House of cards

Round 31: January 2034 (Summer)

last update/next update

Hope Collins and Julia Gray are both 23.
(Emil is 62, Anna is 56 and Malcolm is 24)

Narrated by Hope Collins

Once we graduated from Suffolk, Julia and I rented an awesome apartment in Sullivan.

It's a really amazing place - there's a mini-gym, a pool, sauna, basketball courts. It has everything.

Of course, we have to actually pay for all this with some pretty hefty rent. Mum and Dad have been oddly unwilling to help out in that capacity.

They told me if the rent was too high, maybe we should consider moving to a smaller place.

I don't need a smaller place; what I need is a decent job! I have a biology degree but I'm stuck working retail until I can find a job in my field.

All things considered, it's not an awful job. The customers haven't been too bad so far and the work isn't too difficult.

But still, I didn't study for four years to work at the mall. I have a lot to offer, if someone would just give me a chance.

I've been for a few interviews at various labs but so far, I've been unsuccessful.

Julia is lucky. She did her student teaching placements during our last two years at uni and now she gets regular work as a substitute. I wish they had something like that for biology! I'm so jealous.

But then, her love life isn't going so well and she's actually pretty depressed at the moment. I just don't know what to tell her any more.

She still thinks Nathan cheated on her with Rebecca, even though I know for a fact that he didn't so much as touch her before New Year's, a few months after they broke up.

Not that I can tell her that. She's still pretty upset. I'm trying to stay somewhat neutral, just to keep the peace.

She really wants to get married and have kids one day and she's worried Nathan was her last chance. I think she's being a little dramatic, personally. I don't know what I'm supposed to say to her when I think she's being ridiculous.

I've been trying to get her out of the house a little more, without a whole lot of success. I did get her to come out with me for a few drinks the other night though and I think she had fun.

I was hoping there might be some guys around, to maybe spark Julia's interest but the whole place was packed with other girls.

She did actually meet one guy - probably the only guy in the whole place.

I think Julia kind of liked him but it turned out he was gay. He definitely chose the wrong night to go to that club!

I keep asking Malcolm whether he knows anybody we can set up with Julia. He says all his friends are attached but he must know some single guys!

Malcolm says Julia is nuts and he wouldn't subject any of his friends to her anyway.

I'm trying not to bug Malcolm too much about finding someone for Julia. He's really busy with work and med school so I don't want to spend all our time together talking about the same thing.

Malcolm and I have been back together for four or five months now and so far, so good. Actually, we're doing even better now than we were before we broke up. After a couple of years apart, I appreciate him much more.

Malcolm loves that I had to admit I was wrong. I can tell. He's really relishing it.

I'm going to let him have that, because it will probably never happen again. I hate being wrong.

But Malcolm and I are just having a really great time together right now. I forgot how much fun Malcolm is.

I avoided being with him around Julia for a while. He thinks she's crazy but I also didn't want to make her feel worse, after the whole Nathan and Rebecca thing. But despite all that, they don't get along too badly at all.

Although Julia still can't stand it when he burps at the table. He always does it and I'm used to it now. I've told him off for it before but now, I've just decided to pick my battles.

I'm really trying to relax about our relationship this time around. I'm only 23 and Malcolm and I don't need to rush into living together just yet. There's plenty of time for that.

In a couple of years, Malcolm will be all done with medical school and will be working as a doctor. I'm definitely hoping that once that's all in place, he might be ready to start talking about our future.

Notes:

• Title is from House of Cards by Radiohead.
• I'm back! I should be able to update closer to my regular schedule now. Next week is a busy one for me but I'm going to see if I can get some good play time in this weekend, so I can still get a couple of posts up. But after next week, I have two weeks off work. :D Plenty of time for Simming!
• But ugh, this update gave me so much trouble! Firstly, I crashed after getting only 10 pics, when it was way too late to reload. So I played again the next day and that stupid picture-in-picture pop-up kept appearing whenever I was on the home lot. I couldn't figure out what it was alerting me to but I would literally close it and it would pop right back up again. I'm hoping that problem was a one-off but I'm doubting that. I bet it happens again next time I play this lot. :\
• Julia graduated with a 4.0, so she jumped straight into her chosen career. Hope had a 3.6, so she gets to wait. ;) If it takes longer than is realistic, I'll cheat her in.
• Poor Julia. She was following that gay guy around the club all night but he just wasn't having it, for obvious reasons. Will Julia ever pick the right guy?
• I'm always kind of amazed when my Sims act in such human ways. Malcolm and Hope were never one of those completely disinterested couples but they've never been a real lovey-dovey, get-a-room-please kind of couple either. But since they broke up and got back together, it seems like they're autonomously romantic more often and rolling romantic wants for each other more often. They're also both rolling less of those stupid "fall in love with [my ex]" wants that Sims always roll on dates. It really does seem like they were apart, realised they actually did want to be together and are making the most of it now. It's just one of the things I love about this game!