Round 7 Part 10: Dejackome-Seifert (2053-2057)

Timothy is 46, Jeannie is 38, Caitlin is 10, Patrick is 7, Stacy is 3.

(Also pictured: BJ Bigfoot)

"Iris"

narrated by Timothy Seifert

You'd think I'd be used to my life not being exactly normal at this point, given that I have a Sasquatch living in my house. But honestly, most of the time I think about what every guy my age thinks about--like the fact that my daughter somehow became a beautiful young woman overnight and I should really buy a shotgun so I can sit on the porch and clean it when boys come over. Not that Cait brings boys over for anything but study dates. She's like me and her mom, nose always buried in a book. But if any of her study buddies start getting fancy ideas, I'll be ready.

All of the kids are getting older right under my nose, come to think of it. Stacy has started school now.

We managed to get her into private school with the other kids--I was worried we'd have trouble on account of BJ but the headmaster babbled on for a while about being in tune with nature and then informed us our application had been accepted, so I guess that's a success. At least she'll have Pat with her at the elementary school for a few years so she'll be looked after.

It used to be that Pat and Stacy shared a room, so poor Cait wouldn't get woken up in the night every time one of them had a wet diaper or a bad dream, but now that everybody's older and Pat's getting to the age where he wants a little more privacy, we rearranged things so Cait and Stacy are sharing.

(They have two dressers and another desk on the opposite side of the room.)

Pat's room is huge--Jeannie says it's bigger than the whole house she and her 3 siblings grew up in, though I think she might be exaggerating a bit--but it's not his fault he's the only boy.

So, yeah, life is pretty boring. The most exciting thing that happens is usually eating breakfast with my lovely wife and listening to her talk about how she's investigating some celebrity stalker.

And the kids have friends over near every day, which keeps things loud and crazy.

Anyway, I meant to talk about the telescope thing. Jeannie got it for me for my 50th birthday, a huge fancy thing. And sure, I guess I might have been spending a little too much time out there, late at night, when the kids were in bed and I should have been too since I go to work pretty early in the morning.

Jeannie says that I probably got so tired I started hallucinating, but all I'm going to say is it sure didn't seem like a hallucination when I got sucked into a giant flying saucer and then spat back out on my front lawn a few hours later, with no memory of what happened in between. I guess we'll see if I come down with any funky alien diseases or anything.

Notes:

1. Caitlin is Knowledge aspiration, LTW City Planner, turned on by blond hair and mechanical skill but turned off by black hair.

2. So! Turns out that if your Sim's Science enthusiasm gets high enough, they can "summon aliens." Which results in...summoning aliens. I don't know if this is going to lead to little green babies in this already weird household, but I guess we'll find out next round.

Week 7 Intermission: Pinenut Plaza Dormitory (2053-2057)

Joseph Pons is 21, Todd Riedmayer is 19, Seth Pons is 17, Lauren Whitfill is 16, Alexis Kules is 22

"22"
narrated by Alexis Kules

My dad never got to go to college, and the way he talked about it made it sound like it was a very small step down from dying and going to Heaven. I wasn't expecting it to be quite that great, which is good, because I would have been disappointed. Being at college is pretty much exactly like being at home, except my room is a lot smaller and the food isn't as good. And I don't have Dad constantly inviting me to study with him.

It doesn't help that I was kind of lonely the first semester. The only people I already knew were the Pons boys (since I'm kind of dating their little brother), and they spent all their time trying to pick up women. Todd too. He's got a little more style than his cousins, but at heart he really just wants to pick up women too.

They didn't seem to have much luck, though. Apparently whenever they went out they only saw other guys, and none of them swing that way. I must admit I am glad of it; I don't really want to hear about their romantic adventures with people of either sex. I got enough of that from my mom when I was growing up.

I got straight A's the first semester, and so did the other girl from our town, Lauren. The boys did okay, but they were more a mix of A's and B's.

The second semester, the boys apparently gave up on women in favor of gambling. I swear their butts were glued to the chairs around that mah jong table. Within a few months Todd and Joe were both gold members of their gaming club or some such nonsense.

Seth didn't do quite as well. I think he found out that when you stop acting like an idiot trying to pick up women, then women start to actually like you. At least, he seemed to be having some pretty long conversations with this girl Anna--my brother Jaden knew Anna a little bit and says she's "smart," which coming from him means "off the charts brilliant." I wonder what she sees in Seth--maybe it's an opposites attract thing?

Meanwhile, I discovered that I'm not a total hopeless nerd like Dad and Jaden. There's this basketball hoop just outside the dorm and I actually really like going out there and shooting some hoops to clear my head. Lauren ended up going out there with me most of the semester. She confessed to me about two weeks from finals that she doesn't even like sports; she just got lonely without any friends and thought maybe I'd like her if she played with me. I do kind of like her now, though I told her she can feel free to suggest the activity next semester.

Right after her basketball revelation Lauren apparently got a bad grade on a quiz or something and it put the fear of the SimGoddess into her--or at least the fear of academic probation--and I barely saw her again until we were back home for the summer. I think she would have done fine either way, but who am I to tell her she's not supposed to study at college?

She rubbed off on Seth too (or Anna rubbed off on him) and he spent finals week locked in his room cramming for all his tests. Cramming is one thing I just don't get. Either you know the material or you don't; trying to speed-read everything the night before the test isn't going to do a thing.

Of course, I probably shouldn't judge, considering Seth made the Dean's List while I averaged a B minus in my finals. That stung a bit. And I know Dad's not even going to say anything; he'll just sit and play chess with me all summer like he's been doing my whole life. And maybe someday I'll figure out what the chess is supposed to be a metaphor for.

Notes:

- Alexis and Lauren both have 1 outgoing point, but Alexis has 1 nice point whereas Lauren has 6. So I see Alexis as much more the prickly, standoffish type of shy, whereas Lauren is the more socially anxious type. At any rate, they're well on the way to becoming BFFs now.

- End of year stats:
Alexis: Undeclared major, GPA 3.4
Joseph: Psychology major, GPA 3.7
Todd: Politics major, GPA 3.8
Seth: Art major, GPA 3.8
Lauren: Psychology major, GPA 4.0

Lauren and Seth have career-related LTWs, so I picked their majors for them. Joe and Todd rolled wants for their majors. So far Alexis seems to be drifting a bit, not rolling any school-related wants at all. (She mostly rolls wants to play chess and computer games and things, with a few basic romantic wants thrown in--unfulfillable, since her intended is still in high school.)

I got bored of everybody getting a 4.0, so I am trying a new tactic where I only make college students study if they roll wants (e.g. "Get a skill point", "Write term paper"), or if they roll a fear of academic probation. So far nobody's flunked out, but we'll see what happens when the skill requirements get higher.

Round 7 Part 9: Lothlorien (2053-2057)

Francine is 51, Jihoon is 44, Lauren is 16, River is 13, and Elijah and Tamara are 8.

"Hold Us Together"

narrated by River Whitfill

It's been crazy lonely here since Lauren left for college. Everybody in this family is super shy, but Lauren still somehow had this knack for getting along with people and I think that sort of held the rest of us together. Now we're all going off in our own separate directions.

At least the twins did get into private school with me. Mom and Dad couldn't afford tuition for all of us before, but then Mom quit her job with the ballet troupe and started working at Granddad's business, doing bookkeeping or something. She doesn't talk about it much; says it's super boring but at least it pays the bills and she can keep doing it when she's old, unlike with ballet.

They're teenagers now, the twins, so they're even in the same building as I am at school. Eli has kind of turned into a tool--all he talks about is how he's going to get a job and get rich, or how he wants to marry a woman who's a good cook but not too smart. Plus he likes to sit around in his boxers all day on the weekends. Boys...

But Tam is super nice. Nicer than me, I'll admit. She says she wants to get married and have a ton of kids and see them get married and have a ton of kids and so on down the line.

That's definitely not for me. I like my siblings and all (even Eli, most of the time), but I don't get that big family togetherness thing. Mom and Dad always make sure there's food in the fridge and we have all the books and things we could want to entertain ourselves, but then they kind of go do their own thing. Now that we're all pretty self sufficient I swear they spend all day making out in their pajamas.

Or locked in the bedroom. Mom always makes excuses like, "We're going to go do taxes!" but I'm pretty sure nobody gets that excited about taxes. My parents are seriously gross.










