The Show Goes On

Greetings, folks! Good to have you back (or here for the first time, either way). You know, you never really appreciate what you've got till it's gone. No, I'm not referring to yesterday's post, I'm talking about the ability to turn your head to look at stuff without rotating your entire body. I think I slept wrong last night or something, because my shoulders and neck are so stiff and sore for the first time in months that I literally have to turn my entire body to look around. I feel like a friggin' robot…a really stupid looking one. And of course yesterday was the first day I didn't exercise in weeks, so I'm convinced that's the reason why everything is out of whack, which is…stupid…

I was skimming over the oldest of the old posts on this blog up through the most recent the other day, and I realized something - during the original TS1 posts, none of the sims besides Steve Jackson ever died, and even he came back right away afterward (one could argue that Stu died in the "Curse of Bozo" posts, but that was all imaginary, remember?). Now, in TS2, it seems like sims kick the bucket almost on a daily basis, but most of them just get right back up and dust themselves off after someone pleads for them. Fear of losing a sim is minimal, and the loss of Jack Daniels was sort of a big surprise for me. Suddenly, everyone seemed to be a candidate for permanent demise. Sucky. Well, a week or so has passed since Jack died, and the family seemed to be dealing with things pretty well...


Regina: "It's okay. I have those two weirdoes living with me still…"
Yes, Regina may have lost Jack, but she was by no means alone, thanks to having allowed Debbie Kearney and Austyn Strange to live as guests in her house. They may be a couple of oddballs, but in hard times, even odd company is better than no company. Also, her old friend Amy Andrews started spending a lot of time at the house, which she hadn't done much recently with all the stuff going on with her and Clarence (I know we haven't covered any of it lately, but it's been happening). Despite her initial bad luck since breaking up with Leon, Debbie eventually found a guy in the form of Alex Kent. She and Alex loved to talk on the phone for hours on end about this and that…thank goodness there's no real phone bill in TS2.


Debbie: "That Katrina Wilson is one hot babe!"
It's kind of odd to call up a guy you're interested in and then gush about someone else like that, but that's the new Debbie for you - just kind of odd. It's also odd that she's wearing Regina's old "hoochie shirt", but you may have noticed in the first picture that Regina wasn't wearing it any longer. After Jack's passing, it just seemed somewhat improper to be "showing off the goods" like that, though Debbie didn't have any reservations. Of all the people in the Daniels house, the only one who didn't seem to be coping with things very well was Austyn. Regina was busy hanging out with Amy a lot of the time, and Debbie was constantly chatting with Alex, leaving Austyn stuck with the TV and the Martha Steward show. Oh, and don't forget Conan O'Brien. Never forget about him.


Austyn: "When are you going to do something about that hair, Conan?"
As much fun as it can be to gab on the phone with someone for hours (or so I've been told, I actually hate talking on the phone), and despite the fact that phone conversations in TS2 are one of the safest ways to build relationship points, Debbie wanted more - like actually having Alex come visit the house now and then. There wasn't much to do at the Kent house, so Alex was fine with that, although I'm not quite sure he really got the point of the visits. He'd usually show up, be greeted by Debbie, eat something, then vanish for the rest of the visit, while Debbie waited inside for him to come hang out with her. One of his favorite haunts was the chess board outside. Wow, what a party animal.


Debbie: "My, Alex, what huge logic skills you have!"
Debbie herself had no interest in the chess board, so Alex just played by himself. With the hot tub only about ten feet from the chess board, though, it was only small matter for Debbie to change into her bathing suit and lure Alex to take a break and hop on in (resulting in the disturbing realization that Alex is one of those Speedo wearing sims everyone is so afraid of). The dip in the hot tub allowed Alex and Debbie some time to solidify their relationship a bit more than they'd been able to over the phone, and it wasn't long before the little hearts were floating over their heads. During all this, Debbie's pal, Gia, had invited herself over, and decided to hang out in the living room and watch TV. Debbie went in to take a shower, and when she got out, Alex wandered in and planted a big smooch on her. Gia didn't seem to pleased by that…I don't think…


