Friday 20 April 2012

In the same room

Round 33: January 2038 (Summer)
last update/next update

Rose and Joanna Draper are 43, Sylvia is 12 and Levi and Will are 6.
(Adam is 83, Lake is 81, Athena is 78, Wade is 48, Simon is 13 and Alice is 12)

Narrated by Joanna Draper

I mostly enjoyed my years of teaching but now that I’m working in natural science, I feel much more at home. Teaching is much more social and being sociable has never been a strength of mine.

I can’t completely ignore other people, especially seeing Wade works there too. He's a people person, so I can hardly get away with not talking to him.

In general though, my co-workers leave me in peace, even Wade.

If I ever start to miss it, I always have the option of teaching here at university level. I’m not interested in that right now but maybe in the future.

Rose is spreading her wings a little too. She’s still in journalism but she’s also taken on her dad’s pottery shop, which originally belonged to her grandfather.

Business-wise, everything has already been done for her. Lake already had a great customer base and an excellent reputation, not to mention the store itself.

Lake employed a manager, who knows the business inside and out, so Rose only needs to go in as often as she wants to.

Rose won’t even have to worry about stock for a while, because Lake has so, so much in storage already.

She’s still practising her own skills though, because it won’t last forever. Lake taught her when she was in high school but she says she’s rusty.

She really loves that shop. When she’s done writing for a living, she wants to take an even more active role there.

She'd have more flexible hours running the shop, assuming she kept the manager on staff. Who wouldn't want that?

Rose has been trying to get the kids interested in pottery, in the hope one of them will want to take the shop over from her one day but they’re all incredibly bored by the mere idea of it.

Will and Levi are still only young but I just don’t think we have particularly artistic children.

Well, Sylvia is but not in any way that would help with pottery. She’s more into literature.

She’s always loved to read but she’s also starting to write now. She’s writing her own play at the moment, so she’s quite ambitious.

Rose and I figured she’d definitely do something with writing when she’s older but Sylvia surprised us. Over dinner the other night, she told us all that she wants to be an actor.

Levi then claimed he wanted to be an actor too but I think we’ll wait a while before we take him too seriously about that. He just likes to follow whatever his big sister does.

Sylvia seems to be over the teasing phase she went through when the boys were little and now, Will and Levi just idolise her.

Sylvia has always been quite serious. Somehow, she found Alice, who is probably the only girl at school who is equally so.

Alice is not really a theatre kid but she indulges Sylvia. They’re always acting out scenes from books and plays together.

Sylvia tends to get frustrated with Alice's supposed poor acting skills but it's not like either of them have ever had much experience with it.

Sylvia is looking to change that soon and did her first “real” performance over the summer. A local coffee shop held an open mic event for under 18s and Sylvia couldn’t wait to enter.

She performed a soliloquy from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was probably a little heavy-going from some of the audience but her performance was excellent.

Mum and Dad missed Sylvia’s debut but Dad congratulated her on what he was sure was an amazing performance.

They were both very keen to hear all about how Sylvia thought it went. She was more than willing to fill them in.

They want to come and see her perform next time. Sylvia’s dying for a bigger audience, so she’s thrilled about that.

I haven’t kept up with news at the high school since I left but I hope they do a school play this year. Sylvia would love it.

Maybe it would stop the nagging about finding her an agent. She keeps asking me and Rose and it is just so not happening.

I’m really uncomfortable with that. If she wants to do school plays, then I will fully support that but I’m not going to have her rushing out to audition for commercials or anything like that. It’s still the summer now but school goes back in a couple of weeks and Sylvia needs to keep her mind on that.

Already, I can see her starting to get distracted by boys and she doesn’t need to be distracted by acting on top of that.

Especially if the boys she’s interested in are as allergic to studying as Simon Lane. I never taught him but I'm friends with his mother, so I'm more than familiar with his attitude towards anything other than music.

Sylvia hasn’t asked us anything about dating yet, so I don’t think she’s really ready for that sort of thing anyway. I’m still really hoping she’s lost interest in Simon by the time she is!


