Wednesday 21 March 2012

Effect and cause

Round 33: July 2037 (Winter)
last update/Emma's next update/next update

Adam Gottlieb is 82, Athena is 77, Amelia is 48, Wade is 47, Emma is 17 and Michael is 6.
(Sophie is 24, Oliver is 21, Louisa and Jessica are 17 and Lauren is 16)

Narrated by Emma Gottlieb

Grandma is still working full time but seeing she leaves her work at work these days, she doesn’t have much need for a home office. Nothing in there except the computer has seen any use at all since Grandma was governor.

So she got rid of it all - the filing cabinets, the drafting table, all her old notes and files. She had the walls painted and the carpet ripped up and moved the piano downstairs from the bedroom.

It’s much more relaxing in there now. Grandma and Grandpa use it like their little private living room. Grandpa likes to go in and listen to her play while he’s reading.

They don’t mind the rest of us using the room but I like having my own space anyway. Even though it’s hardly changed since I moved in when Sophie moved out, it still feels very me.

It’s the only place Laurel and I have any real privacy.

Laurel isn’t allowed to stay the night but we spend a lot of time together in my room anyway.

Or we did, until Laurel decided she didn’t want to be “tied down” any more.

I could hardly believe my ears and I had to ask her to repeat herself.

“Tied down”? We’re only 17, so it’s not like I was thinking marriage or anything.

But Laurel is just over the whole girlfriend thing, apparently.

She wants to date around and see what else (or who else) is out there.

It seemed to come out of nowhere but Laurel was so adamant. We’re done.

Mum seems desperate to make this break-up some kind of bonding experience for us or something.

When Sophie and Jack broke up, Sophie spent a lot of time crying on Mum’s shoulder about it and she probably thinks I want the same kind of thing.

Sophie and I are different people though. I feel weird talking to Mum about Laurel.

Dad’s a bit better. He asked once if I was okay and when I said I was, that was that. He was probably relieved when I told him I was fine.

I’d rather talk to my friends about it and they’ve been pretty great.

Even Lauren, who doesn’t have much reason to be upset that Laurel and I aren’t together any more. Laurel was never very nice to Lauren.

Jessica broke up with my brother, Noah a few months ago, so at least I’m not the only single one in the group.

It’s nice that I still have her to hang out with when Louisa and Lauren are out with Justin and Eddie.

Even though I’m loving hanging out with Jessica so much, the break-up with Laurel is still a bit raw. Watching Sophie be all romantic with Oliver wasn’t something I was particularly keen on doing.

But they’ve been dating since January and we still hadn’t met him. There was no way Mum was going to put it off any longer.

She practically attacked him as soon as he and Sophie arrived. She was so thrilled to finally meet this guy Sophie has been talking about so much!

Sophie and I actually ended up leaving them to it for a while and playing a little SSX in the living room for a while.

We did all come together again for dinner and we all got to know Oliver a bit better.

He doesn’t exactly seem like Sophie’s type - the other guys she's been out with have all been scruffier types - but she's really into him.

Oliver fits in really well with the rest of the family. It was just like a regular family dinner, plus one.

Mum and Dad were totally won over when Oliver agreed to Michael’s request for a bedtime story.

I think Oliver won Michael over with that too!

And most importantly, he meets my approval! I don’t know why but I thought he’d be really straight-laced and boring but he’s not at all. He’s got a great sense of humour and after I talked to him one on one for a while, it was easier to see what Sophie sees in him.

One thing he definitely doesn’t have in common with Sophie is his attitude towards school. That’s something he's been very serious about.

Sophie waited until the last possible second to choose a major and when she did finally pick one, it was almost at random.

Oliver was keen to advise me not to follow in Sophie’s footsteps there and to start thinking about a major now, rather than later.

He doesn’t need to worry about that. It’s something I’m planning on putting a lot of thought into.

