Just Plumb Nuts!

Talking with Sage

2012-02-12T17:38:00.001-08:00

I think that of all my children, Sage has been affected the most by all the changes that have happened recently – Sety and AJ’s sentence, Satis moving to Egypt, our own move to Hidden Springs, and her own birthday and adolescence. And now, my latest pregnancy is yet another shock to her system. She’s really had a tough time, and I have to admit, I don’t know how to deal with it.

I didn’t realize the depth and breadth of Sage’s problems until I read her letter and especially, until we were in Dr. McGaw’s office. We were standing there, wearing clothes picked out for us by the show’s staff, screaming at each other with cameras in our faces, and yet, we didn’t even know what we were screaming. I suppose I could’ve been upset that she’d had the temerity to drag us onto a national TV show to air out our private family problems. But that wasn’t it, either.

And poor Sage just looked at me and asked, “Mom, why are you yelling?”

And I had to just stop. And walk away.

She couldn’t even get angry with me. All she could do was sob.

She’d been crying the whole time she was in Dr. McGaw’s office. I thought she’d bawl her eyeballs out. That’s Sage, though, so sweet and sensitive. So unlike me. The only things she and I have in common are blond hair and our last name.

So there we were, sitting in counseling as Sage continued to launch grenades at Andy and me – mostly me.

“You missed my ballet recital,” Sage shouted with tears flowing down her cheeks, “you missed everything! All because you were working. I would have given my life for you to be at the recital. Dad was there, Sety and Satis were there, even Grandma and Grandpa were there. You weren’t.”

“I’m sure you were beautiful, baby,”

I kept seeing my own arguments with my mother in flashback. We were so different, we couldn’t see eye to eye – and I was now dealing with the same thing with Sage.

Sometimes I think, my mother would have loved to have had Sage for a daughter. I still think I was such a disappointment to her, a tomboy interested in history, archeology, and paranormal activity instead of music.

“Why don’t you keep a journal?” I suggested to her one day we were in the dining room. I also suggested she get involved in some activities at school so she could meet new people.

Which she listened to for the most part. She joined the Art Club and the Newspaper Club, which will both improve her writing and painting skills. She has that artistic side she got from my side of the family and she went to the theater and took guitar classes.

Her heart, though, appears to be with animals and nature. She has that outdoorsy streak from my husband. She is (mostly) a vegetarian and has really taken to Bitsy and Traveller, the Hanoverian show horse we got her for her birthday.

"What's the square root of two?" Sage mumbled under her breath while doing what appeared to be her algebra homework.
I was concentrating on my latest piece on the Hidden Springs mystery when I murmured, "not now, I'm in the middle of writing this article for the Paranormal Review."

"Ninety-nine over seventy," I whispered.

"Come here, Sage-blossom."
I denoted my oldest biological daughter by her full given name. It’s actually Sage-blossom Margaret, but nobody calls her that.

"Sage-blossom, you know that we're having another baby, right?"
She sighed.
"Everyone is going to have to take on even more responsibility to help out. When your brother comes home, he's going to have to take on more responsibility too. When Sety and Satis return they're going to have to take on more responsibility. Fact is things are going to have to change around here -- and it starts with me."
I thought she was finished but she wasn't. "I haven't been the mother I could have been or I probably should have been because I've been working, but now that I've reached the top of ghost hunter career that's going to change."
"From now on I'm going to be spending more time with you guys. It may not seem like I love you, but I do. I love you guys more than life itself. When I got sick with that virus in the middle of my quest for Pangu's Axe I had to make a choice -- continue with my search for the weapon, which would have immensely helped my career, and, by the way, would have greatly impaired or even eliminated my ability to have more children -- or go back home and have you, and get the medical treatment I needed. Sage-blossom, it was a no brainer. It was a decision I'd make again and again."
I put my head down on the table and broke down in tears. I felt Sage’s arm around me.

Family Matters

2012-02-12T16:50:00.001-08:00

My daughters, Sage and Sierra, had a major fight one evening. I’m not sure what it was about, but their shouts were heard through the house.

“Sierra! Calm down!” Sage pleaded as Sierra threw her old ballet slippers across the room like a projectile.

Sierra flung herself on the bed and folded her arms. “Shut up, Little Miss Perfect.”

They get along swimmingly most of the time, even though both are tanned, blond and blue-eyed they are so very different. I’m not sure who Sage is most like, but she’s certainly not like me. And in my book that’s a good thing. Sierra most assuredly resembles the way I was as a girl, which frightens me. In fact, I think she may be even more tomboyish.

She even engaged our new butler, Max, to a game of catch with her football. Max obliged.

The next day, while the kids were at school, I took in a day of pampering at the Silver Zephyr spa, and oh my god, it was AMAZING. They have these special chairs that you prop your feet up on and they play music and massage you and make you pretty much forget about everything.

When we got back, Andy was, “I’ll let you go back to Sunset Valley –“

I piped up. “If what?”

“If you make top of ghost hunter career and I make starter.”

I shook my head. Leave it up to Andy to give us conditions.

Since I’ve been on maternity leave, I’ve picked up the brush again. Of course, these days I so lack inspiration, anything can come out of it. Even blotches.

Dr. McGaw said we actually needed to work on being a family. I took his advice. So, once a week we decided we were going to have dinner down at the local bistro. It was great. There were the five of us (minus Sety and Satis) all eating our meals, chatting, and just being a family. I didn’t feel like going, because, being blown up like a balloon doesn’t make you feel very good.

So, anyway, one thing that keeps us from going out reared its ugly head while at dinner – the paparazzi. One guy with the reddest hair I’d ever seen flashed his camera at us while we were sitting down. Ugh.

Counseling part 3

2012-02-02T15:36:00.001-08:00

We were back at the office the next day.

“You’re worried about your sister too.”

“Absolutely,” Sage said through muffled tears.

“You saw your brothers go off to boot camp and you don’t want to see her go too.”

“No.”

“Sage,” said Dr. McGaw, “let’s forget about your mother and your sister for a second. Tell me about you. What do you like to do?”

“Well,” Sage replied, “I, uh, I like to paint sometimes. And ride horses. I, uh, took ballet classes when I was little –“

“That’s a start. You think maybe once you get settled into school that you can start making some friends outside of your family?”

“Um, I’m still fairly shy around people I don’t know well.”

“Well,” Dr. McGaw smiled, “you’re talking to me pretty good.”

Television cameras began to roll as Andy and I took our seats. We watched as our dear 14-year-old daughter, Sage Margaret, walked out of the therapist’s office. It looked as though she had been crying.

While Imsety and AJ put us in front of a judge and jury, Sage has dragged us to a friggin’ therapist. What the heck is wrong with us? Are we bad parents?

“I just got done talking to y’all’s daughter,” began Dr. McGaw with a Southern twang. “I gotta tell ya, huh, y’all two make some gorgeous kids. Sage has got a lot goin’ for her. She’s beautiful, she’s very bright, and she’s, I think, incredibly perceptive. But listen to me when I tell ya, that young lady in there is in real pain. She ain’t fakin’ it. I know when somebody is puttin’ on to get attention, and she ain’t doin’ it. She’s hurtin'. She’s really hurtin.’”

Before Andy and I could get a word out, he continued to talk. “A lot of parents want to bring the child to the therapy altar and say, ‘Fix him’ or ‘Fix her’ and be done with it. But I tell you, as I tell my other parents, when kids are born they are a blank slate. You start writing on them as soon as they are born. And what you have written on that child is causing her enormous pain. I can’t fix her without fixin’ the two of you. And I gotta tell ya, the two of you need more fixin’ than she does.”

I leapt to my feet. “I didn’t do anything wrong!” I shouted. “I went to work –“

“Savannah, what I was saying in the office and a lot of people fall into this trap, you’ve been in this ivory tower of academia for so long, you’ve failed to see what was happening with your own children. You’ve got two kids, right – one you adopted and your biological son – at Fort Starch military academy, boot camp, right now, ordered there by a judge because of bad behavior.”

I nodded my head.

“Your other adopted daughter defied you and high-tailed it to Egypt.”

I nodded my head again. “I really didn’t want her to go. It’s still much too dangerous there. And I don’t have the energy to go and get her because I’ve got so much going on over here –“

“Your youngest one, the little girl, is already skipping school and having disciplinary problems.”

I nodded again.

“And you’ve got this one here, she’s the one that writes the letter, basically begging you, Savannah, to quit grousing and be her mother. I read that whole three page letter. She’s not angry with you, far from it. I tell you, based on what I know about the situation, if I were your daughter, I’d feel like she is, like you’re only giving her a part of yourself. Yet you drag her to therapy, and she might be in the best shape out of all of ‘em,”

I sighed.

“And you’re pregnant again.”

I took a deep blowing breath.

“And you don’t think this is a problem?”

I spoke up. “Oh I absolutely know it’s a problem. That’s why I’m here.”

“Will you agree, then, Savannah – and Andrew – that the two of you have made mistakes in parenting these children?”

“Absolutely.”

“Will you agree, Savannah, that you have basically abdicated your parental responsibilities to your husband?”

I took a deep breath. “It’s painful for me to admit, but yes, in a way, I have.”

“Why? Why did you do that?”

It took Andrew and me awhile to come up with a response.

Counseling part 2

2012-01-31T22:21:00.001-08:00

Now it was my turn to pay a visit inside the private office of Dr. McGaw.

“Savannah Plumb Cheesman, right?”

“Yes.”

“Daughter of Nathan Plumb the composer and Sandra Bellingham Plumb the former orchestra conductor.”

I nodded. How did he know who my parents were? They couldn’t have been that famous – were they?

“I think I’ll cut right to the chase. I have spoken at length with your daughter – and I have to tell you – she is very – I can’t say she’s angry, because anger is not the emotion I’m looking for here – but she’s quite frustrated with you.”

“I don’t see why. I give that girl – and all my kids – I give them everything.”

“Except yourself.”

“Are you kidding me? I don’t come home from work until three in the morning. The kids are in bed by then.”

“What kind of work do you do, Savannah?”

“I’m a paranormal expert. Right now I go around town collecting spirits and detecting paranormal activity.”

“Your daughter tells me you’re also into archaeology and academic work.”

“That’s my profession, primarily.”

“Sit down, Savannah.” He made the request with a quiet authority, like my dad. He never rose his voice.

“Tell me this truthfully, Savannah. Has your job interfered with your ability to be a good parent?”

I took a deep breath. “Well, I haven’t spent as much time with my children as I would have liked due to my career, if that’s what you mean.”

“Would you consider yourself a workaholic, Savannah?”

“Uh – I, uh, happen to enjoy my work, if that’s what you’re saying.”

“Do you bring your work home?”

“Sometimes.”

“Your daughter tells me that they don’t see you for days at a time. Sometimes weeks, all because of your job.”

“My career requires me to travel a lot.”

