These days

Round 20: Summer 2011

last update/next update

Maria Moretti is 68, Filippo is 56, Emil Collins is 39, Anna is 34 and Nathan is 9 months old.
(David is 29, Kirstin is 27 and Jesse is 26.)

Narrated by Emil Collins

My brother David came over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, with his new wife Kirstin. Mum was thrilled. I think she'd like to have the whole family over at the same time, but we have a pretty huge family and it's not possible very often.



David and Kirstin have only been married for about six months and they're in that holding-hands-and-making-googly-eyes-at-each-other stage.

They visited Cape Elizabeth for their honeymoon and Mum couldn't wait to hear all about it. She's been wanting to go back to Three Lakes, where she and my Dad went on their honeymoon but I think Kirstin may have her convinced to give the beach a try instead.

David told me Kirstin wants to wait a while before having kids and David wants them now. So he's making do with being an uncle to Nathan for the meantime.

Speaking of parenthood, ever since I became a father, I've been reading all of these parenting manuals, hoping to pick up a few tips.

Anna has eschewed all the books I bought and has been working mostly on maternal instinct. We're both doing okay, so I guess both our methods are working for us. Anna hated every second of being pregnant and she still worries about passing out and nausea, even though she hasn't dealt with that sort of thing since her first trimester with Nathan.

It's yet to be seen how she'll cope with being a mum and working long term but she's doing well so far. I wouldn't say she likes it - she really hated the car they sent for her on the first day and demanded to use Mum's car from then on - but she's coping.

Anna works days and I work nights, so I spend my days in Exeter, seeing if there are any women worth my time. There usually is and because I'm a DJ, I can then invite them to whatever club I'm working in that night.

So they come, they watch my set and then I'm irresistible to them.

Normally, I meet a few other women too before I head home at about 4.

Mum hates my job because she thinks it keeps me away from Anna and Nathan too much and that married men should have more respectable jobs.

I told her that if Anna doesn't care, she doesn't have any reason to either but she won't listen. She's been getting so nosy since she retired.

Anyway, she can leave me alone now because Anna got her foot in the door and is now a DJ too. Initially, I thought she might cramp my style a bit but we'll probably end up playing different clubs most of the time anyway.

We've got a little bit more money coming in now and Anna's decided we need to redecorate because everything in the house is "ugly".

She was very disappointed when I told her we didn't have that much extra money that we could redecorate the whole house and that I wasn't sure Mum and Filippo would go for that anyway. We live here and we're adults but it's still not our house.

Anna's cousin Jesse has dropped by to visit her a few times. Only her. Mum and Filippo won't have him in the house, so any time he comes by, the entire visit is conducted on the front lawn.

He knows he's not welcome inside, since the whole thing with Abigail. Caleb was really broken up about it so Jesse's not too popular around these parts.

Right before we went to bed the next morning (we're both on a non-traditional schedule right now, due to work), Anna told me about her conversation with Jesse. Apparently, he actually has designs on marrying Abigail! Already! While everything is still up in the air with Caleb! I couldn't believe it.

She was really unimpressed when I told her exactly what I thought of Jesse's little plan. I guess I need to remember that he's still her cousin, whatever her loyalties are to my family. Actually, Abigail is her cousin too, on her mother's side, so I guess she's feeling stuck in the middle right now.

I tried smoothing things over with her but she just sat there, completely silent. I thought she was giving me her patented Silent Treatment™ but I soon discovered it was something else entirely.

She's pregnant again. We were using birth control, so I'm not sure how this happened. I guess this stuff is never 100%. Yeah, so definitely not planned - Nathan's only 9 months old. When this one comes along, he'll still only be 18 months old, so we'll have two kids under two! It's going to be chaotic in this house for a good while yet.

Notes (with a couple of pics):

• An outtake. I was trying to have Anna and Emil argue about Jesse and Abigail but because Anna is a bitch and Emil is a jerk, they just love arguing! One of them will be ranting and raving and the other will be looking on enraptured, as if they're being told some fantastic piece of news. So a chat on the bed, where most of the facial expressions are more neutral and therefore easier to manipulate, was my back-up plan.

• I've been attempting to pay more attention to the ACR scores, so by the end of this round, you'll be sick of hearing about them, I'm sure! I'm jotting them all down. So I'll use this picture as an opening to talk about Anna and Emil's insane chemistry! When I checked their chemistry at the beginning of the round, the raw score was 161 and the total was 266. Which is pretty friggin' high! Out of curiosity, I checked their turn-ons. Emil was turned on by charismatic women with custom hair (remember Zelda Benton dyeing her hair in the school bathroom, in an attempt to win over Emil?). Anna was turned on by brown hair and facial hair. So I changed the turn-ons to match and the ACR score shot up to 196 raw and 301 total!!! I don't believe I have ever seen a score over 300!

• I took control of Jesse and got a look at his wants in the process. He still wants to marry Abigail and he also has the want to become engaged to her. His wants to marry the other three women have rolled away, so apparently his feelings for Abigail have become more serious over the past 8 or 9 months.

• Oh, and I just realised Filippo is only in the intro pic! He was around but none of the pictures of him made the cut. You didn't miss anything, I promise! :)