Much love

Round 28: Winter 2027

last update

Claudia's next update/Patience's next update/Josie's next update

Claudia Kirby is 26 and Josie Benton and Patience Draper are both 25.
(David is 45, Cara is 38, Jacob and Rob are both 26 and Troy is 24)

Narrated by Josie Benton

Patience is still doing those dumb fast food commercials. They’ve done a whole series of them now, each one with Patience in that ridiculous french fry costume. Patience is positive that she’ll be rich one day and it’s the commercials that are getting her there.

I don't know about that but I do know that it is hilarious to see her going off to work every day in that thing! It never gets old; Claudia and I laugh every time we see her. Claudia probably wouldn't, normally, but I'm a bad influence.

Patience is definitely over those commercials though. She's desperate to get a break and she goes to auditions all the time. If she's home, she's practising her lines in front of the mirror.

Her boyfriend Rob is in his first year out of law school, so even if Patience never makes it as an actress, they could probably live pretty comfortably on his salary alone.

Claudia finished her internship at town hall and is now working as a lobbyist and went out with Jacob to celebrate.

Over dinner, Jacob told her he was planning on joining the fire department. He's been waiting tables since college but he says this is what he really wants to do.

Claudia's really proud of him. I guess I can see Jacob in that kind of role. I'm just glad it's not my boyfriend taking that job.

I still don't feel quite like a "real" doctor, because I'm still a little unsure of certain things and David still supervises everything I do.

But I'm halfway through my internship now and David is a lot more hands off than he was at the beginning and I have more responsibilities. Sometimes I can forget he's there and I actually feel more confident at those times.

I have to check in with David every day and he's happy with my progress. So all is well.

Except the part where I have Cara over my shoulder constantly, picking at everything I do.

She’s such a know-it-all. She’s only just finished her residency and she thinks she’s an authority. If I want advice, I'll ask for it and I won't be asking her.

David is a bit concerned about my interpersonal skills and called me into his office for a meeting about it.

I had to keep my mouth shut and just take it but there wouldn't be a problem if Cara would mind her own. It would be one thing if I was making some vital mistake in surgery or something but she picks on really piddly things, like I put the gloves back on the wrong shelf or something.

Cara is married to David's brother though, so he would take her side.

Whatever. I'm just going to try and bite my tongue around her. She's not worth losing my internship over.

I could cope with Cara better if someone would listen to my rants without interjecting with advice.

I really just want someone to agree with me about how irritating Cara is. Then I can move on and forget about her for the day.

For the most part though, Claudia and Patience are pretty awesome roommates.

It's certainly been nice to actually hang out with them this year. For the past three years, it's sometimes felt like I didn't have any roommates at all, with me working all day and all night.

I was so busy that I didn't even have time to realise how much I missed all those girl talk sessions.

With Patience, recently, they all revolve around two things: Rob, and Exeter.

If Rob wasn't currently living in a shoebox in Exeter, he and Patience would probably already be shacking up. She just loves the city.

Patience grew up there and she really misses it, especially seeing we're about as far away as you can get from Exeter while still being in Sullivan.


I guess I don't really blame her. Exeter definitely has more going on than Sullivan, especially seeing that's what she was used to. Exeter is a pain to get to without a car as well. You can take the bus, which can be gross, or a taxi, which is expensive.

As soon as they can pool enough money together, Patience and Rob are going to get their own little place. She's so excited, even though it's probably a couple of years away!

Troy and I don't really care where we end up living. I'd be fine with staying here, or moving to Exeter.

We've been talking a lot about that sort of thing lately. Troy's always asking me about the future, where I see us living, what I see us doing and all that kind of thing.

I think I know what's coming, even though I can tell Troy thinks he's being really casual about it.

Troy didn't bring up the topic of marriage while we were having lunch at Dad's restaurant. Thank God. I really don't want to be proposed to in public again.

But Troy is completely different from Will, of course. He definitely has his faults but thankfully, none of them are deal breakers.

We actually don't argue very often at all, which is unusual for me. We had more arguments before we got together than we have had since then. Patience says it must have been the sexual tension!

When Troy actually proposed, it was in the kitchen, hours after Patience and Claudia had gone to bed. I accepted. I've always sort of known we'd end up heading this way. In my mind, it was only a matter of time.

Troy was a little nervous about asking me. Maybe a lot nervous. I always said I wouldn't consider it until after I'm done with medical school, which I'm not yet.

I felt a bit differently about it once I was faced with making an actual decision though and it just seemed right to say yes.

So we're getting married! It's looking like this is going to be a lengthy engagement though. Neither of us have much money for a wedding, let alone to get a place to live!

My parents were pretty quick to offer their house as a venue, which would be fantastic. Whenever we're ready, they said. They also wanted to give us a deposit on a house as an engagement gift but that's too much. They already paid enough for me to go to medical school and when Troy and I buy a house, I want it to feel like ours.

Patience is already getting way too excited about the wedding. She wants to go start picking out dresses now and we haven't even set a date. We haven't even set a year!

I keep reminding her what "long engagement" means but it hasn't helped much. She's always wanted to be a bridesmaid. I'm hoping she calms down a little, because I can't take this for the next couple of years!

It's hard to get Patience to calm down when I'm getting so excited myself. A wedding is so far off for us but it is fun to plan. We're pre-planning, I guess. Once we've got enough money to get our own place, we can start for real.

Outtakes:
I love this one of Rob and Patience, but I ended up using the ones that weren't so zoomed in. I recently got a TON of new pose boxes and have categorised them all for community lots, so I'm hoping I can do some more interesting pics soon. Walking arm in arm - how cute is that? And I didn't have to turn their heads for any of the pictures of them - they were my most co-operative Sims ever!

Notes:

• Title is from Much Love by Jonny Polonsky.
• All pics are currently not working - I'm hoping this sorts itself out today, so please check back later!
• Sullivan was mentioned (in a complimentary way!) at SimSecret the last two weeks. I managed to post a thank you last week, but LJ hates me this week, so whoever you are, Secret Writer #27, thank you very much! I was sort of in awe to be mentioned in the same breath as the other writers in your secret, so I was very flattered.
• I used Apple Valley's method to decide on a career for Jacob (and some other Sims who I wasn't sure about in terms of jobs). I just added my custom careers to the list and then went through with each Sim, seeing who fit what criteria.
• So Josie and Troy are getting married...eventually! A long engagement suits Josie, so I think even if they could afford their own place (and trust me, they so can't!), I'd probably make them wait on marriage for a little bit.
• I'm not sure when Rob and Patience will get their own place either. Rob is even poorer than these girls right now, so he might have to get a couple more promotions before it's a realistic option for them. Patience too - the Show Business career is a pretty high paid one. She's already getting over $700 a day, just for commercials.