“And you enjoy traveling.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Do you enjoy traveling because it takes you away from your children for long stretches at a time?”

“I like traveling because it allows me to learn things about different cultures.”

Dr. McGaw seemed to pivot to another strategy. “Savannah, you have the two boys at Fort Starch boot camp right now, ordered there by a judge because of bad behavior.”

I nodded.

“Your youngest daughter, the little one, is already skipping school and has disciplinary problems.”

I nodded again.

“The teenage daughter, the one who wrote the letter, is basically begging you to spend more time with them.”

I let out a deep sigh.

“And you don’t think this is a problem.”

“Oh, I know this is a problem. That’s why I’m here.”

Counseling part 1

2012-01-30T20:34:00.000-08:00

Our friend Gabriella Ornales gave us the number of Dr. Bill McGaw, the foremost therapist in Hidden Springs and a personal friend of hers. According to her, "he's treated everyone who’s anyone in this town." He even has his own TV show where he solves or tries to solve his guests' problems. So on a whim, we dialed him.
So last Friday, we wound up in his office, his personal office.
"How did we let our family get like this, Andy?" I asked as we waited for Dr. McGaw to come out.
"You dragged me here to this – this -- shrink!”

“Andy, Sage needs this. We all do, I think.”

“I tell you what, Savannah. This McGaw guy better be good."

First, he called Sage into his private office. "Sage, how old are you?"
"Just turned teen, sir."
"You're the one who wrote the letter to your mother?"
"Yes, sir, I did."

“Why did you write the letter to your mother?”

"It was the only way I figured I could get through to her. She -- she doesn't listen otherwise."
"You don't think your mother listens to you?"
Sage took a deep breath. "It's -- it's not just that I don't think she listens. I'm not sure she even cares. I mean, we're strangers in our own house. We hardly know each other."

Sitting in the next room, I heard Sage break out in muffled sobs.
"Why do you think you and your mother hardly know each other?"
"Because she's working all the time."
“What kind of work does your mother do?”

“She’s – she’s – she’s an adventurer.”

“Adventurer?”

“Travels all over the world. Archaeology, paranormal studies, history lectures.”

“She’s in academia.”

“I guess you can say that.”

"I'm sure your mom cares. She -- she just isn't sure how to show you that she cares. If I get her some classes to help with you and your brothers and sisters, do you think that things will get better?"
Sage looked up. "I hope so."

Sage again

2012-01-23T15:31:00.001-08:00

My 14 year old daughter wrote me this letter and by the end of it I was in tears.

I had no idea she felt this way. I had no idea. I mean, I knew she was troubled but I didn’t know it was this bad. For the first time, I’m at a loss. I don’t have the answers. I don’t know what to do.

Itsy Bitsy Puppy

2012-01-22T18:59:00.001-08:00

Meet the newest member of our family, Sage's golden retriever puppy, Bitsy. Bitsy was a birthday present for Sage from Bassy.

Andy adores her too, because she's so playful and loyal.

Bitsy is so small now, she's smaller than the newspaper.

I was ticked off at Bitsy though. The first day she started chewing on the leg of the dining room chairs. We're renting this house, we don't own it!

"Bitsy," I reprimanded her, thinking of my upcoming workout, "you can't do that."

She looked at me with her head hung down. She's so cute when she does that. I mean she knows when she has done wrong. She is like my kids that way.

Visiting AJ

2012-01-15T12:45:00.001-08:00

About a week ago, I paid a visit to my son AJ at Fort Starch Military Academy. Putting him (and Sety) in that school was bar none the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do.

Fort Starch is this huge campus with wood cabins surrounding the main building.

I approached Sergeant Downey, the commandant in charge of AJ’s regiment (Sety has a different commandant and is in a separate regiment) and asked him if I could see my son.

“Our different regiments have different visitation days and hours,” he explained. “In your son’s case, his visiting hours are from 10 to 3 on weekends.”

“But it’s Tuesday afternoon. I’m going crazy here, I have to see my son.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Cheesman, no exceptions.”

It was the first time I’d ever been called Mrs. Cheesman. I wasn’t sure I liked it.

I found out later that Sergeant Downey was the father of the boy AJ so mercilessly tormented. Whoops.

Just then I caught a glimpse of my son coming out of one of the cabins. I barely recognized him. His hair had been lopped off, he had lost weight, and his eyes took on that lost-puppy-dog look. I hoped that he had been chastened by his time at Fort Starch – indeed, it didn’t look to me to be a very forgiving place.

“Hey mom.”

“Here, I brought you something. Your favorite.” I handed him a box of coconut crème cookies. The butler baked them – but he didn’t have to know that.

We stood there for a good ten minutes, just staring at each other. Other than having my mom’s chestnut hair, he looks exactly like his father.

“Can I come home, Mom?” he begged.

It took every ounce of my strength to tell him no. In a perfect world I would have scooped him in my car and taken him and no one would have been the wiser, as he is my son and the last thing I want is for him to suffer.

“You have to serve out your sentence,” I told him, “if we let you come home, who knows what the consequences would be?”

Royal balls and state dinners

2011-12-20T18:58:00.001-08:00

Yep that’s me, Savannah Plumb Cheesman, at the royal palace. Why on earth am I there? Two reasons. One is I’ve been hired by the queen herself to stamp out ghosts before the royal wedding.

And the other? Does this gown give a clue?

The invitation, stamped with the family’s royal seal, arrived in my mailbox. I still have it as a keepsake.

The occasion was the formal birthday party of two of the most miserable little girls I’ve ever seen in my life. Of course, I’m talking about the Vanderburg twins, Alexandra and Anastasia. Thankfully my own children have never made these girls’ acquaintance and, given their petulant behavior, I’m not sure I ever want my daughters to even come into contact with them.

Of course, the queen herself bears some responsibility for the way these girls have turned out.

I sat down next to my father (!). “What are you doing here?” I asked him.

“I got a royal invitation,” he said, “I’m supposed to perform at the wedding.”

“You? Performing at the wedding? At your age?”

“Why not? Especially if I can still do it.”

Just then I saw his eyes wander in the queen’s direction. “Dad, don’t you even think about it,” I whispered.

“Hey, Princess, I’ve been working on this song for the royal wedding. Do you want to hear it?”

I can’t believe Dad is still composing songs at his age.

Just then, with Dad going to the restroom, I was joined by the Prince himself. I must say, he is even better looking in person.

“I would like to know, Your Highness, just what is the secret to this very fertile soil? My family and I have never had such tasty vegetables in our lives.”

The Prince, tearing into his slice of imported birthday cake, smiled a secret smile and didn’t say a word.

Sage

2011-12-14T09:19:00.001-08:00

A random view of Hidden Springs.

So we spent $1400 simoleans on a show horse for Sage, a Hanoverian called Traveller.

But Sage doesn’t seem to be too much interested in horseback riding. Or much of anything else for that matter. In fact, when she got on the horse she was scared.

One thing I know for sure. Sage is unhappy. Even more unhappy than I am. I think part of it is she misses her brothers, who went off to reform school. Then we moved to Hidden Springs right before her birthday. I’m at a loss, I don’t know what else to do. I miss the bubbly little Sage I think I left behind in Sunset Valley. I think I left me behind there too.

I’m trying to decide whether to enroll her in Alpine School or to send her to Le Fromage. Andy wants to keep her here, but I’m thinking Le Fromage Art School is more in line with her interests. She loved the ballet class she took in Sunset Valley but she also liked exploring the area around Pinochle Point. That’s why I thought she would take to horseback riding, but so far she hasn’t really. Her show horse has taken more to me than to her, lol.

Bassy

2011-12-08T20:12:00.001-08:00

I had more than a few words for my darling kid brother, Sebastian Ryan Plumb, who most of the world knows as Bassy. By the way, I gave him that nickname. Now it’s on freakin’ billboards.

So Sety told me that Bassy was in town, and I invited him over for dinner. I decided to show him around my rented house.

I told him that I was in town at the special request of the Queen herself, to rid the mansion of the ghosts which had infiltrated it before her son’s wedding in a few days. “This is the new Banshee Blaster,” I said, showing him my new toy, “the Queen herself paid for it.”

“Really?” he said.

After telling him about the book I’m promoting and the new gig I got fighting ghosts in the royal palace, that, by the way, I’m being paid a queen’s ransom for, I decided to ask Bassy what was going on with him.

“Sebastian—”

Silence.

“Bassy, there’s something you’re not telling me. You may be the biggest movie star in the world, but you are still and always will be my little brother.” I have to occasionally remind him of that fact in case he gets his head swollen by his stardom. I helped to make him what he is, and I won’t let him forget it.

Meanwhile, upstairs my youngest daughter, Sierra, was upstairs watching a program on television. Goodness, the more I look at her, the more I see myself at her age – including the fact that she refuses to wear a dress.

Thing is, I can’t tell her anything because I was the exact same way. Hmm, still am. I still hate makeup and dresses, but I force myself to wear them for work and at photo shoots.

After I dared Bassy to talk, we walked into the kitchen.

We walked inside the kitchen. The pecking order is still the same, I go first and he follows behind. It’s been that way since we were young and it’s not going to change now, lol. I protect him. It’s my job.

So Aubrey, our butler in Hidden Springs, has made hamburgers for dinner, and we walked into the kitchen to eat them. Our new friend, Gabriella Ornales, has joined us. Gabriella lost her husband last sim year, and moved to Hidden Springs in order to find a mate. Meanwhile, she’s having too much fun blowing away the money he left her, lol.

I sat on one end of the table, Bassy was on the other end. Sage was seated next to him, Gabriella next to Sage, and Andy on the other side of him. Sierra came downstairs later and took a seat next to Andy.

Anyway, Bassy drops this major bombshell.

“I’m writing a screenplay.”

Really, Bassy?

“It’s about this movie star, right, he’s the son of a composer, he wants to be a composer too but he’s afraid of stepping into his dad’s shadow … anyway, he has these three women in his life …”

O-kay. Bassy, you sure you’re not writing about yourself? Have you had one too many spline reticulators?

“Hold it, Bassy, wait a minute… three women?”

“Is it always like this at your dinners?” laughed Gabriella.

“Pretty much,” Andy laughed back, “you should see when her parents join us.”

“His co-star, his childhood sweetheart and his mom.”

“I cleared everyone out, Bassy… it’s just you and me. Now fess up. What the hell is going on?”

Bassy took a deep breath. “Ok, remember back home in Sunset Valley that I was kinda sorta dating Daisy Ramsey?”

“Yeah.”

“And remember I told you about this girl Kyra that I met in Bridgeport?”

“Yeah. Vaguely.”

Bassy told me everything. Of course I knew a lot of this because Satis and Sage gobble up the gossip rags like candy.

“So let me get this straight. You didn’t tell Daisy you were seeing Kyra, and you didn’t tell Kyra you were seeing Daisy.”

Bassy nodded. “Then when I came back to Sunset Valley I had to tell Daisy the truth. She hasn’t spoken to me since. I can’t say I blame her.”

“What about Kyra?” I asked.

“After I told Kyra about Daisy, she went to the press and told this reporter that she is pregnant. She says I’m the father.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Oh, Bassy. I can’t believe you got yourself into this mess.”

“You can’t believe it?” Bassy whispered. “What about me?”

I sighed again. “Bassy, you better hope and pray to the Watcher that this isn’t your child, or you are in a whole hell of a lot of trouble. You need a DNA test. And you need to tell Kyra right away.” After demanding a DNA test – by the way, the 2nd DNA test I’ve demanded for Bassy, the first was from the photographer I hired to photograph my family -- I took a deep breath and sternly warned, “But, I will say this. If this is your child, Sebastian, you have to step up and take responsibility. You have to be a father. Your childhood is over, you’ve got to grow up and be a man.”

Woman About Town

2011-12-01T10:32:00.001-08:00

The mountains are absolutely beautiful. Too bad I’m utterly miserable here. I’m a beach bunny and I don’t see a single beach in sight.

Andy’s made new friends quickly. Just yesterday he went out with the fellas to their favorite fishing spots.

Meanwhile, I’m feeling a bit left out in the cold.

So, while Andy was asleep and the kids were at school, I took matters into my own hands. Sick of moping around our rented house, I decided to poke about town.

I came to this secluded little picnic area and this mysterious little fountain. I wondered if this was the noted ‘Fountain of Youth’ talked about in the brochures. Is this the healing spring my mother’s doctors advised her to seek?

My curiosity piqued, I knelt down and took a sip. It was the most refreshing water I’d ever tasted. A simday was added to my life. It felt great.

The next place I entered was the local spa. Easily the biggest spa I’ve ever seen.

There, I passed by a strange woman on a bass???

I took a deluxe foot massage on one of their deluxe recliner chairs. The motorized voice tried to be soothing, but I found her ingratiating.

I watched the bass player for a good five minutes. It was her and the instrument. She saw no one or nothing else.

I decided, while she was playing, to take out my phone and get a pic.

Sorry for the lack of updates…

2011-11-28T17:50:00.001-08:00

Author’s note: My game is NOT cooperating with me and hasn’t been for some time. I’m on the search for a new computer and if that doesn’t work, it could be time to say good bye to the Plumbs.

Hey, it’s me, Savannah Plumb Cheesman. I’m not dead, it just feels like I am sometimes. :\

So, Satis and I were talking over breakfast. It was just me and her left in the house after the other kids had gone off to school. She’s due to become YA soon and I asked her about her future plans. “So, an apartment, a house, what?”

I was stunned by her response. “Return to Egypt.”

“Why?” I asked. “It’s dangerous there now! Much more than when I went.” I can’t say that I’m up to date with the current political situation in Egypt, but I know it’s total chaos there.

“Egypt needs me.”

I let out a deep breath. I couldn’t tell Satis that she’d be resented even more because she was raised in the States by a blond, green-eyed Anglo Simerican. I can’t tell anyone anything anymore. I have to bite my tongue. It sucks. I so wanted to tell Satis not to go to Egypt. But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

What’s happened to me? Have I become – soft – in my advanced age? Ewww, I hate that word.

This picture was recently published in one of the tabloids, of AJ and his roommate, a kid named Grayson O’Connor. Seriously, who’d send a KID to Fort Starch? He had to have REALLY acted up. Apparently they separated Sety and AJ, which was recommended by the judge.

Andy’s already made himself a few new friends, and they talk about sports and stuff. I hate it here in Hidden Springs and am kind of feeling left out. I thought getting Fireball would help but it really hasn’t, as I’m not as much of a horse person as I thought I would be.

We (well, Andy) got Sage a $1400 simolean Hanoverian show horse named Traveller for her teen birthday. Though the poor creature was wiped from his journey to our rented house.

City Girls Don’t Ride Horses, or, Our First Week in Hidden Springs

2011-10-27T13:43:00.001-07:00

Hello, this is me, Savannah. Well, we’ve been in Hidden Springs for about a week, and I’d like to introduce the newest member of the family – Fireball. He is a magnificent thoroughbred horse that I got from this breeder in town.

She said her name is Fran Van der something, I didn’t catch her last name. She raises thoroughbreds.

These are Fireball’s parents, his mare and his sire, Angel and Charlie. I think Fireball looks a lot more like his sire.

It’s been two days since Sety and AJ went off to Fort Starch Academy. The house is very quiet without them. Sety is due to return in 4 days anyway, AJ will be gone longer.

I let Sage brush Fireball’s coat. Seemed to get her mind off her brothers being gone, at least for awhile.

Otherwise, the poor girl was falling asleep watching the Fishing channel…

Hidden Springs

2011-10-24T08:04:00.001-07:00

Hey it’s me, Satis. Guess what. We’ve moved (hopefully temporarily) to Hidden Springs. I didn’t want to, mom didn’t want to, but dad insisted on it. He thinks it’ll be good for us, especially with all the bad press my brothers have gotten, to just lay low for awhile.

This is the house we’re currently renting in Hidden Springs. It’ll have to do until it’s renovated top to bottom.

I was called in yesterday by my grandfather, who is renting this place just around the bend from us. I’m in awe of him, actually. He grew up on this farm in Sunset Valley and is now so rich he can afford his own town. He’s here because my grandmother’s new doctor, who is this new-age-guru type, has her trying out this new medicine from the mountain spring.

Oh and guess what?

Meet the newest member of the family, Fireball. He’s a thoroughbred horse. He’s mostly mom’s horse.

Things are pretty different around here. Sety even scatters hay – on his own.

He even made us hot dogs last night.

Dad and AJ scattered hay around as well. Something about father-son bonding, dad said. Especially since AJ is going to Fort Starch tomorrow.

Mom is even a different person. More relaxed. Not as tightly wound up.

Of course, she looked like a scared deer when she got on her horse for the first time. Remember, this is the woman who faced down a mummy in Al-Simhara. I posted the pic on Simbook.

Fireball even tossed her on her bum. And you know what? She didn’t even get upset. She just got up and hailed a cab back home.

Some brief thoughts on Sage

2011-10-09T14:54:00.001-07:00

Hey, it’s me, Satis.

I was babysitting for Sage and Sierra the other night. Let me tell you guys about Sage. I’m not sure she even knows that the boys are going to be breaking down doors to see her. I mean, if there was ever a real-life Skipper doll, she is it. I’m sure if mom didn’t keep her on a leash Bridgeport would come calling. Blond hair, blue eyes, tanned beach-bunny complexion. I’m an ugly duckling in comparison.

Anyway, I was curious about her thoughts on mom and dad moving us to Hidden Springs. I have already told them that I don’t want to move, especially away from my friends and Michael. But Sage?

“I really don’t care either way,” she says in-between bites of peanut butter.

Really, Sage? I don’t know if she’s actually telling the truth or if she’s just being disingenuous (sp?) .

I worry about Sage sometimes, that she is getting lost in the shuffle, what with all the things going on with Sety and AJ and Sierra being basically a royal pain. To her credit she’s been a trooper, but for how long? I wonder if she’ll crack, too, when she turns teen, the way AJ did. We have two simdays to wait.

It’s official

2011-10-01T19:50:00.001-07:00

Hey, it’s me, Satis, just checking in for a spell.

A lot of things are official.

First off, my brothers are actually leaving for Fort Starch Military Academy. It was actually court ordered so they have no choice but to go. When they do leave there won’t be a dry eye in the place.

It’s official, Crown Prince Sebastian in Hidden Springs announced his engagement to that girl Ella Carlisle.

It’s also official that mom and dad are actively seeking property there. I don’t know how to feel about possibly moving away from my friends and all our relatives. In fact, my dad thinks he’s fallen in love with this house:

Nice, but I can’t see myself living there. The mountains are lovely though. But I’m a warm weather girl. First, coming from the Egyptian desert and then moving to Sunset Valley, I don’t know how I’m going to adjust to the cooler mountain air, if it indeed comes to that.

It’s also official that mom and dad are still madly in love with each other. Sigh. They act like teenagers sometimes, especially dad. He still acts like a lovesick teenage boy.

Oooh… while I’m on the subject of lovesick teenage boys…

The one in my life is named Michael Falcon-Purnell. He’s okay looking and all, with gray eyes and jet black hair, and and he’s a little on the geeky side, and I pretty much know he’ll treat me like the Egyptian goddess I’m named after, but I’m not all that sure if he’s the one for me.

Come to think of it, I’m not sure of anything anymore. I wish it were simple like it used to be.

I mean, when we were little, Sety and I used to be inseparable. Of course, we kind of had no choice in the matter, given that my father was who he was. But still, Sety and I used to be close. Now he is like a stranger. I hardly know him anymore. Instead he is much closer to my other brother, AJ. AJ was born right after we got to Sunset Valley and is as fluent in Arabic as Sety and I are, due to the fact that he shared our Egyptian nursemaid, Halima Meshkenet. Surely Sety and I aren’t that different, I wouldn’t think. So why is he headed to military school? I don’t have any answers.

Court part 2

2011-09-30T15:38:00.001-07:00

The next morning we woke up bright and early, 6:00. Satis and Sage went off to school, while Andy and I hauled the boys in his van.

AJ disappoints me the most, he is my first born son. He has generations of proud Plumb blood coursing through his veins. I cannot believe that he has turned out this way.

Sety thinks the whole situation is one big joke. I heard him snickering to himself behind Andy. I have to admit, I had no idea what I was getting when I adopted him and Satis from Egypt. While Satis has been a complete dear, Sety has been one problem after another. We accepted that his Simlish didn’t come along as fast as his sister’s, and we suspect that he has a learning disability on top of that. But that’s absolutely no excuse for his behavior. If he’s not careful, he’ll be in jail.

We got to the courthouse at 8:30. The boys’ sentencing was scheduled for 8:45.

Then, before we walked in, Andy surprised me by saying a few words. He was clearly choked up. “Boys,” he began, trying to hold back tears. “I’ve watched you grow up – and no matter what happens in there, I’m still going to love you like mad. But that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed in your behavior, and if you think about it, you’d be disappointed in it, too.”

And then, we went in and took our seats.

Three hours later, we were out. And the sentences District Judge Emily Blount handed out were harsh – the boys were to be sent to Fort Starch Military Academy as punishment for their deeds.

“These boys have developed a consistent pattern of misbehavior. Were they born this way?”

No, I said tearfully as I stood before her. “They were the sweetest boys you could meet. They were ‘please, thank you, may I?’ All of a sudden, when they became teenagers, it’s like a bomb went off, and they went – I don’t know – ballistic is a good word to use.”

The judge wanted them to leave right then and there, but Andy convinced her to let them go home and allow them to pack their bags with some clothes and other things.

