Trees

Round 35: October 2041 (Spring)

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Gray-Whitney 1 household profile

Sam Whitney is 31 and Julia Gray is 30.
(Hope is 30, Lucy is 26, Adelaide is 23 and Zac is 7.)

Narrated by Julia Gray

One weekend a little while ago, Sam told me he had finally had enough at work and he’d be handing in his two weeks’ notice on Monday.

He’d been talking about being unhappy in business for a while now - about as long as we've been together - but I didn't think he’d quit without anything else lined up. 

I can’t say I was especially thrilled about that. We do have rent and other bills to pay here. 

Sam insisted that I didn't need to worry at all and that by the time his two weeks was up, he’d have something else in the pipeline.

I was a little dubious but he actually did get himself sorted out pretty quickly.

He decided he wanted to go into politics - not run for office or anything but still do something in that arena. He knew a few people who knew the right people from his time at NKL…

…and our neighbour, Adelaide, is a campaign worker, so she gave him a few tips as well. 

Soon enough, Sam was working as a lobbyist. He’s lobbying on behalf of some groups in Sullivan who are aiming for better representation for the arts and cultural events.

Sam is an amateur musician, so he’s working on something he’s passionate about now.

He’s been telling Zac all about his new job, although Zac doesn't really get it.

Politics, to him, is just “elections” and he doesn't quite understand how much else is involved.

Sam is so much happier these days after work, which is good to see. I have to admit to still being a little annoyed about the sudden decision to quit though. It worked out well but it could have gone so much worse. 

The pay isn't as terrible as I feared. He has plenty left over for our own expenses after he pays Zac’s child support every month.

Zac spends every weekend with us and Sam really tries to make the most of their weekends. They always go out and do something, rather than staying in.

Sometimes I’ll join them but I usually just let them have some father and son time. 

They need to have time on their own and honestly, I really need time to do my own thing anyway.

Lucy lives just next door, so I often have to go over and talk wedding stuff with her. Hope ended up eloping before anything was set in stone, so I've never been through wedding planning with anyone before.

I'm supposed to put together a shower for Lucy in the next few weeks or so but other than that, I mostly just have to show up to dress fittings. 

My dress is pink, which is probably my least favourite colour ever. Lucy has promised that when I get married, she’ll wear whatever I put her in, as long as I keep quiet about the pink. 

If I'm not with Lucy, more often than not, I'm with Hope. Of late, I'm usually complaining.

Until about a month ago, I’d thought I was a shoe-in for the next principal. Then Kendal calls me into her office to inform me that they would also be considering other candidates.

I was shocked. There’s no one more senior than me at the school and it didn't occur to me for a second that they’d look externally as well. 

So I had to interview and found out recently that I was unsuccessful. Kendal was all apologetic about it, not that it made it any better.

I was furious that I’d missed out. I had really built my hopes up about it. 

Poor Hope must be sick of hearing about it. She’s listened to me complain about this for so long now.

Sam too. He has to hear it every day. I think I was misled on this whole principal thing. I thought all I had to do was the Master’s and the job would be mine. I don’t know how I’m supposed to go in next year and be happy that Finn Romilly has the job that I was supposed to get. 

I can’t stop thinking about it. Sam has been trying to console me but it’s an impossible task at the moment. 

I appreciate the effort. It’s just not doing much good.

And then Sam did something that definitely took my mind off the job - he proposed!

I had no idea that he was even thinking about marriage. Actually, I’d be wondering if I should start nagging him about it, because I was getting a little worried that it would never happen for us otherwise.

He was very careful to say that he wasn't asking me just because of the job thing. He’d been thinking about it for a while already, before any of that even happened. 

He said he’d intended to ask me on my birthday, in March next year, but after everything at work, he didn’t want to wait that long. He wanted us both to have this to look forward to.

I truly am looking forward to it too. I can’t wait to marry Sam!

My mind still wanders to my job situation but it’s nice to be able to go back and daydream about the wedding, and my future with Sam instead. 

We've already set a date, because we didn't see any reason not to. We've chosen November next year, which should give us plenty of time to announce our news to everyone and then plan the big day!

Notes:

• Title is from Trees by Pulp.
• So this will be Finn's last year at the primary school and he'll take over as principal of the high school next year, when Kendal retires. I hadn't completely decided until this session, though I was probably 95% leaning towards Finn. But looking at Finn's experience and general demeanour versus Julia's, well, he seemed like the obviously better choice. And the primary school is a little overloaded anyway, honestly! I have no need for more than three staff there. 
• I think Sam had the marriage want in Sullivan 1.0 but it took him until now to roll it in 2.0. Julia had an engagement want from pretty much the moment I got her and Sam together again and rolled a marriage want this session. So it was time, I thought. ;) That makes three weddings this round - it's feeling like Sullivan again around here!
• Business has never been a very good match for Sam and I think I've written in stuff about him being unhappy in it before, maybe even when he was still with Susannah. He fits my new Political Strategist career really well though, so he'll be working in that with Adelaide. He's a level ahead of her but given he's older and knew some of the right people, that seemed to fit. It was just the level the game put him in when he took the job. 
• Also, I just have to thank Pru at N99, who very kindly finished the Political Strategist career for me. She wrote the job descriptions and some chance cards, after I was idly whining in a thread that it was never going to get finished because I'm so damn lazy! I wasn't expecting anyone to take on the task, so she is extra awesome for doing it. :)