Thinking about college has been a nice distraction from thinking about Laurel. I haven’t decided on a major for sure yet but I’m narrowing it down. I can’t wait to actually get to campus so I can put everything into action.

Notes:
  • Title is from Effect and Cause by the White Stripes.
  • Yay, update! I'm all set up on my new computer and it runs the game so beautifully I could cry, lol! This is a pretty big lot and is obviously quite a large family as well and the game did not lag once. Community lots load in less than a minute, so I'll probably be even more likely to use those now. I'm really looking forward to playing my big dorm, to see how the PC can cope with that. Not to mention school updates and weddings!
  • Athena was the Sim who rolled the ROS for a room makeover. I'd been wanting to make that room a little less office-y looking and this was the perfect excuse. I'm a bit rusty with taking pics for updates, so I forgot to take a before shot though! Here are a couple of older shots instead.
  • Anyway, Emma earned five scholarships, so she'll be off to college with Louisa and Jessica at the end of this year.
  • Laurel is a Romance Sim and she was rolling some generic and specific wants to flirt with Sims other than Emma. :\ I wasn't too attached to them as a couple though, so I'm keeping my eyes peeled to set Emma up with somebody else.
  • Oliver was such a hit with the Gottliebs. Amelia kept following him around the house trying to talk and joke with him and Emma loved him. Oliver autonomously decided to read Michael a story, which I thought was pretty sweet. The guy knows how to turn on the charm to impress a girl's family, obviously!

20 comments:

  1. Welcome back! Glad to hear your new computer is running well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's so good to have my game back again! I had some problems getting the game to run (which turned out to be all of my own making), so I was starting to worry I'd never get to play again.

      Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  2. The new computer sounds amazing, enjoy it :) Oliver did fit in with the family rather well, maybe he'll be around for a while

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heh, don't worry, I am! LOL.

      Sophie and Oliver seem quite keen on each other but Sophie isn't the type to jump into anything serious. So it'll be a while before we know if he'll be a permanent fixture in her life.

      Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  3. Yay for new computer!

    reading about the situation with Laurel was so random. I didn't think I had high hopes that it would last forever but geez, so out of left field. I'm glad she's doing as well as can be expected though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This was actually around about the time I was expecting Laurel and Emma to break up, though I wasn't sure how it would happen. I never saw them going off to college together and I was trying to think of why Emma might break up with Laurel. Then Laurel started rolling those multiple wants and took care of it for me!

      Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  4. Woohoo, new computer! So glad it's running the sims 2 beautifully for you!

    Too bad about about Emma and Laurel. It may have seemed "random" to Emma, but that's a Romance sim for you! They are so fickle. She's best to get away from that as quickly as possible, lol.

    Sophie and Oliver are cute together, but we'll see what happens when those first-love butterflies go away! It's always roses when you start out. It's good she's finding "nicer" types of guys to hook up with though. Those scruffy ones can be dangerous. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Romance Sims are definitely ones you have to watch out for! I was still a little bit surprised about Laurel though, because generally, my Romance Sims don't tend to really get going until they're about college-age. But Laurel would like to get started early, apparently.

      Sophie and Oliver have maintained that strong, strong interest (constant wants for each other) for far longer than I expected. But she's got that secondary romance, so I'm keeping a close eye on her. ;) I'm hoping they make it.

      Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  5. I'm so glad your new computer is running your sims so great! And I'm soooo jealous of you loading times, lol!

    I was sad to see Emma and Laurel break up, but if Laurel breaks up so random, Emma deserves much better! It's good she has her friends and college to distract her from it.

    I like the new look of the office, and it's nice that the grandparents are enjoining it so much :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never thought anyone would be jealous of my loading times, lol! I'm so psyched about this new PC, it's really awesome. :)

      Exactly. Emma doesn't need such a fickle person in her life, so it's almost a blessing that Laurel ended it. Emma has plenty of other things to occupy her time at the moment.

