Kids in America

Round 22: Summer 2015

last update/next update

Vivienne Carmody is 75, Betsy and Kimberly are both 44, Sarah is 10 and Susannah is 5.
(Linnea is 55, Tessa is 6 and Malcolm is 5)

Narrated by Betsy Carmody

Susannah just started kindergarten and she's doing unbelievably well. Kimberly usually helps her with her homework but she just breezes through it.


School has been really good for her socially too. She's always been a little shyer than Sarah and she's already made a few friends at school.

She was so down after Dad died and I think being around some other kids her own age was the perfect cure.

Sarah didn't seem to have much trouble bouncing back after Dad's death and I think she's helped Susannah cope too. They're very close.

Mum is a bit unhappier now that both girls are at school though. She used to have Susannah to take care of during the day, which let her put Dad out of her mind but now all she has is Dagwood.

The only actual conversation Kimberly and I have had recently is about adopting another kid. No way. I'm not bringing another child into this mess.

We're not really doing so well lately. We briefly stopped arguing after Dad passed away but as soon as the house got back into a relatively normal routine again, we started up again and it was worse than ever.

So I did something I didn't think I'd ever do. I called Linnea. Linnea and I almost started up something about 20 years ago, at my cousin Trent's wedding. We never did because she was married and I met Kimberly not long after. I'd never really forgotten her though and I think about her a lot, especially when things are really bad with Kimberly, like they are now.

We met up at the bar at the Vista Hotel. Alcohol was probably not a good idea in the middle of the afternoon but we had a couple of drinks anyway.

I can't really blame it on being drunk though. If I'm being honest with myself, I knew exactly what I was doing. I don't know why though. As soon as it was over, I regretted it and was so angry with myself.

I came home really late that night, well after Kimberly was already asleep.

We didn't speak until the next afternoon and Kimberly was understandably mad that I was out so late. She didn't come right out and ask me if I was with someone else but she must suspect it.

Mum overheard the whole fight and now we've got her worried. She should be. I'm in an even worse situation than I was before and I have no idea what to do about any of it.

Random pics:
Just some shots of the girls that didn't really fit into the update. I wanted to show you Sarah especially because I don't think the shot in her profile really shows you what she looks like because she's smiling in it. I'm really interested to see what these two will look like as teens. I think Sarah has looked a tad odd as a toddler and child but I'm trying to avoid surgery from now on. If they age to adult and still look weird, I'll consider surgery and write it into the story instead.

I'm listening to Playground Love by Air right now and the saxophone parts seem rather fitting for this picture of the beginning of an illicit affair. It's all sleazy sounding and what not.

Anyway, this is a picture of the lounge area in Linnea and Betsy's hotel room. I built the hotel myself and I'm not really happy with much of it but the suites came out pretty much exactly as I wanted them to. I wanted to have a hotel in Exeter for affairs like this and horny teens and none that I found were quite right so I built one. I eventually want to have a dodgy motel too - this hotel is quite nice, with a restaurant and rooftop bar and all that.

I started out trying to model the rooms on the Affinia in Chicago (my favourite hotel EVER!) but I abandoned that pretty early on! That is why the bathrooms are orange though, not that you can see them in this update!

Notes:

• First update of the new round and we've already launched into the ROS! Betsy rolled the ROS "You deserve better - get together with Sim of highest attraction". Linnea is that Sim for Betsy, so the affair began. I figured "get together with" doesn't necessarily have to mean "get together with X and break up with Y" so I went with an affair, rather than a flat out "I'm leaving you for this person" thing.
• I'm not sure what will happen with Linnea/Betsy/Kimberly after this. Kimberly doesn't know about the affair but she's suspicious. I'm still brainstorming what I'm going to do and hoping I haven't written myself into a corner!