Court part 1

2011-09-30T14:59:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, it’s me, Savannah, and I’m wiped. I just came back from district court – with my sons.

I never imagined I would be in this position. I thought my sons would be the well-behaved kids they were when they were younger. Now, though, they’re completely out of control – even the district judge says so. I’m getting a few gray hairs too. And no wonder. My sons are going to drive me up a wall if I don’t get a handle on them. As for their future, if they don’t straighten up, the next place they’ll be going is jail.

We drove back in the dead of night from Hidden Springs (guess the cat is out of the bag, huh?) because we’ve been looking at property there.

We’re also in the process of adopting this magnificent thoroughbred. I’ve wanted a horse since I was a little girl, and it wasn’t feasible because we lived in the suburbs, in the rich part of town. We still haven’t picked out a name for him (we know he is a male). Andy even negotiated a lower price for him because he’s a bit on the ‘difficult’ side.

Anyway, when we got back home, I found out from Toya that the police had been there because Sety had decided to throw himself a wild little party while we were gone. “Are you serious?” I asked her.

Had he forgotten that he’s going to court because of the LAST one? Or the fact that he and AJ were photographed in one of the gossip rags puking their guts out all over the floor? The whole thing still sickens me to my stomach.

“I can’t believe he’d do this again,” I told Andy as he drove down the main street in our hometown. Of all the changes here, at least this corridor has remained the same.

“The police called us, we just need to calm down and get to the bottom of it.” Goodness, Andy is just so damn reasonable. I wish I was reasonable. At that moment I was completely livid.

“Andy, we have got to do something.”

“Well, the boys have a court date tomorrow –“

Andy and I said nothing else until we got back to the house.

Sety… again

2011-09-29T14:13:00.001-07:00

Hey, it’s me, Satis, trying to finish reading Zombies? Zombies! for my English class. Supposedly it’s going to be made into a movie, and Uncle Bassy is supposed to be playing the main character. I don’t get why it’s such a big deal that he does movies. I mean, it’s pretty much that he plays dress-up with cameras on him. His words, not mine.

Remember I overheard my brothers talking at the dinner table the other night?

It was for good reason.

See, mom and dad took off again (I suspect it might be for Hidden Springs) and, apparently, Sety threw a party, and, if at all possible, this one was even wilder than the one before it. And he’s going to court (along with AJ) for that one.

Sety has such a cache (am I using the right word?) in these parts, that some of the other kids showed up to take pictures of him.

They invited the geek boy Zachary Downey, who’s in my trig class, and Candice Lakin managed to make fun of him at the party. Candice hates everybody, though, it’s not just Zachary.

Michael surprised me with some hand picked yellow flowers. I thought it was pretty sweet of him. Too bad that Candice Lakin had to ruin it by watching us like a hawk.

Candice sat down with Dameon Ramsey (Daisy’s brother) to watch a cooking show on TV.

I think Natalie Brooks from newspaper is making a play for Sety. She made a beeline for him at the party. I think she wants to go into private investigation upon turning YA. Natalie moved to Sunset Valley with her grandmother after her parents died.

I couldn’t hear exactly what Sety was telling Natalie, but it didn’t seem like it was good.

There was so much noise that the police were called.

“All right, kids, who’s the host of this party? It’s 2 am, get out of here before I notify your parents!”

Moving?

2011-09-27T18:37:00.001-07:00

Hey it’s me, Satis. I finally learned where mom and dad went the night the boys threw their wild party. They were in Hidden Springs, house hunting.

Why would they even want to move there? I don’t even know.

I learned it while flipping through October’s Celebrity. Why didn’t they even bother to tell us that was what they were doing? Who knows, I guess.

I thought mom liked Sunset Valley. After all, she was born and raised here.

Ever since mom and dad said they were sending the boys away, I’ve been a little nervous. I really don’t want them to leave, even though they drive me crazy sometimes.

The other night we were having macaroni and cheese, and I overheard them whispering something. “Hey,” Sety whispered, “let’s go out late tonight and do something to the school. Kind of one last hurrah.”

“I dunno about this,” AJ said. “We’re already in trouble up to our necks.”

So as I was putting up the dishes for the night, I shot Sety one disapproving look. I know he is up to something. I can feel it.

Mishmash

2011-09-22T09:05:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, it’s me, Satis.

I can’t stand it that mom and dad are about to send Sety and AJ away to that military boarding school. They drive me nuts but at least it’s not dull with them around.

Of course, with this one around (that would be Sierra) things won’t be dull anyway.

So, I picked up the latest Celebrity, and to my surprise, there’s a dual cover. On it are these royal teenage twins from a remote mountain village called Hidden Springs. Who died and made these girls royalty? Although, I must admit, their hairstyle on the cover is cute.

So I get to reading their interviews, and their story is actually pretty interesting. Apparently their brother, curiously named Sebastian (same as our Uncle Bassy), is engaged to marry a commoner called Ella Carlisle, and the whole village (especially Ella’s family, who wanted one of their daughters to marry the prince) is up in arms about it. On top of that, their sister, Francisca, ran off to live up in a cabin in the woods and become a writer. She wrote a best-selling romance novel, The Princess and the Pauper, under an assumed name.

There was this big spread of pictures of the girls as children. They remind me of Sage and Sierra, except they have a lot more money.

So they asked the girls (who now attend Smuggsworth Prep School) what it was like living in the household and their future plans.

“I doubt I’ll ever be queen,” Alexandra, older by three minutes, said. “That doesn’t stop me from wanting it.”

Seriously. All royalty is good for these days – is looking good.

Anyway, I had some misadventures in babysitting. When mom and dad went to court with the boys, I had to stay at home with the girls. Sierra must have pooped about ten times, and poor Sage was about to suffocate with the smell.

Then, Sierra managed to waste her baby food all over her high chair, so as soon as I finished her sandwich, I had to clean it up.

No choice

2011-09-19T07:09:00.001-07:00

After the police brought Sety home – again …

…and AJ hit the Downey house again, this time with a flaming bag…

…Andy and I sat at the kitchen table and prepared ‘the talk.’ We were eating the PB & J sandwiches Toya had prepared, when the subject of AJ and Sety came up.

We can sit there for hours and say absolutely nothing to each other … and sometimes, we can say absolutely everything to each other.

“Andy, we have to do something,” I began, trying to get a crumb of bread unstuck between my teeth.

Andy still didn’t say anything. But this time, he didn’t have to. The expression on his face told the whole story.

The other night, when Sety came home in a cop car, he and Sety got into a shouting match so serious that the Brookses, the neighbors to my left, called the police. They left after a few minutes, and assigned us to a social worker, but the visit still stung me.

And he and AJ are barely speaking.

This is the reaction we usually get when we try to talk to him.

The policeman tried to talk to him, he laughed in the guy’s face.

We kept telling AJ that he needs a serious attitude adjustment. And Andy and I agreed that Fort Starch Academy was the place that was going to give it to him.

So, Andy and I put in a call to Lt. Barksdale at Fort Starch Military Academy and set the wheels in motion to enroll our wayward sons there. It’s the most difficult phone call we’ve ever had to make.

Aftermath part 2

2011-09-06T06:08:00.001-07:00

So there I was, on my way to Summer Hill Court to see what the heck my father wants. I hate to say it, but I’m still at his beck and call. Even now.

I got to the mansion at a quarter to five, even though I had to go to work in fifteen minutes. I knew I was going to run late, but meh.

Walking on the marble walkway and through the manicured gardens, I was assured that at least the exterior of the house was being kept up.

I was stood in the entrance foyer wondering what the heck my father could possibly want.

When I walked into the kitchen, I saw my father and my brother making faces, as if something had died.

I greeted my father’s butler, Jeremey Chapman, and then lambasted him for not keeping the kitchen clean. “My father pays you good money just to look cute, right, is that it?” I asked him. “This place is a mess.”

Sure enough, my dad and my brother had been feasting on pies and hamburgers, and Jeremey had been catering to their every whim. “At least attempt to make sure they get a balanced diet,” I demanded.

Finally my dad emerged near the fish tank. “Hey, princess.”

After all this time my dad’s voice still makes me melt. Doesn’t make everything he’s done go away, or the anger that I still have at him for breaking up our family the way he has, but he is my father, the only one I’m going to get. I don’t know how much time he has left, but I have to savor every precious moment I get – which is why I postponed going to work to see him.

I had never seen my father like this. He was visibly shaking. You have to know that my father is not an emotional man. It’s a Plumb quality. They never raise their voices for anything. My Aunt Margaret had that, too.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s your mother.”

“Wha – What’s wrong? Where is she?” I had looked around the house and didn’t see her. I assumed she was out running errands in town,

“I’m on my way to the hospital. She’s in pretty bad shape.”

“Wha – what happened?”

“She was downtown at the bookstore signing copies of her biography and she collapsed.”

We didn’t say anything more. Dad and I drove to the hospital. Bassy arrived later, after he changed out of his clothes.

Aftermath

2011-09-05T18:10:00.001-07:00

It was the aftermath of the boys’ massive party, the biggest party ever thrown by teenagers in Sunset Valley. Seeing my sons’ faces on the covers of gossip rags was bad enough, and then to flip through them to see pictures of them puking their guts out… well, it was enough to make my skin curl.

Andy, bless him, TRIED to reason with AJ. But no amount of reason can get through his noggin. He’s as stubborn as can be. “You know, AJ, your mother and I love you very much, which is why we’re deeply disturbed by your behavior. Your teachers all say you’re smart but you don’t apply yourself.”
AJ rolled his eyes. ”Whatever, dad.”

“Son, you and your brother have a court date coming up soon. A court date! You do realize you’re one slip-up away from military school.”

“Why should I listen to you anyways, dad?”

Meanwhile, Sage was in the backyard looking for bugs for her science project. She needed 4 different kinds of beetles. So far she and Andy have found three, the water beetle has proven the most elusive.

Meanwhile, Satis is spending a lot of time at the school where she is writing her gossip column. And as usual, the budding reporter is being reported on, by the paparazzi.

Then I got a call. It was from my father. I wonder what HE wants. I love him to death -- but he expects me to drop everything just to see him.

The show must go on … Part 2

2011-08-30T17:38:00.001-07:00

“The morning after Erin told me she was pregnant, um, my half-sister Maggie came to my mom’s place. And she wasn’t happy with me. Who could blame her? What she was upset about, though, um, were rumors that Holly Alto was pregnant with my baby. ‘Holly’s MY age,’ Maggie had said matter-of-factly. She spoke in a monotone, never raised her voice ever. Much like my father.

That was all she would actually say to me on the matter. My sister was a woman of very few words. What words she did have were poured into her books, twenty-six of them in all.”

Ms. Howe interrupted again. “So your sister became a successful novelist.”

“Very. Very successful.”

“But it came at a price.”

My father sighed again.

So I went back to my mother’s place and I devoted myself to my music and my painting while waiting for the babies to be born.

I remember vividly the night Holly and I brought Noah from the hospital. I remember standing in the garden and in the foyer and wondering, ‘what the heck have I done?’

‘What the heck have I gotten myself into?’

So I picked up Noah and I held him for a few seconds. And I was bawling like a baby. I think I did more crying than he did.

The day after Noah was born, Erin told me that Nicholas had been born the same night. And we had an argument … I don’t even recall what was said … but at any rate, Erin and I broke up.”

-- to be continued --

Growing Pains

2011-08-08T10:40:00.001-07:00

Remember I told you guys there was this huge downtown revitalization project going on now?

This is Mirabello Road. You can see the new grocery store and the new school. The theater hadn’t yet been built when this pic was taken.

Another shot of downtown with the new theater. The new park is in the middle. Clockwise, you can see the new school, the new laundromat where the police station was, and the new bookstore.

Closer-in view of the new park.

Nighttime view. Clockwise, the new Mirabello Plaza, with the new grocery store, theater and bookstore; the new school; the gym (they haven’t decided on that yet), the consignment store, the new library, the new café.

Ok that’s what downtown looks like now. I’m not real happy about all these changes and all our landmarks being gone but I’m not at City Hall making these decisions.

Speaking of growing pains, Andy and I (well mostly Andy) have taken on the herculean task of potty-training Sierra. Truthfully doing anything with Sierra these days is a big fat chore. She cries all the time and the boys have her completely spoiled rotten.

Speaking of the boys… I have to tell you what my sons did THIS time.

It all started when Andy and I were invited to a couples’ retreat. On the day we decided to go, we got a call saying the rooms were going quickly. I didn’t really want to leave but Andy convinced me that it might be a good thing to help me relax. I had a funny feeling all day that something was going to happen. And it did.

Yep, Satis, it’s enough to make you puke.

Apparently while Andy and I were gone the boys decided that it was a good idea to throw a party. They invited a few of their friends and completely trashed the house.

And on top of that, the paparazzo showed up, meaning the details of the party are going to be splashed across every gossip magazine known to Simkind.

I told Andy let’s go back. I had a funny feeling that something was going to happen. Sure enough, Andy and I walked in, and we were just completely flabbergasted. The house was full of hormonal teenagers, the music was loud, and there were pizza boxes everywhere.

Andy was positively livid. First he went after Sety, who apparently was the host of the party.

Then he tore into AJ.

But he saved his strongest words for Satis, who wasn’t even home during the party and who walked in pretty much when we did. “Where were you when all this was going on?”

“I—I was at newspaper. My staff meeting ran a little late.”

“I trusted you to keep an eye on things while we were gone, and this is what happens. I’m extremely disappointed in you!”

“I—I’m sorry. I – I lost track of the time.”

“You’ll know next time. You and your brothers are grounded! You go to school, you come home from school. That’s it! You understand?”

I told Andy we would have a family meeting the next day to decide our next course of action. We can’t go on like this.

Current events around town

2011-08-03T08:39:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, it’s me, Savannah.

A couple of blurbs in this morning’s paper caught my attention:

The Sunset Valley City Council, by a three-to-one margin, overwhelmingly approved a 20 million simolean downtown revitalization project. Sunset Valley Mayor Christina Gustafson was pleased with the vote. "The council felt, as I did, that in order to serve the changing needs of our growing population, we needed to modernize and revitalize the center of the city," she said in the city hall press room while announcing the project.

I know I’m completely apolitical, but, revitalization project??? What, are they kidding??? What the heck do they plan on doing with downtown? It’s fine as it is. It’s funny they make this kind of decision without asking US about it.

Seriously, I see nothing wrong with downtown. That’s Mirabello Plaza, with the Everfresh Supermarket, the Nathan J. Plumb (formerly Wilsonoff) Community Theater, and the Divisadero Bookstore.

That’s the charming Little Corsican Bistro, where Dad took me to celebrate my teen birthday.

I wonder what the heck are they going to do to downtown?? Are they trying to turn it into Bridgeport lite? No. freaking. way. Not. going. to. happen.

I’ve even heard they’re trying to get a movie studio built here. This is Sunset Valley, not Bridgeport. Nothing against those folks, but we live a certain way, and they live a certain way. I mean, I’m totally all for progress and change… but not at the expense of our lifestyle.

The City Hall and the Papyrus Memorial Library are two more buildings rumored to be under the gun. Seriously, those are ICONIC buildings. Sunset Valley isn’t Sunset Valley without those.

And then there was this blurb … really shook me.

Seriously??? Noah is DEAD???? Are you fucking kidding me??? And we find out like everyone else does, with an article in the paper. I would so love to know who is handling his affairs. I know Sadie isn’t, she’s dead, and Neil isn’t either. I know that his wife Sadie passed a few days earlier, but, like the article continued to say, he apparently couldn’t live one day without her in his life. “In lieu of flowers,” the article continued, “the family asks for donations to be made to the Community School for the Gifted’s Music program.”

At the same time, there was this:

"Neil Plumb and Noelle Hong welcomed their first child, Nolan Grant Plumb, into the world on yesterday afternoon. He weighed 7 pounds, three ounces, and was twenty inches in length. His paternal grandparents are the late Noah and Sadie Plumb, and his maternal grandparents are Tabitha McHugh and the late Grant Hong. His paternal great-grandfather is Nathan Jolina-Plumb.”

I’m not happy about the fact that Neil is a dad way before he is ready, and I’m certainly not happy about the fact that his parents are both dead. But what can I do.

I found out there is a Jolina Family Mausoleum in Twinbrook. Apparently someone related to my grandmother was an undertaker. I’m not sure who, but I suppose that’s yet another mystery for me to solve. As if there aren’t enough, especially regarding her family.

Visiting Ari

2011-07-26T07:18:00.001-07:00

The stars were out in force the other night when I took my daughter for a stroll down the street.

We arrived at Ari Morris’ house at a quarter to nine.

“Wow. Didn’t expect to see you here. Thought you’d forgotten about the ‘little people.’”

“Well, when I heard you’d moved to Pinochle Point I decided to pay you a visit. My house is right up the road.”

When I walked inside, I had to admit the place was exquisite. Obviously Ari’s husband was fairly well off.

“Been teaching Athena to walk. Sometimes I wonder.”

“So, what you been up to.”

“Babies, babies, and more babies. My oldest two – the ones I adopted from Egypt – are soon to become young adults, and my oldest son is a teenager now too.”

“Oh wow. Well you know I married Rick Morris… and I had a daughter, and I got on at the Times.”

“You did? You told me you were going to get on there.”

She offered me a meal and I whispered in her ear that I had something I wanted to tell her.

“My husband died of old age a couple of simdays ago,” she said over stu surprise, some of the best stu surprise I’d had in quite awhile.

“Wow, I’m really sorry to hear that.”

A part of me wondered why the heck she married that old guy in the first place, but I bit my tongue, thinking better of it. She’s known enough sorrow in her life as it is. Her parents died in a house fire before she turned teen and she went to live with a family friend, after which she’d moved to Sunset Valley.

“How are you holding up?” I asked.

“It’s been hard, raising Athena alone. But I’m glad you’re still around. At least some things are the same.”

I let out a deep breath. If she only knew.

Then I asked about the house.

“I saw it in this magazine of celebrity homes, belonged to my favorite romance novelist Annabelle Smith –“

Trash books, I thought.

“And I contacted an architect in town who built me a replica. Figured it was perfect for Athena and me, plus an extra bedroom for sleepovers and room to grow.”

“You mean you want more children?” I asked. “You can have some of mine.”

That managed to get a chuckle out of Ari. “I can’t believe you’ve got five kids now. And with the guy you couldn’t stand in high school. I still remember you sneaking off to the park on that one fishing trip with him.”

“Hey. I didn’t go to the park. Especially not with him.”

“Yes you did! I saw you there. You tried to lie to me and say you didn’t like him. I knew you did, all along. Girl it was love at first blush. You’re married to him now. You cannot lie to me, Savannah.”

Noelle

2011-07-23T07:53:00.001-07:00

The phone rang the morning after the birthday party. It was Neil’s girlfriend Noelle. She said she wanted some fresh-picked veggies for a meal she was cooking.

I have to say I was stunned by her call. Not just because she’s actually making overtures to our family.

I can’t say I’m comfortable with their relationship. After all, at one point Noelle briefly dated my brother, Sebastian, but I suspect now that he only dated her to make Daisy Ramsey jealous, that he didn’t have any real feelings for Noelle. And now, as soon as they leave high school, not only does Noelle start dating Neil, but she moves into the Alto mansion and is now pregnant, with Neil’s child. I have to admit that aspect of this whole situation makes me a bit uneasy.

Noelle was at the park, where her pregnancy was plainly evident. I can’t say I’m entirely comfortable with the prospect of my nephew becoming a dad and I’m even less comfortable with the likelihood of becoming a great-aunt, so when I saw her, all I could muster was, “Here are the veggies you asked for.”

“Oh, thank you so much,” she gushed, reaching for me.

I grabbed her by her upper arm. “Are you all right?” I asked. “Need anything else?”

“No, Savannah, I’m fine.”

“How’s Neil doing?”

Noelle took a deep breath. “Not well. I love him but I worry about him. Ever since his mom died and his dad got sick…” Her voice trailed off.

“You have to understand, Neil is in no way, shape, or form ready to be a father.”

“He’s been through a lot. He talks about you all the time. He talks about you more than he talks about his parents, honestly.”

“You do realize that the two of you are going to have to grow up, very quickly. Raising kids is a very adult thing. You’re just a couple of kids playing house.”

“It just happened, really. We -- we didn’t plan it. I mean, I’m reading all kinds of pregnancy books, and I’m trying to watch my diet and stuff, and make sure I get my regular massages, and keep having good moodlets so the child can be born with good traits.”

“I just, I’m worried, that’s all. You two, you’re just kids. You have no idea what is coming.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can read all the pregnancy books you want to, you can get your regular massages and have good moodlets to make sure your kids have good traits, but you never can fully prepare for parenthood.”

Sage’s slumber party

2011-07-19T19:01:00.001-07:00

This may well be my last post for awhile. Taking a break while I decide the future of this blog.

Hey it’s Savannah here, with a quickie little update.

I got wind of what happened to Sage at her recital last week through Satis, because Sage herself wouldn’t breathe a word of it to me. I had to explain to her that not everyone was going to want to be her friend – in fact that there were some kids who weren’t going to like her and who were going to be jealous of her.

Anyway, Sage decided to have a couple of her friends from ballet class over to the house for a slumber party. They arrived at eight thirty in the evening.

The girl on the left is Natalie Rutherford and the girl on the right is Malika Williams.

Satis was such a trooper. She was a bit bemused by the whole thing, but she decided to entertain them with ghost stories and games anyway.

