  And whenever they do inquire about how I got to that thought, I simply state, "I'd try to explain, but I don't think you'll understand how the monkey is relevant."

Another introvert friend wrote this one.  She even used pretty colors to help keep the extroverts attention while they read all the words.

Nightmare #137

This was sent in by a friend.  Sometimes school gets so stressful that it attacks your sub-conscious.

Venting Over Text Messages

And sometimes comics need no introduction.  Enjoy!

Plato's Cave

A friend of mine is studying like crazy right now getting ready for her comprehensive exams for graduate school.  Now, I'm getting ready to wrap up my graduate work, which I'm proud to say I've only taken one test in 44 credit hours of class.  I have written my fair share of papers.  And my final paper will be about 75 pages.  All that to say I have no idea how stressful preparing for this test actually is for her.

I do love a fun analogy though, so I came up with one for her.

Myth Busters

There was a group of us that used to hang out.  Three of them were extroverts and three were introverts. Two of the extroverts would make comments about how the introverts wouldn't be able to carry on a conversation without them there to help.  If they weren't there then we'd need pen and paper.  Turns out, through visits and phone calls between all three introverts we slowly proved their theories false.  Ok, the phone conversation one is a bit harder than face to face, but still totally doable.    

Pixie Stick Girl

Here's my alter ego, or super power as it were.  I don't have a sweet tooth.  I turn down cake and candy with little problems (unless it's a KitKat bar).  Sometimes though you just need a quick burst of energy.  Sometime in the last year I was given a pixie stick to perk me up.  I hadn't had one in a few years.  Wow, it's amazing what pure flavored sugar can do.  Only downfall is that it only lasts a short time.  On the upside, it did inspire my friend to make me a super hero!

Too Much Coffee?

I love coffee.  It's an amazing drink.  Sometimes, apparently, you can have too much of a good thing.  I've made the mistake twice of, "sure I'll take a second shot in my tall mocha since it's free."  Then several hours later at work going crazy because I'm now jittery and the boat I'm driving will not go any faster!!

I was not involved in the following comic, nor did I write it.  The hyper one actually is a super hero.  Don't believe me?  I've got a whole series of comics to prove it.  This is your first glance at "Caffeine Girl."

Misconceptions about Polly Ann

This is when you know your life has too many similar acronyms.  Passive-aggressive Polly Ann was shortened to Polly Ann and then to just PA.  This is not a big deal, except most of my friends are also into sports.  One of my friends decided it would be fun to write a comic about a possible acronym mix-up.

Vicodin Girl

Ever notice that while most of your friends have pretty consistent personalities, that sometimes they just got completely out of character?  My comic friends and I have used these odd idiosyncrasies to develop "alter egos."  One such friend had several surgeries in a two year span.  Each time she was given vicodin as her pain killer.  Normally she was a very active, talkative, and quick witted extrovert.  When you would call her and she'd just taken her medicine she was fine.  As the conversation progressed, her enthusiasm diminished.  About 30 minutes into the phone call she would just say, "I have to go to sleep now."  That personality was then known as, "Vicodin Girl!!"

The Adventures of Polly Ann!

This was one of my first comics for the book.  As you see Serious Sally obviously wins, because Polly Ann, well, she starts being passive-aggressive.  The plan was to do a series of these matches with Serious Sally, Passive-Aggressive Polly Ann, Concerned Connie, Debbie Downer, Negative Nancy, Sarcastic Susan, and any other people my friends and I came up with.  I think this is the only won I ended up writing.

The Pool Analogy

If you asked any of my friends they will confirm that I love analogies.  They are awesome.  I can usually come up with one for most situations.  I think this is because I'm such a visual person that I need the help to understand sometimes.  At some point I was trying to explain the difference between a friend and I.  With our mutual friends she seemed to always have these deep conversations, while I was known more for my "lighter" conversations.  Even when I get into deep conversations, at some point during the conversation I would make a joke to lighten the mood.  This analogy came to be referred to as the "pool analogy."  Conversations were either deep end or shallow end.