Notes:
  • Title is from In The Same Room by Jimmy Eat World.
  • The longer Joanna works in natural science, the more I think it suits her personality. I can definitely see her as a very inquisitive type, so all the experimenting and researching involved in her job would fit her to a tee. That's on top of that fact that she's a bit anti-social, so being left alone in a lab/office wouldn't bother her in the slightest.
  • I kind of forgot I hadn't already given the pottery shop to Rose but it was time. Lake is 81, so he should be able to laze around the house all day if he wants to. He pretty much did anyway, but now he can do it guilt-free.
  • Sylvia hasn't rolled any specific romantic wants yet - just a couple of generic "Flirt" wants. She did heartfart over Simon though and they have two bolts. They're already best friends from childhood, so we'll see what happens with them.

22 comments:

  1. Acting, huh? Hopefully she will reconsider playwriting or screen plays. Maybe she'll be on broadway or something in the future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think Sylvia will probably want to do both acting and writing. I can't see her wanting to give up her writing. We'll see how successful she is at either as she gets older.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  2. Wow! That's a lot of pottery stocked back; Lake must have been busy.

    Sylvia and theatre... somehow, it fits! I can't wait to see what she ends up doing as she gets older. I have a feeling her parents may not like it. ;)

    Ha at Simon Lane being "allergic to studying"... I will also be interested to see if anything develops between them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, Lake doesn't have a whole lot to do at home, apart from tend to his vegetable patch. He gets a lot of pottery done!

      Rose will be happy with whatever Sylvia wants to do, as long as she goes to college (which she does want to do). Joanna would want her do something a little more academic. If Sylvia completely changed tack and decided she wanted to be a scientist or an architect, Joanna would be thrilled.

      I'm kind of excited to play Simon this round and see what he's up to. I haven't even played him as a teen yet, but I seem to be developing quite the picture of what he's like from the cameos he's making in other families' updates. We'll see what happens with him and Sylvia, if anything at all.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  3. I love Sylvia, she's such a teenager. I like that she wants an agent but I really get why her parents won't let her, LOL. :)

    And the career path seems to suit Joanna to a T.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Having such huge goals definitely seems to be an early teens thing. Joanna will make sure she keeps her feet on the ground. ;)

      The other thing I like about Joanna's new career is that it seems like a natural progression to me, to go from teaching to science. And I apparently even had the foresight to have her major in biology. I wonder if I was always planning on this career change for her and just forgot!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  4. It was ages ago that there was talk of Rose taking over the business, I hope it goes well for her if/when she decides to do it full time. Sylvia is super fun! Her and Alice were made for each other, and are adorable with their books. I definitely don't see the twins gaining interest in pottery but I imagine they'll settle down from their wild, cops and robbers way at some point.

    Sylvia is too young for boys! Hope she does her studying and waits a few years. I think they should let her do commercials. Thatd be fun to see and good money for her college education. And I agree that natural science fits joanna better for sure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, I think I even mentioned the store a couple of times but I never actually did the transfer! It's all taken care of now and it should be really easy for Rose to take over, even if she goes full-time. She's got a gold badge in pottery and she shouldn't take too long to earn a gold sales badge either.

      Sylvia is great fun, though the flirt wants coming up so early were a surprise! I haven't had a kid like that in a while. She's too young for boys but she hasn't rolled any specific wants, so I think she might know that too. ;) She's keen on the agent thing though but she'll have to try to twist Rose's arm on that. She has no chance of changing Joanna's mind!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  5. It's nice that the job switching turned out so well for Joanna! She seems very happy in her new job!

    I was really looking forward to seeing Sylvia and Alice as teens, and they (you) haven't disappointed me! I love Sylvia and I love reading about her! She's fun to watch as well :) And her and Alice will do some great stuff together :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, she is. I think Joanna switched careers at just the right time. For herself anyway. It's making things a bit inconvenient for me, in terms of finding a new principal!

      I really love playing teens, so I was looking forward to Sylvia and Alice as well. It's fun when they start dating but I think the "pre-teen" phase, when they're developing their personalities and strengthening their friendships is a ton of fun as well.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  6. So she wants to be an actress? I can see that, but I wonder if she'll still want to do that when she reaches college age. How many of your teens roll the "fall in love" and :go steady" wants as soon as they age to teens? About 50% of mine do. lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sylvia has rolled "Become Icon" as her LTW, so she's pretty set on it, I think. But we'll see. It wouldn't be the first time I decided to ignore an LTW based on various things in game.

