Bye Bye, Aimee!

Well, I never thought I'd say this, but there comes a point where there is such a thing as too much sleep. I had a chance to test that out this weekend, as I didn't feel like doing much else, and by Saturday night, when I was supposed to actually sleep, I found myself unable to do so. Sleeping is my favorite hobby, and I've gotten quite good at it, so it's sort of sad that there's a limit to just how much I can perfect this skill. I've got some serious heart burn going on this morning now, probably from scarfing some food right before the last time I went to bed yesterday. I was hoping multiple mugs of coffee this morning would somehow fix that, but since there's absolutely no scientific evidence to support that theory, I'm not surprised it isn't working.

If you'll think way back to this past Saturday (or just look at the most recent post, that works too), you'll recall that Amy Andrews over sprayed her garden crops and found herself looking a little green. Like plant sim green. And to add to the confusion, she spawned a plant baby named Aimee. Aimee grew up quickly (in just two post pictures, actually), and it wasn't long before she was wandering the house looking for some sort of fulfillment. She already had all her skill points maxed out, so there wasn't even any point to studying or other forms of self-improvement. Talk about a boring way to enter the world.


Amy: "I don't know…I'm assuming those leaves are machine washable!"
The biggest benefit to being a plant sim as far as I can tell is the ability to study and work long hours without having to fill the eight different regular sim needs. The big down side is the fact that if any of the three plant sim needs bottom out, that's the end of the plant sim. Like I said, Aimee couldn't benefit from the ability to build skills endlessly since they were maxed out already, and eventually decided she wanted to give being a regular sim a shot. Now, I've seen lots of plant sims in my neighborhood, but Aimee is special. First of all, she didn't have pointy ears like every other plant sim I've ever seen. Second of all, she didn't start out with brown hair like her mom, which was a little unusual.


Aimee: "Somebody seriously needs to expand their wardrobe..."
Aimee had very limited options as far as clothes to "borrow" when she became a normal sim. All she had to choose from was what Amy had put in there, and she opted to wear the pink and white shirt Amy used to more or less live in. And so, Clarence and Amy went from having no kids in the house since Aiden moved out to having a full grown adult daughter wandering around. At very least she could cook and clean like a whiz just like her parents, so she wasn't just taking up space (no offense to Aiden, but he developed very few skills while he still lived with his parents). Did I ever mention that I find the whole creation of sims by way of plant baby process very unusual? Well, if I didn't, I do…


Aimee: "This Conan O'Brien guy is kind of an idiot..."
Amy decided the plant sim thing didn't really suit her tastes either, and eventually returned to normal. There wasn't any huge rush on it, but at some point or another, Amy did think to pick up the phone to call Aiden and invite him to come over and meet his full grown adult sister he never knew he had (and, indeed, didn't have until a few days before). Aimee may have inherited all her mom's skills and traits, but she didn't inherit any of her friends or social contacts, and meeting the family seemed to be a good place to start (despite Amy technically being her only parent, the game still recognized Clarence as Aimee's father and Aiden as her brother).


Aiden: "Nah…they had me the boring old fashioned way..."
Over the course of time, the Andrews family did throw some of their less and less common parties at the house. After Clarence wound up with about 23 family friends thanks to Amy's socializing, it didn't seem like such a necessity to have people over all the time anymore. Sure, he still hadn't reached the top of the political career track for some strange reason, but they could afford to lose a friend or two with no harm done to Clarence's chance for a promotion. Aimee would have been set if she decided to get a job, with her maxed out skills and that many friends, but the idea hadn't yet appealed to her for whatever reason. The point is that Aimee did eventually get to meet some people when they came to visit the house, and was no longer a total loser...


Aimee: "According to this site, Kevin Bacon and Michael Jordan live in a stark white house together walking around in their underwear all day…"
Of the people she wound up meeting over the course of time, Aimee became friends with Katrina Wilson, who Amy just met herself not too long ago (let's see how long it is before I mix up the Amy and Aimee thing here…lol). She took the opportunity to start hanging around the Wilson house pretty regularly, where she also met Mia Kay and Antonio. Despite Aimee's high degree of skill and all, she was pretty content to do what the rest of the younger Wilsons do all day and all night - go back and forth between the hot tub and the bar out front over and over and over. It sure did beat the heck out of lounging on the couch at home all the time.