Gia fulfills her +1000 point "stop being best friends with Debbie" aspiration...
Well, I've been playing TS2 for a while now, and I'd somehow gotten the idea that no matter how good a sim's relationship with another sim, they'd never initiate a romantic interaction without player approval. Recently, though, I've had sims putting the moves on each other without warning and falling in and out of love without my permission, resulting in a lot of sims furious with each other. While the whole Debbie and Gia thing was an accident to begin with, Gia had definitely gotten the wrong idea about their "relationship", and had been constantly attempting romantic interactions with Debbie every time they were in the same room. The realization that Debbie was interested in Alex came as something of a shock, and Gia let her hand do the talking…


Debbie: "Will you move? I'm trying to see that creepy guy behind you!"
Well, it looks like Gia won't be jumping into Debbie's arms while she's in the bathroom any time in the near future. I didn't see much of a future there anyway to be honest. Debbie didn't seem to overly concerned either, to be honest - she's got plenty of other friends besides Gia - who needs those Sim Dump folks anyway? Debbie had Austyn to pal around with still, and while she'd been having it out with Gia, Austyn had been dreaming up his latest exciting night on the town. There's been a lot of activity at the Silent Grove Cemetery since Jack had it constructed, but most of it revolved around barbecuing or water balloons or folks playing "red hands" with each other. Austyn had something completely different in mind…


Debbie: "So, you want to wait around and see if we spot any ghosts?"
To be honest, I'm not really sure how the whole ghost thing works. I know for starters that a ghost buried at his own house doesn't come out every night. I've had houses where a sim died and I NEVER saw them in ghost form (I took these pictures quite some time ago, and Jack has yet to show up as a ghost). I've only seen ghosts at my community lot cemetery once, and that was right after Jack "interred them" there. Since that time, I've never seen a ghost at the community cemetery, and it got me wondering if it's just really rare that they show up, or if they'd ever come out at all on a community lot. All I do know is that Austyn and Debbie didn't have any luck with the ghost thing.


Austyn: "No ghosts yet…but I found a vampire!"
Yeah, the Monkeesims neighborhood has had it's share of fatalities since it transitioned over to TS2 - the cemetery was pretty full, and in addition to there being vampires buried there, there was at least one werewolf (you know, old man Felmer). The only thing that wasn't buried there yet was a plant sim or social bunny (and believe me, I tried to "off" the social bunny a time or two). Anyway, Debbie got tired of looking for the ghosts that seemed to be taking the night off, and decided to socialize a little bit instead. She spotted Mia Kay Wilson, who was hanging out by herself. Don't ask me what she was doing alone at the cemetery after midnight - maybe feeling a little guilty about the death of Lawrence Madrox finally.


Mia Kay: "Well, we used to have genie lamps back in the old days!"
Debbie and Mia Kay had a nice long chat, after which Debbie had to fan herself because of the little puff of hearts over her head with Mia Kay's face in the middle of it. Poor Alex Kent has a long road ahead of him, with Debbie behaving like the biggest hoochie in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Austyn got bored of looking at tombstones by himself, and decided to eat some hot dogs. He sat down with Willow Hartman, who he probably mistook for the Grinch (and we all know Austyn has a thing for the Grinch). Willow didn't seem concerned about the fact that there was no sun out…or the fact that plant sims don't need food. He sat around with Austyn and chatted for what seemed an eternity…


Austyn: "That's no ghost…it's just a white dog..."
Well, guess what…the gang never did see any ghosts. It doesn't matter, though. What matters is that the Daniels house gang seemed to be getting along okay without Jack, and things were starting to return to "normal". A little boring, perhaps, but normal just the same. At any rate, now that we've seen a little of Debbie's life after breaking up with Leon Jackson, perhaps it's time to see how Leon is doing with his new lady love. Then brace yourself as we prepare to enter a series of posts showcasing some of our friendly neighborhood sims as they try their hands at a little business ownership. Don't worry…it's not as boring as it sounds! :-)