#852 – boner for the beach

Hey! HEY! Have you checked out OP colorist Valerie's new webcomic Goodbye to Halos? There's still time to say you were There From the Beginning, but not much. The timer begins after this sentence.

21 thoughts on “#852 – boner for the beach

  1. Aww, I love cold beach days!

    1. Here in Mx, the coldest beach day you can get is around 20°C (68°F).
      🙁

  2. Poor well-meaning Eve. This reminds me of several story arcs ago when she said she started to notice the cracks in her friend group. This seems more hopeful, somehow.

    1. I guess because it's comfortable dissent? I get what you mean. But this doesn't feel like an end, more like comfortable honesty and breathing room.

  3. jane gave mar her jacket, slay me

  4. And I've got a real boner for the coloring of these panels. 😀

    1. I wanna wrap those colours up and take them to bed tonight ^^

  5. I love that Jane gave her jacket to Marigold.

  6. Well yeah, Eve, everyone loves the beach.

    You know. except for Rodney Linderman.

  7. Awww. You're making me want to cry, Meredith G.
    But that's a good thing- since I like it that the story is running a whole lot of emotions, all at once.

    Why does Eve seem so sad?
    Is she afraid that her group of friends is splitting up, and that they'll never talk to her again?
    ^ ^;

  8. Oregon's beaches are constantly like this all year.

    It's so great. 😀

  9. I love this comic. I started reading it nearly two years ago when reading it got me through the quiet nights at the hospital waiting for my first child. Now today, I'm at that same hospital with my wife and second child sleeping near by, with Octopus Pie to keep me company again. Thank you for such a great comic.

  10. Why do so many people my age (24) smoke?

    About half my friends and most of the guys I've dated smoke, and I did as well for a few weeks before I realized how quickly it was eating into my weed'n'booze budget. So…no judgement here, folks.

    It's just:

    15% sexier+cool dragon breath+smelly thumbs+cancer/lung disease donchaknow+twelve frickin bucks a pack WHY did I start with camels now everything else tastes like crap+excuse to carry a lighter at all times without looking like a pyro even though burning stuff is SUPER FUN = worth it?

    I feel like I'm missing part of the equation. Maybe I was doing it wrong.

    1. Some people are really sensitive to the nicotine and get addictions more quickly than others, I think. I also think a lot of people in their 20s who smoke have parents who smoked and they grew up around it. A lot of other people find it to be legal, easily-accessible stress relief — pricey, yet still cheaper than therapy or a lot of prescription anxiety drugs (and even cheaper than the simple doctor's visit to get a prescription for the drugs). And yet other people started just to be social, and then end up addicted.

      I'm actually super allergic to tobacco smoke, so it frustrates me that smoking is still a thing. I get why people do it, but it makes being a grown ass woman who'd like to go out a bit of a pain.

      1. "…other people started just to be social, and then end up addicted."
        Story of my life, Laura.
        I ended up developing an allergy to smoke and pharyngotracheitis so I quit a year ago. Never felt better. So, stay clean Laura! Cheers!

      2. I know your pain, sister. I can smell a cigarette on the other side of the bar and it makes my nose stuffy. Things seem to be improving since the ban on smoking in closed spaces, though.

        Also, I notice that some social groups smoke a lot more than others. My more intellectual group of acquaintances (young judges, lawyers etc) has virtually no smokers, whereas my more party oriented group of acquaintances has a majority of smokers. Unsurprisingly, none of my close friends smoke.

    2. Everyone in my friend group who smokes (late 20's / early 30's) started in their teens. A lot of them were experimenting with more than just that. Booze, weed, some harder stuff… cigs seemed harmless in comparison – after all, their parents smoke 'em! And once enough people are outside in a group smoking cigs, it makes others want to join in, "just socially"… next thing you know you're having "just one a day, in the morning"… then before you know it you're addicted. But who cares you might die of lung cancer in your 50's? When you're a teenager, that seems so far away.

      Now, of course, they all curse their past selves, but a 15-year addiction is hard to break. My husband has tried 3 times now and it never sticks. I try to have compassion for smokers. We all did stupid shit when we were 14, but few of us end up with lifelong consequences.

  11. Sounds like the crowd you hang with. When I was in my 20s, we all drank (and a few smoked weed), but only one of my friends smoked cigs—and he was a friend from high school. 14 years later he's got a gazillion health issues and looks twice as old as the rest of us. None of my other friends have ever smoked (including the new ones). My bunch tends to be a bunch of granola crunchy/chewy people, though, so everyone is somewhat health-conscious. When we were dating, my husband said he used to smoke with friends, but never got hook. Asked him to prove it and he did.

    My mom smokes. I never found it cool or sexy. It was pretty gross. Her breath is awful, her teeth are brown, and when we were kids it was horrible to be around. She'd try to do it with the windows down because I'd cough on the smoke, but the ashes would fly back and burn us.

    The brief times she'd quit, it was like she had taken a visit to the fountain of youth if she stayed off for a few months or more (really she was just starting to look her age), but she never could fully stop. She's had part of her tongue removed. Damn lucky she could still talk afterwards and it wasn't cancerous. I hate cigarettes for what they did to her and I hate them for killing my grandmother, too, and giving a dear family friend a horrible death (lung cancer is f*cking awful).

  12. I just went back a year or so of the comic because I wanted to see if there was mention of the beach. There were SO many, I didn't even realize it was subtle. I guess when you are reading the updates rather than the archive you forget certain things.

    I remember Andrew Hussie talking about this a a few years ago about Homestuck. It's good Meredith made it more explicit or I would have totally just ignored it..

    But what does dreaming about water mean??

  13. I want to see Coney Island again! Hell, I want to see New York again! There isn't a day I don't sit here and say; "Why am I not back in New York?" Then I remember the answer;

    I can't afford it!

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