Notes:

- When River refers to "Granddad" she means Francine's stepfather, Malcolm Landgraab IV. We all know what his "business" involves and why Francine might not want to discuss it with her 13-year-old. ;)

- Elijah is Fortune aspiration, LTW Business Tycoon, turned on by blond hair and cooking skill but turned off by logic skill.

- Tamara is Family aspiration, LTW Marry off 6 children, turned on by formal wear and glasses but turned off by blond hair.

- Jihoon's LTW is 50 dream dates and my rough count suggests that he's had about 16. He's nearly an elder, so if he has any hope of making it to 50 he and Francine pretty much do need to spend all day making out in their pajamas!

- Next up: College update! Hopefully I'll get a little more caught up on profiles as well.

Round 7 Part 8: Paradisio (2053-2057)

Donte is 45, Gretchen is 38, Emerson is 10, and Shelley is 7.

"Let It Go"

narrated by Emerson Whitfill 

You guys would legitimately not believe how sickeningly cute and boring my life is.

I mean, I hang out with the neighborhood kids...

I play with my sister...

I go to school. That's it.

I think even my dad is bored sometimes--at any rate, he keeps switching jobs. He was a scientist a few years ago, but now he's a chef, and I think that's his fourth or fifth career. I think Mom's on her third. She's a doctor now, and before that she was a teacher, and when I was a baby I think she did something else but I don't remember what that was.

They're not bored with each other, though. When they're not at work they have their little hobbies they do together and they talk to each other and I seriously have no idea what they still have to talk about after twenty-something years.

The only really exciting thing is that I finally became a teenager.

Mom took me shopping for new clothes and helped me learn to use makeup, though she rations the stuff out something awful. What's the point of wearing makeup if it's so "natural" and "subtle" that nobody can tell?

Well, I guess there was also the time I broke Dad's new candy machine, but that was not so much "exciting" as "new carpet coming out of your allowance." Good thing I have a big allowance!

Notes:

1. I played this household in April of 2013. I'm really just churning out these updates so I can move on to actual recent stuff. All my notes say is that Gretchen became Education Minister at some point this round, rolled the LTW to become Chief of Staff, and got a job as a surgeon. 

2. Emerson is Romance with the LTW to have 20 Loves. Ugh. She's turned on by formalwear and cleaning skill but turned off by cooking skill. I guess she wants somebody who will clean up nice, put on a suit, and take her out to a fancy restaurant!

3. You might notice that the names up top don't have links to profiles. That's because my toddler apparently decided his New Year's resolution involved staying up until 1 a.m. and/or screaming for no apparent reason in the middle of the night. So blogging time has been scarce. I'm working on the profiles and should have them up and linked in the next few days if anyone cares.

Round 7 Part 7: Riedmayer-Todd Estate (2053-2057)

Edith is 61 years old, Thomas is 51, Todd is 19, Fritz is 15, Charles is 12

"Mine"

narrated by Thomas Dai

Well, Todd went to college a while back.

So now it's just Edith and me and the two younger boys at home.

And sometimes I swear the house is empty, with how quiet it is, and then I find them both sitting in their school uniforms and studying! I sure never did that much studying when I was a teenager.

The only real excitement we've had is when some guy tried to steal our car, but even that wasn't a big deal--the alarm went off, a cop showed up, and the wannabe thief got hauled off to jail.

I was reluctant to leave them after that, but Edith really wanted to go on a sort of delayed honeymoon--we never got one when we were first married--so we went.

I still think we might as well have stayed home. We spent most of the time watching TV.

And *ahem* taking naps.

Edith says she had a great time relaxing, though.

And I can't say I minded having a chance to get caught up on the latest novel.

Plus, we got to eat things that weren't our cooking or takeout pizza! We aren't either of us great cooks, so that was definitely nice.

But as much as I enjoyed the time with just Edith, I was glad to come back to our boys at the end.

Notes:

1. For those of you just tuning in: Thomas is not the biological father of Edith's kids, but the two younger boys were 3 and not-yet-born when their father left and about 6 and 3 when Thomas came along, so he's the only dad they've ever known.

2. My favorite thing about having custom hairs in my game is that I can do different shades of gray for elders. You might have noticed in my last update that Joan and Greg had dark gray hair while Beata (15 years older and a natural blond) had pure white hair. In this update, I feel like Edith's darker hair helps play down the age gap between her and Thomas. He is quite a bit younger, but not so much that she should have white hair while his is still red!