Ta da!

In focus..

One thing that has been sitting in the back of my mind prodding me at odd times is that Im not Israeli. That seems odd out of context.
The thing is Mo is VERY proud of being Israeli and jewish. So proud that at the beginning of our relationship I wondered what hes doing with an American who isnt jewish. Later I noticed that most Isreali guys I have met dont date Israli women even though they arent hard to come by. So eventually I asked about it and have been told multiple times that Isreali women are bitches.
I laughed it off because every Isreali woman I met was super sweet.

Today, I met the bitches and everything fell into place. Its amazing. These two bitchy...bitches could turn you off to an entire culture in seconds!

My day started off nice. I started in a slower mall with two very nice girls who were very open to helping me learn but got switched to a higher traffic area with these assholes who were annoyed at my very existence.
I was told I should observe and try demos...that was my goal for the day by the boss.
So I did, and anyone who walked away was blamed on me by these short loud little shits.
I complained to Mo and two of the owners.
The owners talked to the girls.
So the girls started yelling about me to themselves in Hebrew.

I could understand everything.

I didnt say anything back.  I did my demos and pretended I couldnt understand a word they were saying.
Mo said I should have freaked them out. But really, do you want to create a little drama on day 2 or wait till its really going to make an impact?
It will be so much nicer to wait a bit then pull them aside and go, "I can understand you. Go fuck yourself." in their own language with their own hand gestures.

Remember

My sister is living in Alexandria Egypt. Shes moving back to Germany next week which is good news... but it makes me super nervous that I havent talked to her in 4 days.

It makes me even more nervous that 2 weeks ago she told me there was a car bombing within five minutes of her apartment.

Stick a fork in me

I dont think I was actually in training today. I think they were trying to kill me.

Kupo

Swishy

Its probably all that vitamin D

I really like living in Vegas so far. Its much more interesting than MN.

Its always sunny.
I found that its nearly impossible to get lost. 15 minutes in any direction takes you straight into the desert and our apartment is very close to the Palms so as long as I can see the strip Im fine.
People are very friendly.
Mos cousin is being very nice in making sure that Im never bored because I havent started working yet. I appreciate it but I just about had to fake my own death to keep from going to the gym with him and his girlfriend of the day.
There also seems to be magic Israeli elves at my disposal. They just show up at the door smiling and handing me things like dishes, house hold items, practice skirts for work, and they even fixed a computer we will never use.

Im even kind of excited to start working.

Depressed clown

Nice collection

The card people on the Strip are annoying.

Squawk

New Carrier

We made it!

We made it to Vegas but it has been a LONG few days.

Wed- We took the cats to the humane society. I cried like a baby while we waited for the vet to look the cats over and give them a thumbs up or thumbs down. At one point we heard Sumomo growling and screaming and another vet had to be called in to help. 10 minutes later we were called in. The vet told us they could take Pixel and were more than positive they could find her a new home quickly but Sumomo tried to kill the vet so...

And thats all I heard because Mo grabbed Sumomos cage, announced we would figure something else out for her and ran out the door. So I said goodbye to Pixel and met Mo in the car. He said we would take her with and try to hide her or figure something else if we couldnt but it will be easier to hide one instead of 2, especially because they were fighting all the time.

Mo thought they were going to suggest killing Sumomo. They werent, its a no kill shelter so they just werent going to take her.

Thurs- We got up at 5 am and left at 6ish. We made a little space for Sumomo to run around in freely in the back and have her food and a litter box. She spent the first 3 hours of the drive meowing non stop while walking to every window and jumping back and forth from our laps. After that she stopped and watched cars go by in our laps.
The drive was really uneventful. Iowa, Nebraska, and the first 5 hours of Colorado dont have much going for them. Nebraska had a gigantic T-Rex placed on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. That was my sketch for the day, the T-Rex eating a car.
We stopped for the night in Denver. We couldnt find a hotel that would let us take Sumomo in so we finally gave up and decided she would be ok in the car but we put out a ton of towels and blankets and isolated her carrying case because we were worried.

Fri- Woke up at 5am and went to check on Sumomo. She was sleeping on the one spot we didnt cover in blankets.
Leaving at 6 it seemed like it was going to be another uneventful drive but we got to the mountains just in time to hit a snow storm. So we spent 3 hours white knuckling our way though icy roads, zero visibility, and watching lots of other people wreck their cars.
The rest of the drive was fine but there was so much of nothing that I kept having horrible day dreams about our crappy van breaking down in the middle of nowhere.
We made it around 6pm and met a guy at an office and he took us to the apartment. Its supposed to house a few employees but we get it to ourselves for a while. 10 minutes after he left another guy walked in and sat down with us to talk about jobs. While he was talking ANOTHER guy knocked on the door and delivered kitchen items. It was weird.
But here we are. Tomorrow I will be cleaning this entire house because its obvious no one ever has. Its disgusting.

Oh look...more of nothing.

Missed sketch

I did a sketch yesterday!

Yesterday we drove through Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and part of Colorado and the only thing we I saw that was remotely interesting was a giant T-Rex standing by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere Nebraska.

I didnt have my camera within reach so you will just have to enjoy my artistic interpretation of the scene.

Blah

Cant get comfy

The one thing I hate about moving more than the actual move is the last couple of days. In the last 2 days leading up to moving there is no comfortable room in the house! I just busted my butt packing a cleaning all day and I have no place to relax.
So here is a crappy picture of a crappy 2 second sketch where my back hurts, my butt hurts, and the lighting sucks.

Chill out

Scanner is packed so this is an itty bitty sketch on receipt paper that the camera didnt like to focus on.

Cheating again

One of these days I'll finish this thing... I must have started it back in high school.

Untitled

Im cheating. I did this a few years ago.

Ive been pretty upset all day trying to find a way to keep my kitties. I dont have a solution so I dont feel like drawing.

I just snapped a picture of this painting before I put it in a box. I think its the exact opposite of how I feel right now.

And now Im not happy

We cant take the cats with us. Mo didnt want to tell me.

I started crying. Mo said he would go to Vegas alone and I could stay here with the cats as an obvious "stop crying! Im sorry! I dont know what to do!" reaction.

Yes, I could stay here in MN alone with the cats until we go to Israel...where we will face the problem of who will watch the cats for the month and a half we are gone. Even if we figure that out the problem will pop up again.

Even if we get past all that I have made it very clear that when we decide to have a baby the cats have to go. Sumomo is horribly territorial and its not healthy for pregnant women to be around cats anyway.

So while I want to say "Im staying here! Im staying with the cats!"
Eventually I will have to find them a new home.

I dont want to let my babies go.

...and I've made Mo cry.

Little Big Adventure

Currently I have Elvis and Little Big Planet 2 on the brain. 

Why?

Well, because Little Big Planet 2 is coming out on the 18th and I have had the uber epic collectors addition on reserve for 4 months and right after I pick it up Mo and I will be moving to Vegas.

It was a spur of the moment decision. 

Last month was awesome for us. We were making money and building a sweet little cushion for our savings and our big trip to Israel. 

This month... we are just making it. No extra money to save... everything that comes in is being used. 

Mo was complaining about this to his cousin, telling him about how he was worried because he didnt want to use up all our savings just so we could have a good time. 

(Back story about his cousin- He went to Vegas with us around this time last year. He was supposed to come back to Madison WI with us but ended up staying in Vegas and working at a kiosk there.)

Mo's cousin said, "Come here. You have a place to stay and I can get you both jobs where you can make really good money tomorrow!"

After a couple of phone calls it was decided. We are leaving the business for Mo's dad to run and Mo and I will be heading down to Vegas next week with only what is important to us.... like cloths and the PS3.

I wont lie. Im nervous! 

We are leaving our things behind in storage.

No matter where we stay for the next 2 months we are going to have some kind of room mate... I've NEVER lived with a room mate and avoided it my whole life because it always seemed like too big of a pain in the ass to deal with other peoples habits.

Im still in the process of converting so I dont know if I can jump into classes in Vegas or if I have to start over.

When we come back from our month and a half long vacation in Israel I have NO CLUE where we will be living.

But when you look at the big picture our choices are:

Cross our fingers and hope things get better. I could find another job quickly and maybe if we are lucky we wont be flat broke when we come home from Israel.

Or

Drop everything, pack up, and go make some fucking money RIGHT NOW so we can have a damn good time and come home with options in front of us and a savings account.

...It really isnt that bad. 

...I am sick of snow.

.....We can take that adding machine to Pawn Stars.

................I never really liked MN anyway.

Viva

Its very hard for me to think about trying to create something today when life is speeding towards... something... something very exciting and scary.

