Far behind

Round 34: February 2040 (Summer)

last update/Connor's next update/Josh's next update

Connor Novak is 27 and Josh Royce-Nihill is 26. 

(Araminta is 77, Sophie and Lila are 27, Elspeth is 26 and Oliver is 24)

Narrated by Josh Royce-Nihill

Working 9-4 is definitely preferable to the pre-dawn shift I had when I was first at the newspaper. I actually have the energy to do things after work now!

I still have to envy Connor though. I wouldn’t mind working from 1 to 7. Starting late enough to sleep in but still come home early enough to go out and have some fun sounds good to me.

Connor says he could handle a pre-dawn shift with no problems and he’s probably right. He gets up at 5 every morning anyway.

Connor was promoted recently and is now in some sort of supervisory role. He doesn’t talk much about work, because there’s a lot of sensitive information he has access to. He can't give me any details.

He did tell me that it’s kind of like his field’s equivalent middle management and that he’s now Oliver Gentry’s superior.

He loves that. It really put his nose out of joint when the SCIA recruited Oliver right out of college while he had to work his way up to it.

With Lila living with Sophie and Sophie dating Oliver, Connor ends up having to see Oliver a fair bit outside of work.

They get along better now Connor doesn’t feel so threatened by Oliver at work but I don’t think they’ll be hanging out voluntarily any time soon.

I’ve hung out with Oliver a fair bit and he’s not a bad guy. Connor probably would have liked him if they’d met under different circumstances.

Connor is climbing the ladder pretty fast at the SCIA but I’m happy to linger here on the bottom rungs at the paper, at least for a while.

It’s kind of nice to be a bit invisible and not have anyone be too concerned with the job you’re doing. You’d think working in research would be a little more valued but I work in the gossip section. A lot of the journalists just make stuff up anyway.

It would be nice to get a real office though, or even a cubicle. Mine’s really just a wall.

Elspeth is much more ambitious than me. She didn’t really decide on game development until she was almost done with uni but she’s so into it now.

She’s been made the lead designer of the game she’s working on now, which is a third-person action-adventure.

Elspeth is the only woman on her team. Some of the guys weren’t keen that she was chosen to head up their team but she didn’t take long to sort them out.

Most people learn pretty quickly that Elspeth isn’t one to be messed with. She gets a little thrill when anyone tries though!

Elspeth and I spend most of our non-working hours together these days.

We’re usually here at my place, having got in the habit when things were still a bit awkward with Lila. That’s all calmed down now but we’re still here more than there.

When we were friends as kids, we tended to spend more time at my place than at hers, so I don’t know her mum as well as she knows my parents. Her mum has been complaining, so we’ve been attempting to amend that lately.

Araminta seems to like me. She’s very glad Elspeth and I are finally visiting with her a bit more often.

We really don’t have much excuse, seeing Araminta lives her in Exeter as well, not far from me or Elspeth.

As I’ve been getting to know her a bit more, I’m realising how different Elspeth is from her mother. Elspeth is so bold and Araminta is a lot more reserved.

And I love Elspeth but I’d never call her sweet, yet her mother definitely is.

Even though Connor can be such a fussy old man at times, he’s a good roommate overall.

You probably wouldn't guess it to look at us but we do share plenty of the same interests, so we don't clash over things too often.

He does completely monopolise the computer but I can usually deal with that.

Soon though, he’ll be moving out and buying a house with Lila.

They go to open houses just about every weekend, looking for something they like that’s in their budget.

They’ve found a couple of places recently, so Connor may be moving out sooner than I thought.

Which will leave me with a bit of a dilemma. I wouldn’t really mind living alone for a while but I don’t know if I can afford it.

And as well as Elspeth and I have been doing together, I’m not sure I feel ready to take that leap and set up house with her.

We’ve been friends for years but we’ve been together romantically less than two. I don’t know if we’re ready for a marriage-like situation yet.

The other night, Elspeth offered to have me move in with her and Sophie.

Once Lila moves out of their place and goes to live with Connor, they’ll struggle with the rent too and an extra person would help.

Elspeth said Sophie would be fine with it, which I’d believe. Sophie is pretty laid back and we’ve never had any problems getting along.

I’m considering it. We’d still be living together but with Sophie there too, it might be less pressure. Like living together lite.

Nothing is decided yet but hopefully, I’ll have something sorted out by the time Connor is ready to leave.

Notes:

• Title is from Far Behind by Eddie Vedder.
• I've been trying to get one update per week out since I started playing again and I kind of failed at that this time! I had a minor setback, so I had to go back to a back-up. I won't bore you with the details of it but it meant I had to recreate a few of the families I'd made (none of the ones I'd played with) and redecorate Connor and Josh's apartment. And then there was the Oscars, and then I was kind of uninspired. But I'm all caught up again now, so all is well. 
• I'm still without many lots that I need, so I'm improvising. Josh's work place is actually the library and the place where they're playing basketball is the police station. I need to find that sports park I had before! That was a handy lot! 
• I'm thinking we've probably seen the last time Oliver will ever be outpacing Connor at work. Connor is already prepared for his next promotion. Josh is too but I'm using the Stopinator on him and letting him take it easy.
• Not completely positive what I'll do with Josh post-Connor. I think he'd be happy enough living alone but I'm not a huge fan of playing sims living alone. And rent will definitely be an issue for him too. So I'm thinking about it. 
• I'm still looking around for a house for Connor and Lila too, though the many sims I have still living in my sim bin are more of a priority! They don't show up as visitors to community lots until they're actually in a house or apartment, so it's going to help me feel like the town is more alive to get that all sorted out.