Typically the 'deep end' conversations were about emotions and feelings.  I'm not too great at those, so I would, metaphorically, bring a pool noodle with me incase things got too serious.  It was later discussed that my preferred 'deep end' conversations had to do with topics like religion and philosophy.  The pool now had two deep ends to it.  I didn't say my analogies were always simple, but they work for me.  Here's comic a friend wrote to draw humor to this phenomenon.

One time I did have a friend who was feeling really depressed.  A mutual friend called me and requested I go check on her.  Great, what was I going to do?  In a moment of genius I decided to take my dog with me.  Animals are supposed to be great at soothing people.  I figured even if I couldn't do anything, at least my dog could help out.  

Algebraic Differences with Introverts and Extroverts

The following two comics were drawn by an ISTJ friend (at least she was at the time....there are reports claiming the T has been replaced by a F).  It's a bit of mathematical humor about the difference between introverts and extroverts.

How a Comic is Made

Do you have music on your iPod that you totally enjoy, but would be slightly embarrassed if anyone else found out?  I have a friend who has a playlist called, "Guilty Pleasures."  I would not be surprised if he had Jonas Brothers on the playlist.

One day a friend and I were discussing all the songs we had in our iTunes library that we don't let most people know about.  We promised each other we wouldn't share this learned knowledge with our other friends, it was too embarrassing.  Since then my friend has openly admitted to being a Brittany Spears fan.  For myself, I can not confirm or deny that claim.

It's conversations like that that produce comics like this:

The Over-Analyst vs. The Writers

The best part about most of the comics in my book is that they are written in response to real life experiences.  Apparently, sometimes they depict a situation too clearly.  In response to someone getting offended because they thought a comic was making fun of them, one of my friends decided to make a comic about this situation.  Yep, it's a horrible circle of art imitating, or at least documenting, life.  Of course, those who wrote the comics could easily find the genius of the humor, and even when it made fun of them, they would be inspired to write another comic.  

An ISTJ Nightmare

This is a true story.  I actually had this dream about a month before the trip.  When the trip to Australia was first introduced, one of my friends wanted to "wing-it."  To which I replied, "You do realize Australia is about the same size as the United States?  And we only have a two week vacation?  No, we are not 'winging-it.'"  So, we compromised.  There was a mix of planning and non-planning.  Since we were seeing several different parts of Australia and we had domestic flights to get places, we need to have some sort of itinerary.

And we did.  There were three of us going, so each one took a different location on our trip to plan.  One person had Brisbane, one had Sydney, and one had Ayer's Rock.  The last location fell to me by default since I was the only one over 25 and could rent the car we needed.  We had a rough sketch of our plane details and excursions in each area.

No wonder I had the following nightmare.  First, I dreamt that a bunch more people came on the trip then we had planned.  Second, one of them wanted to take a vote on what we were going to do.  I think that was the more stressful part.  Take a vote??  We already had an itinerary, we're not changing things just because more people arrived.  There's no voting after we arrive to change the trip!!  I'm all about flexibility within the itinerary, but not changing set plans that have reservations.

I think this dream stems from many times sitting at coffeehouses waiting for friends to figure out what everyone wants to do.  Don't get me wrong.  I love coffeehouses, and spending many hours there in good conversation.  What frustrates me is sitting there talking about what to do next for hours on end.

In response, my sub-conscious produced this dream...    

Planning a Fun Visit with Friends

At some point I came to be known as the friend who gave you detailed (by the hour) itineraries before you would visit.  Is it my fault I wanted to make sure the maximum amount of fun was had during a short weekend visit?  I had other friends who were more comfortable with just having a vague idea of options in their head.  I will say, my itineraries have become less structured having planned several trips with "EFPs."  And one of those friends made great improvements over the past couple years.  She now writes possible itinerary ideas on post-it notes.

The Secret Fear of All Introverts

A friend of mine has this book titled, The Introvert Advantage.  I've never read it, but the book description says: "Introverts are thoughtful, imaginative, tend to work independently and think outside the box. Introverts are keen observers and sensitive listeners. Introverts prefer to be involved intimately with one person and are often drawn to life’s spiritual side. Introverts are not antisocial, shy, or aloof."  I've been blessed to have a couple other introverts in my life.  Sometimes hard to figure out, but always come through when you want a great conversation over coffee, they are some very cool people.  

There was a couple of us that had fun creating an ITJ group (one was an N, the other two of us were S) to chat about, well, stuff introverts think about.  In response to one such conversation, this comic was made.  

Good Idea/Bad Idea #1

A group of friends and I gathered together in San Clemente, CA for a week vacation.  We camped out on the beach, but one of our activities took us to the mountains.  Luckily in California these two things are not far from each other.  We went from the beach to Big Bear Mt in about 3 hours.  Yes, a lovely day of snow boarding lay ahead of us.  On the way up the mountain I was driving the Escape (pronounced Eh - sca - pay during the trip).  The rest of the group was enjoying the scenery.  Two of them felt the need to stick their torsos out the window and wave at each other from opposite sides of the car.  And one of them kept insisting that I should veer off the road so that we would all die in a mass suicide and go to heaven.  I think the altitude was getting to her.  Well, it inspired this comic.  

Analyzing People

Yes, the ISTJ comic below was written in response to another comic.  What comic?  Well, below I'm posting the original comic and then the one written after the discussion.  I think you may agree the second one does make more sense.  And yes, I do put this much (too much?) thought into my comics.

The first draft.

The final draft.

An ISTJ Conversation

WARNING:  Extroverts may become bored with this comic since there are few pictures and lots of writing.  I'm not being mean, I've seen it happen again and again.

This was an actual conversation between two ISTJs.  Unfortunately, I think one of them is now an ISFJ, but not at the time.

How to Earn a Gold Star

Yes, I have a few friends who are "well versed" in Myers Briggs.  I am quite apt at going, "oh, you are an ENFP?  Well, that explains a lot."  A couple of my "I" friends and I started writing comics one day because I was bored at work, and they were both avoiding studying.  The results have been collected into a comic book. Actually, it's Moleskin notebook with them pasted in, but it's still full of hilariousness.  

One of the things we joked about was the difference between introverts and extroverts when it comes to needing rewards for actions.  One such reward system is the "gold star."  As illustrated below, it's given out a bit more liberally to the extroverts.  And believe me, they keep track of the number they have earned.  I actually had an introvert friend turn down a gold star because she didn't feel she had truly earned one.

Five Stages of FOMOness

FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. It usually happens when your friends plan a cool adventure and you aren't able to join in. If approached with the right attitude, FOMO lasts only a short time and does not affect your friendships. If you let it linger too long, your friends will get annoyed with your inability to accept reality and/or the responsibilities that are keeping you from joining the fun. For those times, we have created "The Five Stages of FOMOness." Enjoy!

Polly Ann and Concerned Connie

First, let me introduce you to a few friends. Some of them you probably already know: Debbie Downer and Negative Nancy. But you may not know some of their friends: Serious Sally, Sarcastic Susan, Passive-Aggressive Polly Ann, and Concerned Connie. Below is a comic recreating a conversation between Polly Ann and Connie. I hope you enjoy! :)

Concerned Connie: Hey Polly, I just came over to make sure you're doing okay. You seemed a little down lately... Are you alright?

Polly Ann: Yes. I just told you that on the phone.

CC: Are you sure you're not mad? I know sometimes you're not good at saying what you feel, so blink twice for 'yes' and once for "no" (Silence) Can you hear me?

PA: LEAVE ME ALONE SO I DON'T HAVE A REASON TO STOP BEING BITTER AND FEELING VICTIMIZED!! AHHHH!!!

Five Finger Language System

If you have every wondered what happens when friends have too much time on their hands, or just having too much fun over a dinner at Stake 'N Shake, here is your answer. Honestly, it started as a simple way to let one of our friends know when we were being sarcastic with them. But wait, what happens when we are being serious? Solution: the serious finger!! After that followed an in-depth conversation that resulted in an entire finger communication system.

It has been quite fun teaching others the system. I introduced it during my new staff training with Outward Bound. It was quickly adapted as a way for our instructors to interrupt a behavioral sim and tell us something important. When needed they would stick up their pointer finger and say, "Seriously! ........ "