Mia Kay: "…*hic*…I've had too many…I can't even remember all of the Lucky Charms marshmallow shapes..."
Well, you might not think it just by looking at them, but Antonio Wilson and Aimee Andrews actually have something in common. Sure, he's got like zero skills and dresses like a slob, and Aimee is pretty clean cut and incredibly talented and all that good stuff, but their common bond is that both of them are usually stuck being bored at home, with little contact with the opposite sex (well, Antonio has Katrina and Mia Kay, but they're young enough to be his daughters, and they're basically related to him). Aimee and Antonio hit it off pretty well during her frequent visits, so it wasn't terribly surprising when Antonio dropped to one knee during one of her visits. No, he wasn't drunk…it was something much more special than that…


Antonio: "I know you've only been around for a few weeks, but I feel I've known you forever..."
It's possible Aimee's lack of exposure to other guys worked in Antonio's favor, but she was swept off her feet by his proposal, and next thing you know, the two were engaged. Wow…to think that these past several weeks Antonio had been looking for "the one", he hadn't found her yet simply because she hadn't yet been born. If that doesn't blow your mind, I don't know what will. He did always have something of a crush on Amy Andrews in the past, but I'm too tired to delve too deeply into the implications of waiting for someone you like but can't have to clone themselves to fulfill your romantic needs. At any rate, Aimee moved in with the Wilson family. It didn't take Amy too long to figure out where her daughter had gone off to, and despite the limited amusement factor of the house, she began to visit pretty frequently.


I think the thing people love most about Katrina is her incredible modesty...
Katrina and Mia Kay don't have jobs of any sort. Antonio had just started a career on the "business" track, whatever that is. It didn't take Aimee long to realize that the family wasn't exactly going to be rolling in dough any time soon if she didn't do something about it. It suddenly seemed a very good time to invest some of those massive skills of hers in a career. Plus, there was the added bonus of having a good excuse to get out of the house for a while (everyone seemed a little leery about going on outings after the wretched initial visit Downtown). Amy decided a career in medicine would be the way to go, since everyone knows what that is (as opposed to "business"), and everyone knows that doctors make pretty darn good money.


Aimee: "Doogie Howser's got nothing on me…"
In the long run, it was definitely the Wilson family who benefited more from having Aimee live with them than the other way around. None of the Wilsons have any cooking skills at all, meaning they'd previously been limited to cereal and sandwiches for every meal (or the occasional pizza of course). Nobody else was mechanically inclined, meaning unclogging a toilet was an all day job for most of the family. And of course, body points were few and far between too, meaning nobody could beat up any unpleasant sims who happened to stop by the house (something every good family needs to be properly prepared for). Aimee was able to take care of all of those things, plus she was the only one making any real money. Sort of makes you wonder what all the rest of the family members do in the time when they're not being shown in this blog. The answer is of course: nothing.


Katrina: "Excuse me, but there will be no making out in this hot tub as long as Mia Kay and I are here..."
Antonio did eventually decide he and Aimee should get out and celebrate their engagement, even if the actual proposal hadn't been that big an event. Now, you might be thinking that means going some place nice in the Downtown area, or even the Freetime Lounge with their modest accommodations. But no, it just meant going to "Marty's". It could be worse, I guess…they could have celebrated their engagement at "Da Tiki Hut". Oh, and the couple took Katrina and Mia Kay with them, probably because they were afraid nobody would start any trouble with the other patrons if they didn't. "Marty's" turned out to be just fine for Aimee, though, since she'd never visited any other community lot. Pretty clever, because anywhere Antonio takes her after this place will seem like a huge improvement.


Old Woman: "Excuse me, but may I have this dance?"
I've mentioned on occasion that I have made a point to include sims in my neighborhood based on my family and friends from time to time, and for some reason, they don't seem to be the most social or outgoing bunch. They also don't seem to get out very often for the most part, so I always have to make a big deal of it when they do. One family sim who's been around for a while and hasn't done much of anything is Ronald William, based on one of my brothers (with name slightly changed to protect identity, of course). Ron was at "Marty's" when the Wilson/Andrews family decided to go there for their celebration, but he didn't really do anything. He just sat in the corner drinking water and creepily watching the people out on the dance floor.


Water and shameless gawking at other patrons…it just doesn't get any better than that...
Well, all things considered, Aimee managed to assimilate herself into the Wilson family pretty well, and definitely managed to break up a little bit of the monotony the family had been experiencing beforehand (thus the lack of posts related to their recent activities). Will Antonio move forward with actual wedding plans any time soon? Will the Wilsons have problems fitting four people into the house instead of three? Will the Wilsons accidentally kill a visitor in a fit of anger? Oops…I guess that might be more of a giveaway than a question there. Well, we won't find out the answer to any of these questions in our next post, because we'll be looking in on the Wilsons, but not THESE Wilsons. See you there!