      My teens actually don't tend to roll those wants very often at all! My Family Sims usually will roll "Go Steady" pretty reliably but the others don't bother unless they're already in love with someone and want to make it official. And sometimes not even then!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  7. She wants an agent? That Sylvia is something else. She seems to still have a good head on her shoulders though.Joanna never thought that Sylvia would be a good influence on Simon, if they went that route? Stranger things have happened.
    I'd been shaking my head ever since Joanna became a teacher because I thought she wasn't very suited for the job, but this is definitely up her alley.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think Sylvia's been doing her own research, to know about agents and things like that at 12. She's a pretty smart kid. As for Sylvia being a good influence on Simon, I can certainly see that happening but right now, Joanna is envisioning her worst-case scenario, which would be Sylvia going all starry-eyed over some boy to the exclusion of all else. When Sylvia actually starts dating and that doesn't happen (I'm assuming it won't, because Sylvia doesn't seem like the type, but we'll see), Joanna will relax a little about it.

      I think, initially, I might have just needed a teacher and Joanna was the most suited candidate at the time. Either that, or I was avoiding the Natural Science career because of that stupid outfit they wear (or don't wear) when they get to the top level. I use a career replacement that gets rid of that now though, so I haven't thought about that in forever! But science suits Joanna much more than teaching does.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
    2. So... WCIF this career replacement?

      Delete
    3. Prudencepureheart at N99 made it (along with replacements for several other Maxis careers). As far as I know, she sends it out to anyone who asks but she only distributes it by e-mail. She likes to know exactly who's got it, so she can send updated versions of it when she needs to. :)

      Delete
  8. That's great that Rose loves the pottery shop and doesn't mind taking it over. And yea, who wouldn't want flexible hours and being their own boss? I probably asked this ages ago, but are those vases from the pottery wheel thing or are they cc? I haven't had a sim get more than a bronze in pottery making yet so I haven't seen everything they can make. I'm so glad Joanna found her fit in natural science. It does fit with her personality better than a teacher.

    I already mentioned how I thought it's great that Sylvia is so into acting. Oh, I hope you do a school play. I would love to do one but it's going to be a while for me. With all your sims, it'll look awesome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Setting your own hours seems like a fairly appealing thing in a job, especially when there's no one telling you how many you need to do at a minimum! I think Rose will really enjoy it when she gives up journalism. As for the vases, some are from the pottery wheel but a lot are CC.

      A school play is something I've been tossing around in my head for a long, long time. I'd really like to do one and Sylvia would love it, but I haven't yet decided what I'd do.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  9. Uh oh...Sylvia messing around with that Lane boy, LOL. If I remember correctly, he has a lot in common with his uncle, so I can understand Joanna's worry. :)

    I am loving Sylvia's dramatic personality--it seems like such a contrast to Joanna. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heh, Simon has a few similarities with Luc! He's very into music and I suspect he might be just as fond of girls as well. ;) But he also has a Family secondary, so he might not be quite as reluctant to settle down. At 13 though, that won't mean much!

      I think Sylvia will be fun to play and write about. I already have so much planned for the Lane update but I'm going to have to sneak some Sylvia in there too, if I can.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  10. Joanna seems to be in the right career now. I'm glad she enjoys her new job so much. It's great that Rose has taken over the pottery shop, it's about time for Lake to start taking it easy!

    I can see why Joanna is a little apprehensive about getting an agent for a 12-year-old. Sylvia seems to have her future planned already. I think it's great how some kids now at 12 what they want to do with their lives. Heck, I'm 34 and I still don't know what I want to do, lol!

    I have a small WCIF. Do you remember where you got Sylvia's pants?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanna and Rose are both quite fulfilled in their careers right now, which is always a good position to be in.

      Yeah, I don't think Sylvia's going to be doing any paid acting before she's 18 and on her own. It'll give her some time to think about whether it's really what she wants to do, though she seems quite secure in her choice at the moment.

      Sylvia's pants are actually part of a whole outfit. I don't remember where I got it, but I'll check if there's any info in game. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete