#sim: tierney estrada

[simstryingtheirbestok]

These are only a few back-at-the-ranch shots from before the girls left for university.

Carlos went back to the coffeeshop and, this time, had a successful audition! His gig there won't happen until Tierney and Taslin get back, and meanwhile his promotion in the Singer track removed his Carlos Midnight suit. 😢

This is about the third? fourth? time the game has gotten rid of it (I like to think it's protesting my terrible taste), so I'm through fighting it. We'll always have the dark-purple memories.

In other Carlos news, I think I may want to swap out his weightlifting bench for a treadmill because.

I know some folks appreciate that super-buff look, but I'm not really enjoying it, personally. I liked toned-but-slightly-weedy Carlos better than mega-beefy Carlos.

They gathered for a nice family breakfast the morning the twins left. I like how Carlos and Undine are talking about their respective passions to their daughters who do not share them at all. Taslin's aptitude test steered her towards Communications, while Tierney was, as predicted, a perfect fit for Science & Medicine.

Also no more babies, Undine. Actually, from her facial expression here, I think that might be just what she's telling Carlos.

"But Undine, don't you miss hearing the melodic cries of tiny--"

"NO."

Breakfast also revealed that the hidden Velma trait has successfully been passed down to the current generation.

The day before they left for University, Tierney was asked out on a date by this guy, Emmit Preston. It seemed to be going well, in a friendly, casual sort of way,

but you can always trust townies to ruin it, and ruin it he did.

Tierney's love of the earth does not extend to eating bugs.

I had her accept that date because her high school crush hasn't reached out to her at all. Taslin fared better--Ahmed remembered her and was happy to take her out to lunch at the bistro. Afterwards, Taslin... behaved in a manner most unbecoming to an alumnus of Smuggsworth Prep.

I mean.

Undine has avoided sculpting in favor of painting, but I have to wonder what issues she's working through with this one.

She's been married forever? She and Carlos are Eternally Faithful? WTF? Is she processing latent abandonment issues related to her father?--because then it's kind of disturbing?!

[simstryingtheirbestok]

How is this game still surprising me after all these years?

I would have sworn, before this, that either she or Carlos had Fireproof Homestead, but apparently not?

It started after Undine got home from dinner at the bistro, when she automously chose to sculpt with metal.

The twins were out at the Summer Festival.

Carlos was out earning the scorn of his neighbors, i.e. delivering Sing-a-Grams in the guise of Carlos Midnight.

(You can tell he's become inured to this sort of reaction, and I love that for him.)

There was no one at home to put Undine out, and the family owns neither a swimming pool nor a hot tub.

Desperate, I tried the sprinklers at the gardening station.

They didn't help at all.

Supposedly, you can direct Sims to take a shower to put themselves out--but y'all, it's been so long, I mean so so so so long, since I had a Sim on fire, that I made the mistake of clicking on one of the bathtub-only tubs instead. That gave me no options besides nraas.

With the clock running out, I canceled Carlos' next SAG engagement and sent him home to extinguish his bride. He was closer to the house than the twins were--if you play in Hidden Springs with Seasons installed, then you know that the Summer Festival is held at the Beryl Forest park, way way WAY across town from where most of the community lots are.

He didn't make it in time.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

"--so, naturally, I assumed you were going too!"

Seeing that Taslin was getting heated, I decided not to bring up what happens when you assume things.

"I mean," Taslin went on, "you have to do something, right? You can't just live with Mom and Dad for the rest of--"

I cut her off.

"I would never impose on Mom and Dad like that. No way! I just don't see what university has to do with that?"

I didn't understand Taslin's reasoning at all.

"Maybe," I asked her, "you could tell me why you're so eager to go? Like maybe if I could understand what you--"

Taslin actually rolled her eyes as she interrupted me.

"I went to Smuggsworth Prep, Tierney. Key word there, 'prep.' Well?--what do you think we were all there prepping for?"

She threw up her hands.

"Of course I want to continue my education! What I can't understand is why you don't!"

"But I do!" I said. "I just hadn't planned on doing it so... so formally, you know? I don't exactly thrive in traditional structures, Taz."

"University is what you make of it," Taslin said. "It's as rigorous or as flexible as you want it to be. It's only a grind if you make it one."

I considered that.

"Okay," I said, "but even so, I'd have to do something there. What would I do? I don't think I'm cut out for the keg party circuit."

"I don't want you on the keg party circuit," Taslin said crisply. "I don't need the competition."

"Competition?! Please! I promise you, Taz, you can have all the frat guys you want," I said disgustedly. "I have no intentions of competing with you for any of them."

"Then you'll go?!" she asked me excitedly.

I frowned.

"I didn't say that, Taz," I said gently. "But... maybe I'll think about it. I just--I mean, again, I don't know what I'd actually do there..?"

"I've already thought of that," said Taslin. "I think a degree in Science and Medicine would be perfect for you."

"Science?" I had to laugh. "Oh, Taz. No. Do you know how little math they taught us at the School of Peace and Love? Science and Medicine?! I would flunk out immediately!

"Besides," I added, "I don't want to be a physicist... and although I'm interested in traditional indigenous and folk healing practices, I don't think I want to be a doctor, either."

"But your logic skill is good," Taslin countered, "and you don't have to be a physicist or a doctor. There's more to science than that. Look! Are you really going to stand there and tell me, Nature Girl, that the life sciences hold zero appeal for you? All the gardening, all the fishing, all the genetic research--"

"I am super hardline against GMOs," I reminded her. "But do they have--are they doing any work with hydroponics, do you know? Sustainability? Model ecosystems?"

"Don't know. I'm probably going for a Business degree," my sister said. "Or a Mrs., if I can get out that way sooner! But we can take a look at the course catalog and find out."

I thought of something.

"Taz? Is it that--like, do you want me to go with you to school?"

Taslin blinked rapidly several times before she replied.

"You're so dense sometimes, Tierney," she said finally. "Why do you think I've ruined a nice day at the pool to get on your ass about this?"

"Oh!" I said, pleased that I'd figured it out. "You should have just said so, then. All you had to do was ask! But when you assume--"

"Don't," said my sister.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

The days flew by and etc.

The girls concentrated on their studies, but Tierney still found time to waste by completing a dating profile.

And what a waste it was!

I'm like 90% sure "Robert" is in fact their maid.

"Jermey." Your name is literally JERMEY. It's a no.

Maybe with a wig and a paper bag over your head, Justin. But to be perfectly brutal about it, probably not even then.

At last, it was time for them to take their final exams.

And then it was time for report cards.

An "A" for each of them. And now they each have only 12 more credits! And it only took me eight tries to get them home!

(yes, eight!)

(madness!)

[simstryingtheirbestok]

Periodically, all the rest of that day after the ceremony was over, either Taslin or I would turn to the other and say, "I can't believe it!"

"I don't know why I can't believe it," I added wryly. "We sure as heck put in the work."

"God, I know, right?" Taslin yawned.

"Maybe it's because--aren't we the first in our family to go to college, Taz?"

"Not exactly," my sister said. "Dad has his degree. Fine Arts."

"Oh, that's right."

"But other than Dad, I think we probably are?"

"That's what I was thinking," I said. "I know Mom said Grandma didn't go. And Grandma was a best-selling author, so that's probably why Mom didn't see any need to go."

"That, and I think she wanted to make a name for herself in the art world as soon as possible," agreed Taslin. "I'm glad I don't have that kind of pressure hanging over my head!"

"No," I said slyly, "you have an entirely different kind of pressure hanging over your head."

My sister laughed.

"I really did forget, you know," she said. "I completely forgot I'd asked Ahmed to go steady. We weren't running into each other that often while we were back home, and then Skip just kind of swept in and--"

I took a deep breath.

"Taz, there's something I have to tell you about Skip."

She cocked one eyebrow at me, but didn't say anything. I took that as a sign to go ahead.

"He's, uh... he's written me a couple of love letters," I said, embarrassed. If I weren't so green, I'd have turned scarlet.

Taslin sighed. She was quiet for a moment, obviously considering what to say.

"Awkward for you, I'll bet," she said finally. "Ugh! I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what? You didn't do anything!"

"Just, sorry in general. Sorry I brought him around so much. Sorry he put you in that position."

"Sure, but you didn't put me in any position, unless you were ghostwriting the letters for him," I pointed out.

Taslin sighed again.

"I guess... I guess I'm only really surprised that he'd be so dumb as to think you wouldn't tell me. What a dipshit!"

"No kidding," I agreed.

"But that he'd have trouble being faithful... I'm not really too surprised by that. People did try to warn me. And he was sometimes a little too cagey about where he'd been, why he hadn't called--"

"So there were signs."

"Oh, tons," Taslin said, almost cheerfully. "Especially now that I think about it. Hindsight's 20/20, right? Yeah. There were definitely signs. But who wants to look at those when you're in love? Well," she amended, "maybe not love. Lots and lots of lust, though!"

We both giggled at that.

"You didn't ask for my advice--" I began.

"Indeed I did not."

"But I don't think you should tell Ahmed. Don't do the big dramatic 'confess to cheating' thing. Just chalk it up to a college fling and forget about it."

"I don't like unsolicited advice, Tierney," my sister began reprovingly, "but... I think you're probably right. It will only hurt him, and for what? For Skip? Who's Skip?"

"Chip? I have no idea who you're talking about," I said.

"But I'm telling you, I don't know anyone named Pip!" Taz said, in such a believable tone of outrage that I could only crack up.

That made Taslin crack up.

"I've got it," she said once she had her breath back. "I'm going to change his name in my phone to Dip. Mr. Dip Shit."

"Nooooo!" I howled, laughing again.

"Yes!" she said triumphantly. "That way, if he calls, I'll know not to answer. And if Ahmed happens to see it, I can tell him it's just some loser who was hopelessly obsessed with me at school. A loser whose real name I have long since forgotten."

"Then why would he be in your phone at all?"

"We had to work on a project together. The professor wouldn't let us pick our partners."

"Perfect," I said admiringly.

"Thank you," Taslin said. "I do have a degree in Communications, you know."

"I can believe it."

[simstryingtheirbestok]

Skip Taylor spent the night--a couple of nights, actually. He made himself right at home which, for Skip, seems to require wearing as few clothes as possible.

I made a mistake with poor Taslin: She has, uh, 2 boyfriends. I forgot that she and Ahmed Birch, her high school sweetheart, were already exclusive, and then she and Skip--well, she'll have to pick one of them.

It probably won't actually be Skip. I am not totally sure why, but he annoys me. His staying over two nights when he was only invited for one is probably part of it.

This is the other part of it:

You know, Skip, now that you mention it, Tierney has been complaining of a pain in her ass recently, so, see?--She does feel something for you!

[simstryingtheirbestok]

Saturday!

Since his birthday yesterday, Carlos has spawned exactly one (1) midlife crisis wish, and it was...

...to plan a new outfit.

Look, I'm glad he doesn't want to divorce Undine or anything horrible, but I've gone from thinking he might need therapy to get through this, to thinking he might not actually know what a midlife crisis is. For mine I bought a bright-red hatchback (I couldn't afford a sports car; also, you know, the environment), quit my pleasant little job that I wasn't even mad at, moved 2000 miles away, went back to school, stopped drinking, and bleached my hair.

Meanwhile, Carlos... Carlos wanted a new outfit?

Okay, buddy, I got you. Hope you like Diesel!!!

Carlos Midnight keeps trucking along, performing for tips and whatnot. He has also sold a couple of albums, and this small assemblage below actually represents a larger audience than he had at his first official gig. He's doing okay!

Undine has gotten super into painting.

I like this, because she doesn't get soaked/set on fire/felled by heatstroke--all hazards that were associated with her working at the sculpting station. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have tailored this house more to her needs, not Tierney's, and built it large enough for Undine to have an art studio again. Mistakes were made.

Tierney continues to annoy me with her budding romance that I plan to nip in the bud tomorrow, when she returns to school.

"Dear Tierney, I can tell that you are a very special person by the way that you are rich as fuck."

Oh correction, Nicholas: Carlos and Undine are rich as fuck. 😈 Wouldn't it be just like an Earth goddess to scorn cold hard cash for being empty, unfulfilling, and (crucially) not organic?

But all right. You two can have your little Summer Nights romance in the few hours remaining to you.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

I'm throwing in the towel on the tiny house compound? village? experiment I whipped up in the planetary legacy for Generation Earth. It's too exhausting and I'm not enjoying it.

But we may as well have what few pics there are of it. I'm posting them with as little text/description as possible, because I'm that tired. I am a good content provider.

Berthe and Tierney chatting in the rain.

Brian Clavelly and his son, Greg.

I should say, Brian's mystery son Greg, because the mother is unknown/nonexistent, and I can no longer remember why I thought it'd be cute to make a single dad out of Basic Brian. But here we are.

Greg Clavelly and Bear Nivens playing with blocks.

Tierney and Willow Nivens, reading in the library above the communal kitchen.

Berthe performing magical upgrades on everyone's sprinklers.

Brian Clavelly and Nicholas Riverhawk.

I don't recall why I put both these guys in the journalism career. Especially I don't know what Nicholas is doing there, when he'd probably be better suited to science, like Tierney.

Bear Nivens and Greg Clavelly.

Tierney over at Nicholas's house, watching TV with him.

They're best friends, but Tierney is wholly apathetic about the possibility of their being more than that to each other.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

[simstryingtheirbestok]

Presenting: The first University graduates of this legacy!

Straight-As for each of them--Taslin in Communications, Tierney in Science & Medicine. Taslin chose Bookworm for her graduation trait and Tierney picked up Vegetarian.

Congratulations, ladies! Now to see if we can get you home.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

TV...

...or not TV,

that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep No more; and by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks

--that either one of the ladies or the Bonehilda will doubtless suffer if I let them try to repair this, so let's just go ahead and call the damned repairman. I know both Taslin and Tierney have exactly zero handiness skill points, and odds are good Liz doesn't have any, either.

Why'd it have to happen the night before final exams, though.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

Senioritis struck campus in a big way. My roommate Liz quit attending class altogether. Everywhere you looked, people were playing kicky bag or gaming on their laptops on the lawn. The library was all but deserted.

They say the last term is the worst term. Your motivation is flagging by then, and you just want it all to be over.

I didn't feel quite that way about it; I wouldn't say it was the worst, exactly. Taslin had picked a good major for me. I enjoyed Science and Medicine. I had a lot of fun with the work.

But I was not completely immune to senioritis. I too found myself getting a little bored and a little impatient, running all the same experiments, reviewing all the same anatomy, researching all the same samples.

So maybe, that afternoon when I reached for some fruit in my bag, and found what I thought was a pomegranate... maybe that's why I ignored the little warning voice in the back of my head that said, I don't think that's a pomegranate.

You know, I don't hate the outcome? In fact, I think this might be my best experiment yet.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

The girls now have a roommate and a Bonehilda. The roommate may have been a mistake.

The Bonehilda, of course, is never a mistake. This one's a bookworm!

She is also something of a prankster.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

The ladies are back to school at last. Bring on the kicky bag, the horticultural experiments, and the ink-blot tests!

One of the things I love about TS3 is the destination worlds, the way your Sims can take a break from their same-old, same-old. Yes, I know other iterations also have at least some version of that, but I think TS3 did it best.

And I say that as a Simmer who is highly unlikely to succeed in getting my Sims back home once the University term is over.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

I was going to send Taslin and Tierney back to school Friday, but then I got the notification that both Carlos and Undine would be having their Adult birthdays. And having handled David's and Ruby's so poorly, I kind of wanted to make up for it with Carlos and Undine by throwing them a party.

Naturally, Carlos aged into a midlife crisis. I'm blaming the Brooding trait and all the terrible Sing-a-Gram outfits for that.

Undine skipped the midlife crisis. I would hope so! She's had a great life doing literally whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted to. She rocketed to the top of her career; seven guys competed for her affections; and she's already cheated Death once. How could she ever top all that? Really, what's a change of hairdo or a new car going to add at this point?

Still, you never know with this game. I'm just glad she's happy.

As for the young women, Taslin mingled happily with everyone. I'm not sure Tierney even knew it was her parents' birthdays.

Figures. It's always when I have other plans for my Sims and don't want to get a Cassidy that I wind up rolling a Cassidy.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

Fittingly, Tierney has taken over what remains of the garden.

Still, I'm running out of things for her and Taslin to do at home, so I think they'll be returning to university pretty soon.

An interesting thing happened at Carlos' coffeehouse show: Tierney met and developed an immediate crush on Nicholas Riverhawk. Moreover, it seemed to be mutual. (See arrows in red below.)

Tierney has seemed largely indifferent to people in general, so this was very unexpected. She likes her family, she loves her plants, she seems to enjoy school, but otherwise, 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Of course, I had to look him up and--no wonder. Nicholas Riverhawk is basically Tierney in dude form.

I dunno about this, Tierney. I'm not a proponent of opposites attract, but on the other hand, there can be such a thing as too much in common, can't there?

Well, it isn't as though Tierney immediately spawned a conversation option to ask him to move in. No, wait, that's exactly what she did. Fuck!

Too bad, Tierney. You're going back to school. Where would we even put this clown? You and Taslin are still sharing one room and sleeping in your single beds from childhood. No, Mr. Riverhawk will just have to wait until you get back. And even then... who can say, really? The passions of Sims are seldom steadfast and often fickle.