All I can say is that the next 3 months are going to be different and after that...who knows!

So here is my drawing for the day...which very much reflects the day itself. An idea thats been slapped together and needs some serious quick work. Mo and I are pretty sure with hard work the end result will be awesome.

Not just a person who threatens... an educated person that does this for a living

Ive noticed that crazies seem to be a little crazier than usual lately.

At my retail job "shiny" has become an allergy among customers and the ingredient "fragrance" WILL kill you (which makes it perfectly obvious why the customer made a huge deal out of choosing something without a scent and bought the coconut scented gift set)! 

Our little locksmith business doesnt seem to catch a break from the nut jobs either. 

Last week a woman called in asking how much it would be to rekey six locks on a house and break into a lock on a bedroom door. I gave her an estimate and told her the tech will give her the actual before he does anything.

When the tech got there the womans husband said we only needed to change one lock and when he didnt like the price he started challenging our tech to get into locked doors. Our tech obviously said, "Umm no..." took the cost we charge of sending someone out ($15) and left the crazy man.

Crazy man called us after screaming about how he shouldnt have to pay $15 because we are shady and probably arent even a real business. I told him to do whatever he had to do but the $15 is the consultation charge and thats that. It took half a day for the man to stop calling and screaming at whoever picked up the phone.

Today we had the Queen of all crazies. I say Queen with a capital "Q" because all other mentally deranged people kiss her feet as she walks by.

We sent out a tech to open a locked car. The woman that called wasnt home. Her husband was home with the car but she was making the calls.

5 minutes after the tech opened the car the woman called screaming that we cheated her out of $90. 

Mo had picked up the phone because I was getting ready for work. She claimed I had told her it would be $40 exactly and she wanted the tech to turn around and give back the check or she was going to the Better Business Burrow. She started screaming that she wanted Mo's name, and heard me say "Im pretty certain we dont need to give out full names." She told Mo to put me on the phone.... which was a huge mistake. While crazy people can ignore what Mo says because his accent is thick, I can very clearly bust someones bubble.

Me: "How can I assist you today?"

Her: *long pause followed by her screaming about how I had quoted her $40*

Me: "I was the one you talked to and I did not say it was a solid $40"

Her: "Well if you dont send that tech back and give me my check I'll make it much more expensive for your company!!"

Me: "Look, let me explain the situation, you can go ahead and go to the better business burrow if you want..."

Her: "Im not going there! Im going to call Hupy and Aberham (lawyers that advertise on tv) and sue you!!

Me: "Thats fine too, but you dont have a case. We had your husband sign a form showing EXACTLY what the prices would be BEFORE we did anything. We do this with all our customers to insure that no one even thinks we are being "sneaky". If you didnt want to pay our prices for the services all your husband had to do was tell him to go away and not sign the form. No one forced you to go with our company."

Her: "Well.... well... YOU GOT US ON A TECHNICALITY! But you have to live with the fact that your cheating people out of their money!"

Me: "Im ok with that."

While I was getting ready for work she called back 2 more times to tell us that we could either return the check or "pay a lot more than what we made".

The last call we got from her was THE BEST! Mo just pointed it out to me as he saw me writing this and I cant help but post it word for word, because google voice is awesome...(There is a lot about how the tech was late and he gave a discount but it was still to expensive before hand...thats not the fun part... THIS is)

"I'm just, so you know this is what I do for business. I do go after people in these situations I actually do this for business, but it's funny how it hits you, once it is actually done to you how emotionally involved you get in it, so I can tell how my voice sounds, doing what I need to do here and and and I'm not to sound angry person saying you're gonna do something and not know what to do so. I want you to be aware of everything that was said and done here. And the bottom line is your right. My husband did write a check. We've we felt this is sort of a next door said we waited long enough, it was over an hour before he got here we reported 15 minutes and it took an hour for him to get here in to work, point, running. What we do, say that start all over again. Because we're being extorted. But so he that was this IS A he made. He felt the story, If you have to dothat or the guy was gonna leave So this is going into the reports are being sent off. And again, you have the day to try to make this right. The Force and everything, and I am not just aperson who threatens I'm an educated person who does for living, okay. I think you've got my number. Thank you."

Oh crazy lady... you do know that you cant threaten BBB, lawyers, personal vendettas, AND THEN scream "Its my job to do...this". Honestly, what is your job? To sit around and wait for locksmiths? To complain? How much does complaining pay?