Anger Management

Welcome back, everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was pretty good, so I can't complain. As usual, the excitement of being off from work got the better of me, and I didn't get as much sleep as I should have, but there'll be time to sleep when I'm older…it's really amazing how someone as lazy as I am these days sleeps so little. I guess there are different kinds of lazy…hahah.

Someone asked me what had ever become of one of the sims from the earlier days of this blog, and that's a point I'd like to talk about anyway. Those of you who have read from the beginning know some of them have reappeared fairly frequently (Marty and Kitty Wilson, Leon Jackson), and then there are those who have made the transition and just haven't shown in a post yet (Matt and Branson Martin, Peter Miller). I'm always looking for ways to spice up my sims lives, and reintroducing them to some of their old friends is a great way to make that happen. That's not to say that all of the old sims will make the transition to the new neighborhood, but some of them will, and may be featured more so than others.

Speaking of sims from the old posts, today we're going to drop in on Marty and Kitty Wilson. The Wilsons were having some issues when they first came to the neighborhood. Kitty was no longer famous (fame can come and go just that quickly) and was having some trouble adjusting to living in a trailer instead of a giant party house, and Marty was so busy with his gas station career that the two never spent any time together. Kitty got lonely and hooked up with Leon Jackson and Tommy Wolf. She realized it was a mistake later, and her and Marty patched things up, but now she hates Leon Jackson and isn't a big Tommy Wolf fan either. Well, Leon isn't nuts about her either, as indicated by his frequent visits to steal the Wilsons' paper or knock over their garbage can.


Leon: "Cans? Magazines? Shame on you for not recycling!"
Kitty has put up with plenty of crap in her day from a variety of different sources, and for the most part, has dealt with it pretty well. However, it seems she decided she just couldn't abide Leon's constant harassment, and decided to take matters (and Leon's head) into her own hands. Forget that she's been knocking over his garbage and taking his paper for just as long. Now, Kitty isn't particularly built or anything, so the attack was very spur of the moment, and the outcome was very uncertain…


Mailman: "Gasp…oh, the humanity!"
Well, maybe it wasn't. Kitty has worked out a little after getting out of shape a few times, but I've never seen Leon touch any sort of body building device. So basically, he got his can kicked for knocking over the can. If I were a betting man, I'd say this won't be the end of abuse from Leon. Sure, he told Kitty she clearly wasn't to be trifled with, but since when do sims make decisions based on logic or their best interests? Well, unless he does touch a weight bench between know and the next time he messes with Kitty's can, I think we all know what's going to happen.


Kitty: "Just stay there on the curb…that's where garbage goes!"
Meanwhile, Marty was puttering around inside the trailer, unconcerned about the violent behavior his wife was exhibiting outside. As long as she's winning the fights, really, what's the big deal? Marty had much bigger things on his mind. He'd come to terms with the fact that he'd been neglecting Kitty in favor of trying to become the best gas pumper in the city, and decided that no career, no matter how glamorous, was worth sacrificing his marriage. Thus, he picked up the phone and quit his job…for he had another surprise in store for Kitty, even bigger than the sweet car he brought home in the last Wilson post…


Marty: "Why is 'Dirt Cheep Beer and Smokes' on our speed dial?"
Marty waited until Kitty was done stomping Leon and crushing what was left of his pride beneath her boot (or flip-flop rather), then informed her of the good news - they were actually going to be leaving the trailer again for a bit. The pair washed up and put on some clean clothes (which bear an uncanny resemblance to the same clothes they always wear), and prepared to head downtown. Just as they were leaving, Spruce Hartman came by and knocked over the garbage can. I can sense this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship…


Spruce: "Aerosol cans? Don't these people care about the ozone layer?"
Well, Marty and Kitty headed on downtown (not the actual Downtown area from Night Life, just the commercial area of Riverblossom Hills), and the big surprise was revealed - Marty's very own club. Ironically enough, the place is called "Marty's". Where does he come up with this stuff? We can only assume Marty invested money from when he and Kitty were living with the larger Wilson family back in the day, because he sure didn't rake in much cash when he was working his gas station job.


Kitty: "Wow! The neon flamingos alone are worth the trip!"
I know what you're thinking - I don't have the "Open for Business" expansion, so Marty can't actually profit from having a club. Well, Marty is way ahead of you there (when will you learn to keep up?). You see, one of the fringe benefits of having his own club is that he can kick the D.J. off the turntables any time he wants to rake in some easy cash. Marty's features dining, which sims pay good money for, but we'll just assume all the money from that goes to paying the employees of the establishment. Way to turn a profit, Marty! Kitty proceeded to tend the bar for a bit while Marty scratched some vinyl (see, I'm hip to the lingo).


Marty: "D.J. Marty W is in da' house!"
The opening night of Marty's caused quite a stir - which is ironic, because it's right next to the Freetime Lounge, which offers a much broader range of activities. Marty's is kind of small and cramped and badly decorated by comparison, but some folks have strange tastes (that's why people kept watching the "Ernest" movies every time they'd make a new one). Among the visiting patrons were Marty and Kitty's daughter, Katrina (with the red hair), and her best friend, Mia Kay (seen most frequently as kids in the old Wilson house). They hung around and danced for a couple of minutes, then ran outside to engage in water balloon related activities (no doubt the balloons were filled with daiquiri).


Katrina: "Nobody can sniff out the 'hip' like we can..."
Everyone was having a swingin' good time, and Marty's appeared to be an unqualified success. Kitty got tired of tending bar (maybe she wouldn't have if sims bothered to tip, but they don't) and decided to join the "crowd" out on the dance floor. That guy with the red shirt she's dancing with is Andrew Pearson, an annoying sim the game designed to make my life a joy - he doesn't seem to get along with anyone, yet he's always around. Kitty didn't seem to be having too much of a problem with him, though. No, she was just fine until she spotted the trash-can-knocking-over bastard, Spruce Hartman, crossing the dance floor.


Kitty: "Hey…I owe you one, plant man!"
Spruce ignored Kitty and walked right past the dance floor. Kitty dropped everything she was doing (which wasn't much), and pursued him over to the men's restroom. Now, I've had a lot of experience with plant sims, and one thing I know for sure is they have no need to visit the bathroom unless they're plant babies going to play in the toilet. It doesn't really matter what Spruce was planning on doing in there, though. What matters is that Kitty pounced on him before he could reach the safety of the men's room door through which females cannot pass…


Kitty: "You want in there, you've got to go through me!"
Ugh. Brutal. Well, Spruce may look like a 90lb bean pole, but Kitty failed to take one thing into account. You see, Spruce is the spawn of Iris Hartman, who was a direct descendant of Rinoa Hartman, who's on the military track (stay with me here). Rinoa's career requires lots of body points in order to advance, and plant babies inherit the skills of their parent. In other words, Rinoa is pretty buff, and passed that on to Iris, who passed it on to Spruce and all the rest of her children. If only Kitty had done a little research on plant sims before attempting to beat one to a pulp…


So much for "peaceful plant folk"...
Well, by this time, Marty had grown weary of the whole D.J. bit and was walking around glad-handing with the patrons. He noticed Kitty sitting in a heap by the bathroom door and investigated the disturbance. Marty has a little more common sense than Kitty does, so he didn't attempt to engage Spruce, he just took Kitty out on the dance floor. Nothing works off a severe butt kicking like a little dancing.


Marty: "He really kicked your butt! Good thing it's well padded!"
Kitty eventually forgot about the Spruce incident (out of sight, out of mind I guess), and resumed having a good time. More patrons continued to show up, first Leon Jackson (recent butt-kickee of Kitty) and then Leon Hartman, with roommate who he's definitely not in love with, Rinoa Hartman. Leon had an obvious crush on Kitty, and tried to put the moves on her while she was on the outs with Marty, but then just settled for hanging a painting of her in a swimsuit on his wall instead. Big surprise...Leon Hartman has a crush on everyone. Leon Jackson sat in a dark corner glaring at Leon and Kitty as they danced the Smustle together.


Leon H: "Eat your heart out, Leon Jackson!"
Rinoa wasn't doing too much dancing, she was more inclined to order one drink after another over at the bar. She should be taking a few minutes out of her busy schedule to talk to her grandson, Spruce, about his abusive behavior, but she seemed unconcerned (it's a weird relationship, at best, and Spruce probably wouldn't have listened anyway). Marty was keeping a watchful eye on the place from the comfort of one of the booths, and Rinoa wandered over and started chatting incessantly with him. Kitty came over too - it looks like maybe she hadn't forgotten the Spruce incident after all. Maybe seeing Rinoa dredged up that painful memory from half an hour ago.


Marty: "What the…am I seeing double?"
I never noticed until just now that Rinoa and Kitty are kind of "palette swaps" of one another. Same hair, same outfit in a different color. Granted, their faces are pretty different, but that wasn't enough to totally destroy the uncanny resemblance. I hope Marty goes home with the right woman. Well, just because two people look similar doesn't mean they'll like each other, and Kitty and Rinoa got along awfully. I tried to get them to interact a bit because Rinoa needs friends, but the red minus symbols were flying fast and furiously. I gave up on it and looked elsewhere to see how people were doing, and when I came back to them…


Kitty: "I don't have to like you to want to dance with you..."
Smashing, baby! Well, despite Kitty's abuse of a customer, and the fact that Marty barely worked as D.J. long enough to pay one month's rent on his trailer, opening night at Marty's was a huge success! I like the Freetime Lounge and all, but Marty's is very small and it's easy to keep track of all the patrons at all times, which is a plus for socializing. Plus, Marty's has cool flashing, spinning lights, and the FTL doesn't. Anyway, that's pretty much a wrap for now. Next time, we'll visit the Aiden Andrews family, followed by a medley of around the town oddness. See you then!