      Glad you like the office. I was going for a slightly beachy look but it had to be not too beachy, so it didn't clash with the rest of the house!

      Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  6. YAY! Sullivan is back! Whoop! WOW on the loading times! I was getting nervous you weren't going to get it to load, and I'm so glad you could! Now I need to get mine, so you can help me if I have an issue, before you forget! ;)

    I feel sad for Emma that Laurel broke up with her, I hope she finds someone better in college. I didn't' see the two girls sticking together forever, but I didn't expect it to end this update ether. With no pregnancy to worry about, I guess her parents didn't feel the need to keep an eye on them in the room!

    The new office looks great, and I can't believe that she is still working full time at her age! That is crazy! Oliver is really adorable in this family, I hope that he does stick around some, I think. Sophie is one of my favorites, I'm not sure Oliver is quite cool enough for her, but he might be! Need more time before I can form an opinion! :) Glad to have you back!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My gosh, you don't even know how nervous I was about the issues I had getting this thing started! In the back of my mind, I was thinking it had to work, because I've seen so many success stories but mainly, I was panicking, lol!

      Emma's had her first heartbreak now, which always sucks but is often for the best, because you get to move onto bigger and better things. I definitely think that will be the case for Emma. I was thinking the same thing about Emma's parents while I was playing, though Amelia and Wade are both relatively laid back about that sort of thing anyway.

      I know, Athena's like some kind of dynamo, lol! She's never rolled the want to retire - I guess she's still waiting for that one last promotion which she doesn't have the skills for!

      The Gottliebs all seem to like Oliver a lot and Sophie is definitely smitten, so he might stick around a while. Being a playable NPC though, we obviously don't know him quite as well as other Sims. So it's a good thing Sophie's not ready to settle down yet and there'll be plenty of time to get to know him before then, if he happens to be The One for her.

      Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  7. Catching up! I'm so happy that your new computer is working out!

    Poor Emma. She can do better than Laurel anyway. How nice that the visit with Oliver went so well--Sophie might have a keeper. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, there's someone better out there for Emma than Laurel. Not till uni though, as her options are a bit limited among the teen population! But uni's not so far away anyway.

      I'm glad things are going well with Sophie and Oliver though. She was with Jack for six years but for a lot of that time, Audrey was sort of hanging over them, which can't have come as a total shock to Sophie when they finally broke up. So I'm happy she has a guy who is ready to devote himself completely to her.

      Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  8. I feel bad for Emma getting dumped but Laurel was a big ol' meanie anyway. I'm sure there's another girl out there who will be right for Emma and get along with her girlfriends better.

    I'm glad Oliver fits in so well with this family. Sophie needed another good guy and he seems to be it. And that's great that he was so good with Michael (who I forgot all about LOL!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, Laurel was definitely not such a nice girl. Neither is Emma, lol, but you don't cross Emma's friends! I think Emma would have ended things not long after Laurel did anyway.

      Oliver is a good, stable guy (like Jack was), which I think is what Sophie needs. Someone she can have fun with but can bring her back down to earth when necessary as well.

      It's easy to forget about Michael! But you'll have plenty of time to get to know him better now that he'll be the only kid in the house. :)

      Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  9. I'm sure there is someone out there better for Emma than Laurel. At least she gets to start college out single and able to explore her options.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know for a fact that there are plenty of bi/gay girls at Suffolk, so Emma will definitely find that she has a lot more options once she gets to campus. Someone who will be a better match for her too.

      Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  10. oh, no, poor Emma! *hugs* Sure, she'll certainly be able to find someone better than Laurel, so disliked by Lauren, but still, they got on well, and it was so sudden. Poor girl, she must have been heartbroken!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Being dumped was definitely not a happy event for Emma but it was probably for the best. It's nice when your partner actually gets on with all your friends. I won't say any more though, and I'll just leave you to read Emma's uni update instead, when you get to it. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete