Bled white

Round 29: October 2030 (Spring)

last update/next update

Gordon Nott is 34, Lia is 33, Annabel and Georgina are both 6 and Gabriel is 3.

(Maia is 28 and Ethan is 24)

Narrated by Gordon Nott

This year, I finally took the plunge and enrolled in law school. It was a big decision, because it's a fairly significant amount of money that we're pouring into this.

We had to take out a loan, which Lia was nervous about. We've just pulled ourselves out of debt and it seemed almost crazy to put ourselves back in.

We decided that it was a good investment though. It's going to be hard but if we make a few sacrifices, we're both confident that we'll pay it off.

Well, I am anyway. Lia still has her reservations.

She's been very supportive though. There have been times when I've wondered whether I could get through this and Lia has been the one to talk me back around again.

All the cups of coffee have been nice too and really necessary sometimes as well.

We had Maia and her boyfriend Ethan over for dinner the other night.

Georgina and Annabel were very excited.

They both adore their aunt Maia.

Georgina is usually quite shy but she's taken a shine to Ethan. It was so cute.

We had Maia and Ethan over partly because Lia wanted to get to know Ethan, away from her parents.

He seems like a nice guy to me. He was very keen to hear about law school. I'm looking at getting into environmental law, so I doubt it it was his area of interested but he at least pretended it was.

I'll have to actually graduate before I start thinking about practising though. I'm trying to get into a study routine but I find it so much harder to concentrate. It's been difficult to get used to studying again, after over 10 years without it.

I've gone part time at work so I can concentrate on my classes, so I'm home a lot more. That also means I'm with Gabriel all day and he needs my attention as well. A nanny is a luxury we can't afford right now.

Gabriel is often a welcome distraction from my work though, so I can't complain too much. It's been nice doing the stay-at-home dad thing.

It's much easier to get my work done when Lia is around though. She usually has Gabriel settled before I even notice.

Annabel and Georgina fortunately both understand that I need to keep my mind on studying, so they choose quiet activities when I'm at the computer.

They even keep Gabriel occupied with games and songs.

I love that all three of the kids are so close. I was an only child, so it's not something I ever experienced.

Seeing me studying to have encouraged Annabel to start reading a little more as well.

I don't think I've ever seen Lia so happy. She's always loved reading and it bothered her that Annabel didn't seem to care about books.

I was trying not to worry too much about Annabel's grades, seeing she's still so young, but Lia was sure it was a sign of future academic failure.

Annabel loves reading aloud to us now.

So far, we've only seen a slight improvement in her grades but we're very proud she's putting so much more effort in now.

Unfortunately, now Georgina's grades are sliding, even though she's always so tried hard in school.

Annabel never really cared much about bringing home Ds but Georgina is so hard on herself.

She's a lot like Lia in that way. It's horrible to see her so upset. I hope she won't always be so critical of herself.

I'm hoping that now, things will be much easier for us on the money front. Lia just found out she's been promoted.

I'm biased, I suppose, but it's about time. She was instrumental in finally getting the governor to finish the library renovations and she's been running the place for a good while. Now her pay packet matches her job description.

I'm so proud of her. To be second in charge of the entire library system at only 33 is pretty amazing!

The bonus they gave her was enormous. I don't think either of us have ever seen that much money in our lives. We poured it all into the loan account, so we don't have a lot of it left. But it was enough to pay for all of my tuition for the entire four years of law school. It's such a load off, knowing we won't have to worry about that any more.

Notes:

• Title is from Bled White by Elliott Smith.
• Annabel was like a little skilling machine this round. so her grades went up a little. Georgina was more interested in playing with her siblings which, while adorable, does not really help one's grades. She did manage to max out her creativity though. I'm not sure what's up with her grades. It might be the element of randomness that's supposed to be a part of Harder Harder Grades.
• Lia was promoted twice this round. She was promoted to Area Manager first, just because she was due (all skilled up, with good work performance). Then she was promoted again due to a hobby chance card. I almost always fail those and even when I pass them, I get something boring like more enthusiasm or they'll bring some annoying townie home from work with them. So an actual promotion for a family who needed it was an awesome change! I really hesitated to let Gordon and Lia take out a loan for law school, because I wasn't sure they'd be able to pay it back. Gordon obviously knew better than me though, because they're completely debt free now.
• I'm not sure anyone would notice except me but I am aware that I am due for another election in Sullivan. I usually do them in spring but I'm going to put this one off until after Christmas. So I'll probably finish up this round after Christmas (only two more families to go) and then put the poll up.