Even Toya was being a sport and reading to the other little girl, Wanda Purnell, who actually showed up but wouldn’t socialize with the other girls.

I heard Natalie (the girl with the blue sleeping bag) whisper good night to the other two girls… who were well dozing even though Sierra was stirring in the crib.

Finally the lights went out for real…and the girls fell asleep.

The show must go on

2011-07-14T06:30:00.001-07:00

Meet our new therapist, Ms. Rebecca Howe. Apparently she’s a licensed social worker trained in dealing with children and teenagers.

My father is still a grade A+ charmer. Those warm blue eyes (the same blue eyes he gave to my brother and both my daughters) seem to allow women to melt. But Ms. Howe was not having any of it.

Just while we were in the foyer my father whipped out his photo album with pictures of us. “Look, here’s my family,” I heard him say, “I’m so proud of them.”

“They’re nice, Mr. Plumb,” she said dismissively, “but I’m here to talk about you.”

“Please, Mr. Plumb, have a seat.”

I stood at the door listening to their conversation. I could hear just about every word.

“So. Why are we here?”

I heard dad sigh. “Because my wife and daughter called you.”

“Why did they call?”

Dad sighed again. “Because I did some stupid, stupid things.”

Hearing that from dad was pretty jarring. I mean, when I was younger, I thought he could do no wrong.

“Tell me about them.”

When my father gets into reverie he can’t stop himself.

“I was the result of a one night stand between farmer Nigel Plumb and trauma surgeon Jamie Jolina. My parents, I’m told, couldn’t agree on anything, including what to name me. They finally settled on Nathan.

I still remember my mother tucking me in my crib while she was on call at the hospital.

I split my time between my mother’s house and my father’s farm. The contrast between my parents couldn’t be more stark. While my father preferred spending time among his plants…

…my mother was supremely extraverted and loved spending time among her friends.

But in my mother’s spare moments she occupied herself with music. Sometimes I used to stand by the door and listen. My mother loved music. She knew the classics like she knew the back of her hand. She knew all the great composers just as much as she knew the medical terms.

Then, just before I turned teen, my dad died. I watched it happen.

“How’d you feel watching your father die?” I heard Ms. Howe ask.

“That’s just it. I didn’t really feel anything. It was more of a curiosity than anything, seeing him turn to that ghost state. I know I was supposed to grieve but I couldn’t do it. I remember asking my mother all kinds of questions about ghosts and the Grim Reaper. I also remember her not having the answers I sought. It’s funny, I wasn’t like most kids. I wasn’t afraid of the Grim Reaper.

My older half-sister Maggie actually tried to give me some direction after my dad died. But she was also launching her writing career at the time, so the attention she paid to me was somewhat limited.

I hit my teens and I was completely unruly. My mother did not have a clue how to deal with me. My teacher had actually told my mother that either I was going to be in prison or I was going to win the Simbel Prize.

At this point I was going to school perhaps, maybe, once a week. My mother used to ask me what I was reading, and I’d tell her it was books on music and musical theory.

One day I’d gotten a notice from school. I’d rewritten the school’s alma mater in study hall, adding in a few guitar riffs between stanzas. My mother was waiting for me in her hospital uniform and she was not happy.

Come to think of it, my mother hadn’t been happy since my dad died.

“I was only jazzing up the alma mater. It sounds a lot better with the guitar riffs added.”

“Nathan,” she shouted, “you need to get your head out of those clouds and into your schoolbooks. How are you going to ever make something of yourself?”

“Nathan James Plumb, come back here!” she shouted.

I left my mother’s house and didn’t return.

Instead I moved in with a friend of my mother’s, Holly Alto. I stayed there until my young adult birthday.

I had a small birthday party with my girlfriend at the time, Erin Frio, with my sister Maggie, and my childhood friend Sharon Ursine, and Holly Alto along with my mother.

But soon after I blew out those candles, my mother passed away.

When the Grim Reaper arrived to harvest her soul, I decided to whip out her old guitar, that she’d given me when I became a teenager, and play one of my original compositions. He seemed to like it as he stayed to listen to me.”

At the time I was dating a young lady named Erin Frio. Her father, Jared, didn’t like me very much and we argued constantly. She looked between both of us and tried to get us to calm down.

I went back to my mom’s place where, after a concert, Erin and I had woohoo in my old bedroom.

For a time things were going great between Erin and me, and we were even going house hunting because she had wanted to start a family.

But as I was wont to do, I screwed that up majorly.

Holly and I were at my mother’s funeral dinner, and we got to dancing and we got to talking. The next thing I knew, I’d slept with her.

The next day, Holly summoned me back to the mansion. I got there at about a quarter to six.

There, Holly uttered the three words that would change my life… ‘Nathan, I’m pregnant.’

She was calm. I was the one who was hyperventilating. “It’s going to be fine, you’ll see,” she’d told me.

Then the next night, Erin came by and told me SHE was pregnant, too.

Ms. Howe interrupted again. “So, you got two women pregnant in a short period of time.”

I didn’t hear my dad say anything. He just sighed.

“How were you feeling? You were still very young.”

“I wasn’t sure how to feel. And I certainly was not prepared to be a father.”

“Because you never had a father yourself.”

Dad sighed again. It seemed as though he’d been sighing all day.

“Your father died when you were young, and not only had you not had that male role model… but it doesn’t sound like you had any kind of stability or discipline. So you went out looking for it.”

-- to be continued --

Sage’s recital

2011-07-13T16:30:00.001-07:00

Hey it’s me, Satis.

Well, mom told you guys that Sage was taking ballet classes at the school on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Her ballet teacher, Miss Manoir, used to dance for the Bridgeport Ballet.

The day of her recital, mom got Sage ready and dressed up in her costume and she ran across the street to the school to go dance.

She was nearly run over by this one girl on her bicycle.

After the recital I took Sage aside and she told me everything. She was able to block it out pretty good to dance okay, but I could tell it was still bothering her. “It’s Wanda Purnell,” she said.

I realized she was Michael’s kid sister.

Apparently Wanda used to be in the ballet class with Sage before getting kicked out for being mean to the other girls. Especially Sage.

“I dunno why Wanda doesn’t like me,” Sage cried. “I tried to be her friend.”

I had to explain to Sage that not everyone was going to want to be her friend.

When we walked back in the house, Sety was playing with Sierra, who had just eaten and was in one of her rare good moods.

She was able to relax a bit and play princess for awhile before going to bed.

Mistress #1: Dena

2011-07-13T16:00:00.001-07:00

Hey it’s me, Savannah, doing more reporting from the birthday party.

My brother Bassy and I were in total agreement. We just had to have a little chat with Ms. Dena Hart, the first of dad’s mistresses and the one most responsible for the dissolution of our parents’ marriage.

But I couldn’t say what I really wanted to say to her just yet. Both Noah and my dad were right behind me. The goddamned home wrecker… she really has some nerve. What pisses me off about this whole deal even more, is that my mother was friends with this woman. If any of my female friends decides that she wants a piece of Andy, it’s going to be me and her. Seriously.

I cleared the room so it was just me and Dena. Woman to, well, home wrecker.

“I don't know how you have the nerve to turn up here.”
“I was invited by your father.”
”And he's got some nerve too. You're NOT welcome.”

“Like hell I’m not. I’m a guest of your father.”

“Well I sent out my own private invitations and your name was not on the guest list.”

“I’m not allowed to come as a guest?”

“Like hell you’re not!”

“Well I wanted to finally meet you guys. Your dad talks a lot about you guys… especially you, Savannah.”

“And I’m not done with him either. He shall be dealt with when I get the chance.” I took a deep breath. “I want you to get the hell out of my house. RIGHT NOW. Before I call the police. I don’t want to see you on these premises ever again.”

AJ

2011-07-10T05:28:00.001-07:00

Hey it’s me, Savannah. Now I’m a big bad ADULT. You know, one of those boogeymen you’re afraid you’ll never become when you’re a child… sure I have a few more wrinkles and my hair is a little bit shorter….but I’m the same old me, I suppose. I’m not going anywhere any time soon.

If I have my way my kids are going to go to boarding school and there won’t be anything Andy does to stop me. I have to do something before they send ME to the hen house.

Except for Sage. She can stay put. So far we’ve had zero trouble out of her, she hasn’t even WANTED to set pranks and stuff like her brothers. Although she now says she wants a slumber party for her teen birthday with some of her classmates from ballet. She doesn’t know yet why she has ‘Margaret’ as her middle name. I’ll tell her when she’s older.

AJ, as Andy and I feared, is following right in the footsteps of his older brother Sety. Both he and Sety woke up in their mood swing the next day.

“How are you liking school?” he asked, attempting to make conversation.

The only thing on Sage’s mind was the autumn salad on her plate. It’s her favorite food. I suspect she’ll be a vegetarian too. “Pretty good,” she answered.

“Did you take out the trash?” she countered with. “You know mom said –“

AJ didn’t say anything. He went into the shower by the kitchen and disappeared outside.

We got him a 10 speed bike for his teen birthday, till he learns how to drive. Andy wanted to get a car but I said no, not yet. We still haven’t finished teaching the older two how to drive.

Next thing I knew, the police were in front of the door. With AJ. I wanted to know what happened, and the officer told me that he’d thrown eggs at this one kid’s house.

One thing I have ZERO tolerance for is bullying. ZERO. I was bullied as a girl and I know how it feels. It may not seem like it but I still bear scars today. It disappoints me greatly that a child of mine is engaging in this behavior.

So I was waiting for him when he got in. “I cannot believe you, AJ.”

“Believe what?”

“I cannot believe what you did.”

“I didn’t do anything, I swear.”

“Then why were you brought home by the police?”

“I swear, I didn’t do anything.”

I took a deep breath. I’d risen my hand to slap him across the face before I restrained myself. “You are so lucky the deputy is standing here, because I’d have whipped you into the middle of next week.”

“You can’t tell me what to do, I’m a grown man.”

“You are not a grown man, and as long as you are under MY roof you are going to abide by MY rules. You are GROUNDED. Go to your room. I shall definitely tell your father what has transpired today.”

Have to admit, seeing the police in front of our door brought back memories of another child gone wild.

Me.

Satis-fied Part 3

2011-07-05T18:42:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody, its me, Satis… I didn’t finish telling you guys about prom night.

So anyway, Michael Falcon (yes that’s him in the red sweater) asked me for a dance and I said, sure, okay, why not. He’s a senior and I mean once you get past the pocket protector he’s actually kind of cute. And then he told me he’d had a crush on me since he first saw me. That part was a little bit much.

Sierra became a toddler, and she spends a lot of time playing with this strange looking doll. I’ve never seen this kind of doll before, some far-off relative sent it after she was born. I swear, all Sierra does is cry and poop. Mostly cry. A lot.

So Sety and I were in the kitchen eating PB &J sandwiches and we were casually talking when I found out Mr. Pythagoras, the math teacher and debate coach, had asked him to try out for the presidency. “I so nervous,” he said between bites, “I dunno what to say.”

“Say what you’ve been saying in the debates,” I told him, “and you’ll do fine.”

“But I not been saying anything in the debates.”

“Obviously the teacher wouldn’t be suggesting you for the post if he didn’t see you had potential.”

I looked over. It was mom, she’d been listening the whole time.

“Why did you even join debate if you’re not going to say anything?” I asked him. But it hadn’t taken me long to figure it out. He did it because of a girl.

Sety, Sety. I love him and he’s my brother but sometimes I don’t know what to think. I can’t see him not being president though, as I can’t think of anyone else to do it.

As for me… well, I’ll be doing a lot more writing. As in, I was just chosen to do articles for Student Gossip Weekly.

Right up my alley.

Now that I’m prom queen and my brother is prom king, I get to dish out as much dirt as I got while I was in elementary school and just learning Simlish after coming from Egypt.

And my first order of juicy gossip at Community School for the Not-So-Gifted….

Do everything you possibly can to avoid this girl.

Her name is Candice Lakin and she makes a lot more enemies than friends. Most of the other girls hate her and the boys do whatever they can to avoid her. Candice picks fights with people for no reason at all. Doesn’t matter if she knows them personally or not.

There’s a new student in two of my classes. I happened to come from newspaper when I saw the moving van park down the street. Saw a man and a woman and this teenage boy get out. I assume they’re his parents???

Scenes from a Marriage … and Family

2011-06-28T14:28:00.001-07:00

Hey it’s me, Savannah, sitting in the counselor’s office with my parents. I finally convinced them to see a marriage counselor.

Here’s what you have to understand about my parents. They are drastically different people. That they’ve been together this long and have produced me and my brother is a small miracle in and of itself. And they didn’t have the benefit of a Toya or a Halima to keep them straight.

What I’m not really understanding is, why now? Why did it all have to fall apart like this?

I love my parents to death. I just wish they could see eye to eye.

To my right is my mother. We had a rough relationship, but now, in truth, I feel sorry for her. She actually had it pretty rough. My grandmother was domineering, my grandfather disappeared when she was a little girl, and she didn’t even know who half her family was. She waited years for my father to commit and then when he did, finally, he goes and does this. Of course, it didn’t help that I wasn’t exactly a typical girl.

My mother was basically a single parent, even though my father was right there in the house. My mother and I definitely had our rough moments, times when we couldn’t stand the sight of each other, but she is still my mother, the only one I’m going to get. And I love her.

To my left is my father. When I was little I thought he could do no wrong. We did everything together. I was a total daddy’s girl. I think in some ways I still am.

My father was never the ‘typical’ dad. For starters, he never ever raises his voice above a whisper. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him angry or upset. He’s very even tempered. It’s a Plumb family trait, both Aunt Margaret and my grandfather, I’m told, were the same way. And I see traces of this even-temperedness in both Noah and Bassy. I wish I had it but I don’t. I get really angry, really easily – a lot more like my mom.

For example, Noah’s reaction when he found out Neil’s GF was pregnant? A simple posting on his Simbook account, calling himself “Grandpa Noah.” So typical of him. But I digress.

“How did the two of you meet?” the counselor begins, looking in my dad’s direction.

When my dad didn’t answer, my mom spoke up.

“We were both members of the Sunset Valley orchestra. I had been there awhile and he was the hip, flashy newcomer. I asked him once, ‘Are you sure you’re a classical musician? Because you don’t look or act like one.’ He told me, and I’ll never forget this, ‘I’m as much of a classical musician as you are.’ He reminded me he was capable of doing pop numbers too.”

“So he played a few bars of my favorite song at the time, Debussy’s Claire de Lune…

“..and then he turned around and told me that he’d once played for the Grim Reaper himself. I was sold. I was buying what he was selling.”

“So we had a small commitment ceremony in the community park, for our family and a few of our closest friends, and I moved into his house that he was building on Summer Hill Court. Then I found out I was pregnant with our daughter, Savannah…”

“When I told Nathan I was pregnant and that I was having a girl, he was ecstatic. And I remember asking him why he was so happy, and he told me, ‘I’ve got four sons.’

“I fell in love with Nathan because he made me believe the impossible dream. It was like he had created his own personal wonderland and he wanted me to join him there, if only for a brief moment.

And for awhile, it worked. For a while we were blissfully happy. We were raising our daughter, and then our son Sebastian came after that, and we made it work. We somehow made it all work. We lived our lives as members of the orchestra and we were pillars of the community…”

At that point I had to interrupt my mother, because she was engaging in revisionist history. Lots of revisionist history. I reminded her that all the parties were her idea, to keep up with her own personal vision of a society dame.

“I never wanted or needed any of the parties,” I shouted. “I used to disappear to go to the cemetery just to get away from everything.”

I’m tired of being their band aid. For once in their lives, why can’t they just tell the truth?

-to be continued -

A Big Day

2011-06-23T09:19:00.001-07:00

Hey, it’s me, Savannah, looking up from my novel to tell you about a HUGE day in the lives of the Plumbs.

It began inauspiciously enough, with crying Sierra in the crib in our bedroom.

The little tyrant disturbing my sleep really pissed me off. It took me awhile to calm down, so I simply walked away.

All Andy did was pick her up and she stopped crying. Hate to say it but he is STILL way better at this parenthood thing than I am. And yet he wants MORE children. He has lied.

One of the neighbor kids, Michael Falcon, asked Satis to the prom. Michael is kind of geeky, actually. I’d rather her with a geek than a muscle bound guy who’s going to cheat on her.

Meanwhile, Sety and AJ managed to chase each other around the house before finally taking it outside.

And Andy, fresh from tending to Sierra, went outside to play hide and seek with Sage.

It was time for AJ to blow out his candles. Today he would become a teen.

My little man all grown up *sniff* and already he’s asking for a car and a driver’s license. Sigh.

Here he is after he got cleaned up. Goodness he looks like his dad. The brown hair is from my mom, shockingly enough.

After AJ blew out his candles, Sety and Satis sneaked out to go to their prom, also being held that evening.

But AJ wasn’t the only person celebrating a birthday.

Yep yours truly. Joining the ranks of the adults.

And who did I spy at my party? Oh yes. Bassy and then a lady in a bright pink vest. Ugh. Dad didn’t have to bring HER here.

Dena Hart. As in, his new girlfriend. Ugh. Such a killjoy.

Yep it’s me, with a few more age lines on my face. I’m no longer a young adult.

I was tossing and turning in my bed when I heard Satis and Sety coming in from their prom. They’d been named king and queen!

They came in and ate PB & J sandwiches and went to bed. By then we were ALL tired.

Field Trip!

2011-06-21T16:09:00.001-07:00

Hey it’s me again, Satis. My 4th period advanced Simlish class took a field trip today, to the community theater to see Bill Shaxbury’s play “Much Ado About Sims.” Michael Falcon as usual was in the front, and my partner was Amy Phillips. She just moved in the house next door to ours with her parents and her older sister Carrie. In the back were Eugene Hicks and my brother Sety.

I heard Eugene in the back of me laughing at something, and when I saw that Sety had put a sheet of paper in Michael Falcon’s back that read “Kick Me” I sighed. Sometimes Sety can be so immature.

Andy actually managed to make me laugh before school today. He cracked a joke about pyramids – in decent Arabic, too.

When we got home, Sety and I were in the kitchen eating Toya’s peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. “It's YOUR turn to clear the plates, Satis, you promised!'
”Yeah,” I reminded him, “but I'm not the one who's in dad's doghouse... am I? So I guess YOU'LL have to do it .... again.”
”Sooo not fair.”
”Serves you right for pulling that prank on Michael Falcon this morning and getting caught.”

“How’d you know about that?”

"Besides, it's Friday night. I promised Amy I'd meet her to go to the movies."

“Amy,” Sety sighed, “oh, great.”

“What was it about a prank this morning?”

It was mom. She’d overheard our conversation.

“Uh, nothing,” I hurriedly said, saving Sety from MORE trouble. For now.

Sety was a good little trooper and put up the dishes.

Meanwhile, Sage is made of cute. She stood at the kitchen table after dinner and decided she wanted to ‘hold court’ as a queen for a couple hours. We listened to her babble on about nothing in particular.

She managed to sneak outside at night and deposit the contents of her piggy bank in a mailbox for charity.

It so happened I got to crying Sierra’s crib before dad did. As long as I tucked Sierra into bed and fed her her bottle, I could get dressed and meet Amy to go to the movies.

The Announcement

2011-06-21T15:49:00.001-07:00

Well it’s official. Neil and Noelle have announced their pregnancy. And I can’t even pretend to be happy. Neil is in no way, shape or form ready to be a father. And me? Don’t I feel old. I’m about to become a great-aunt.

And like a good modern couple these days, they announced their pregnancy on SimFace.

Noah’s reaction to the news was, well, quintessentially Noah. He didn’t really react at all, save for one cryptic little note on his Simface account.

The day after Noelle made that little posting on Simface, I confronted my nephew’s girlfriend and soon to be mother of his child.

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have said I ‘confronted’ her, but I did have a little chat with the possible Mrs. Neil Patric Miraj Plumb.

Neil himself had gone to his little part-time gig at the local supermarket, as a stock boy. I looked around their new place and sure enough, there was a baby crib already there. Definitely unnerving, if you ask me.

I told her, flat out, that I thought she and Neil were too young to enter a committed relationship. And that they were definitely too young to be parents. Hell, I still think I was too young to be a mom.

She replied to me with her standard refrain: “But I love him!”

They don’t have ANY idea about love. Just because they’ve moved in together and are about to have a baby doesn’t mean they actually love each other. I mean, just saying you love someone doesn’t mean that you do. They’re kids. They don’t have a clue.

Just the mere fact that she briefly dated Bassy in high school doesn’t exactly sit well with me. Was she just THAT determined to become a Plumb to date one and then turn around and date his nephew?

“You don’t understand,” she cried. “Neil is – sweet.”

Uh-huh. Just because someone is sweet doesn’t mean you have to have his kid.

I’m wondering if the ‘sweet’ she’s finding are his finances. Noah inherited a fortune from the Alto estate and then there is the Plumb wealth. Neil stands to inherit a good chunk of the fortunes of two families and I am not going to allow some gold digger to come in and claim her piece of the pie. Just who the hell does Noelle think I am? I’m not stupid. She was going to be a Plumb by hook or by crook.

Satis-fied Part 3

2011-06-13T16:43:00.001-07:00

Hey it’s me again, Satis.

Draft of mom’s book cover came in from the publisher. Though I’m not really into historical-fiction novels I might have to give this one a look.

Anyway….Sety. I’m not sure what to think about Sety. After he and my stepdad argued again, he sat on the couch and sulked. Prom is coming up and I think he might be grounded for that too.

Speaking of prom, I’ve already got a plan to wear traditional Egyptian dress.

I found this one at a shop downtown. Muslim tradition dictates that the women should have their heads covered at all times.

However, I know of at least one person who is not happy with my decision to go in traditional dress.

Of course. I’m not sure Sety is happy no matter what I do. “Is that homework hard?” I heard Andy asked.

“It’s math,” Sety grumbled. “Math is always hard.”

“Need my help?”

Sety shook his head.

“You know, Sety, it may seem like I’m being harsh to you,” I overheard Andy say while we were eating Toya’s PB & J sandwiches, “but I love you. I care about you. I just want you to abide by the rules of the house, which means you come in at a certain time and don’t do anything that will bring the police.”

“You realize that your mother just had a baby, and you have to cut her some slack –” Andy’s voice trailed off.

Anyway, all of us went to AJ’s scouts ceremony. He looked so cute in his uniform.

The photographer for the Sunset Valley Times-Herald was taking pictures of us as we were leaving. It’s annoying but it is what it is. Because we’re Plumbs any ink containing us sells and gets clicks.

While the photographer was taking pictures, the reporter, Laura Castaneda, took notes, apparently for her story. I’m supposed to ‘shadow’ her next week at Doo Peas Corporate Towers.

More later, I have to get ready for prom.

Satis

Satis-fied Part 2

2011-06-11T20:36:00.001-07:00

Hey. Me again, Satis. Lots to talk about here.

First off, I know most of you know Mom had another baby, which makes five of us. And as the de facto oldest (while my brother is off in no-man’s land), I get to keep track of everything. Fun.

And while she’s busy with the baby, and her new book on some long-dead queen, and all the other things she’s busy with, I’m going to be writing on the blog. Okay. Here goes.

I’m not sure what’s going on with my brother. I haven’t really been able to talk to him. It’s like suddenly we’re on separate planets or something. When we were little we used to do everything together. Now, he’s like a stranger.

I know he’s grounded till infinity because my stepdad was really, really upset with him. I’d never heard him raise his voice, and I don’t know what he did to make my stepdad THAT upset. Hearing him shout like that sent chills down my spine.

The other day Lawrence Lum from my biology class came to study and eat with us. He’s a senior and I remember thinking he was cute, but I was tired and couldn’t really think straight. “You know, Satis, you have a fine house,” he’d told me while we were eating Toya’s grilled salmon. Mom had just walked in from another night of catching spooks.

When I tell people what my mother does for a living, they just laugh. But she is very serious about it and dedicated to her job. She is the ghost studies expert in Simlandia, and has studied this stuff for years and years and years. Within minutes of seeing a ghost she could tell you how he or she died and how long he or she had been dead. Before starting this job as a ghost hunter, she did a lot of treasure hunting and paid archaeological digs (how she adopted Sety and me), which she still does sometimes, and funds her trips abroad with ghost hunting jobs and with writing books.

I remember her telling me once that she has this ‘thing’ for the past.

The other thing mom has been doing a lot of while she’s been home with the new baby is painting. Apparently her mother is a major artist and has pieces in the big art gallery in town.

My stepdad hasn’t just been going after Sety. Just the other day AJ set a whoopee cushion in the sofa and he caught him. AJ was sent to time out.

He still manages to read little Sage her bedtime story.

Sage is so cute though. The way she prances around in that princess costume is a thing of beauty.

Also, since Mom has been busy with the new baby…

…Andy has been teaching me how to drive. And it has not been going well.

Since I am already clumsy, the van has been on the grass more than it has been on the road. “Satis,” he pleads, trying to laugh through the whole thing, “I thought the road was that way.”

I shrugged. “Oops – sorry.” More later, I’m getting sleepy.

Satis

New Baby and New Problems–Redux

2011-06-09T00:38:00.001-07:00

After I had Sierra, I felt hopelessly out of shape. So I decided to make an appearance at the local gym to try to lose some of the post-pregnancy weight.

Toya’s pies and rich meals were murder on my figure. So I started with aerobics and worked my way up.

Then when I was on the treadmill, my phone rang. It was Noah. He told me that Sadie had died.

When I got to the mansion I was in a little bit of a state of shock. Surely explained a lot. I didn’t even know she had been sick. I guess I’d been so busy with my own family – between driving all over town to Satis’s newspaper staff meetings, AJ’s scouts and Sage’s ballet classes, plus my own unexpected pregnancy, I barely had time to breathe, let alone keep up with neighborhood gossip.

I’d also heard through the grapevine that just before Sadie died, Neil had moved out with his girlfriend, Noelle Hong, and into a house down my street. There’s definitely a lot more to this than meets the eye.

I found out something else too. I found out dad had been having an affair.

I decided to confront him. But first, he asked about the kids, and I told him about Sety and my plan to send him (and the rest of the kids) away to Fort Starch Military Academy. I also told him that Andy was opposed to my plan and insisted on disciplining Sety on his own, without consultation from me.

“Well, princess,” he said, “it’s a good thing that Andrew is taking such an active role in the upbringing of the kids, but the two of you have to come to some kind of agreement on Imsety’s future. Have you spoken to his counselors at school?”

“We have, and Sety continues to act up.”

“Well, Imsety is clearly testing the two of you. He wants to see how far you go before you snap. You did the same thing to your mother and me when you were his age.” I could still see the twinkle in his eye, even if it was fading with age.

“Is it true?” I asked, “about the affair?”

Dad cast his head down.

“Who is it?”

“Dena Hart,” he whispered. “Beatrice Hart’s daughter. I never told you about Beatrice –“

Dad slipped into storytelling mode. And when he gets into that mode it’s hard for him to break out of it.

Apparently Beatrice Hart was the best friend of Holly Alto (Noah’s mom). She was, depending on who you spoke to, either the second or third woman my father bedded. And apparently, of the two of them, he had been with Beatrice, then called Bebe, first. “I think I may have slept with Beatrice only once,” he recalled. Sometimes I wonder if my father ever loved any woman.

“How long has this been going on?” I tried to hold back tears.

“Since right after Sebastian left.” It was my mother, coming in from behind.

She found out about the affair, and though they are still living under the same roof, it is as if they are strangers. It’s definitely an odd state of being. I know if Andy even THINKS about cheating on me, he is out the door.

Meanwhile, back at home the war between Andy and Sety rages on unabated. When Sety walked in out of a police car in the middle of the night again, this time after apparently stealing some tests from his teacher’s file cabinet, Andy’s voice rose to unprecedented decibel levels. I’d truly never seen him so angry. “I don’t know what’s happened to you, son,” Andy roared, “but you are in a lot of trouble!”

“You not my father,” Sety’s familiar broken Simlish refrain continued.

“No, boy, I’m not your father. But I certainly don’t want to see you ending up like your father –“

“What you know about my father? You don’t know nothing about my father.”

“I know enough about your father to know that he will never see the outside of a jail cell as long as he lives, and at the rate you are going you are going to suffer the same fate, unless you change right now. You are GROUNDED, young man! You can forget about going to your prom and any other non-school activity.”

He then sent Sety to his room.

New Baby and New Problems

2011-06-06T07:26:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

Well, a lot has happened since I updated you guys last.

First and foremost, Andy and I had another baby, named Sierra. I was surprised as well when I found out I was pregnant.

I really thought I was done with kids after Sage, but apparently the Watcher or whoever the Sim deity is saw otherwise. I don’t know, it’s like I’m cursed or something. I didn’t even want kids at all and now I’ve got five.

I spotted Neil and Noelle, his girlfriend, talking outside the hospital about some party. My partying days ended the moment I brought Sety and Satis from Egypt.

Oh… speaking of Sety and Satis…

They’re teens now, and Sety reminds me a lot of Neil at his age. Except I think Sety is worse.

Oh, he and AJ still talk about their favorite subject (that’s fishing) and almost every weekend they go up to Pinochle Pond to go fishing…and AJ’s Arabic is almost as good as Sety’s…

…but there’s something else too.

The school surveillance camera caught him going into the building at three in the morning. Apparently he’d covered the principal’s office with toilet paper. He denied it but then the cop showed him the picture.

When he was being pursued he took off like a ghost out of the ground.

Meanwhile, I felt that Andy’s warm body wasn’t next to mine anymore.

Next thing I knew, I heard yelling in the kitchen. Lots and lots of yelling. I had never heard Andy so upset.

I didn’t hear too much of the conversation as I was drifting in and out of consciousness, but I heard Sety say in his broken Simlish, “you’re not my dad, you no tell me what to do!”

“Young man, as long as you're part of this family, you're expected to behave yourself! And that means not being brought home by the police. You understand?”

As for the younger kids, Sage started school finally. I thought she’d never get out of diapers. Andy built her and AJ a tree house in the backyard.

She already seems to have made a new friend. I think this little guy is Alfred Light.

She enjoys it when Toya reads her a bedtime story at night while I’m at work.

She’s fitting right in with the older kids. She seems to particularly like tagging along with Satis and I think she’s picking up some Arabic words.

Before he left for his soccer tournament Andy made sure to tuck AJ into bed.

A Different Kind of Ghost Hunting Assignment

2011-05-19T06:30:00.001-07:00

I was called to the home of Darrel Marks and Tracey Gonzalez the other night, they had a problem with a ghost. Darrel, if you remember, was my first high school crush. And Tracey is his current girlfriend.

It wasn’t just any ghost. It was one of those ghosts in Medieval dress. And she was not happy with me. This was my toughest ghost yet.

She was difficult to catch, too. My first attempt to zap her with the Banshee Blaster was an abysmal failure. Even though I am a Level 8 ghost hunter, I can and do fail first attempts from time to time, painful as it is for me to admit. So, she approached me.

“You are a lack-witted cur for doing this to me,” she said in a haughty accent that sounded a little like Old Simlish and a little like British and a little like French. By the accent, I could tell that she had been of the nobility.

Finally I attempted for the second time to vanquish this pesky ghost. By the time I was done it was two in the morning and I was exhausted.

Despite myself, I gathered a name, Alys de Montfort, and a cause of death, a wizard’s spell gone awry.

The next day at brunch I brooded over Alys de Montfort. I had to find out everything I could about her.

While on a visit to my parents’ I grabbed my laptop and typed in “Alys de Montfort”…

Alys de Montfort had been of Norman heritage through her father’s side of the family. She ascended the throne of the kingdom of Arkovia after her father, King Edward, had been killed in a swordfight by his own nephew, Prince Michael. When she was a young girl she had been subjected to lessons in etiquette and manners given by her father’s aunt, Cordelia, but she also secretly took lessons in magic and wizardry from a visiting alchemist.

Alys de Montfort was a very scholarly and learned queen. She built what was then the largest library on the continent in her castle.

She sought to secure and consolidate her power by issuing edicts. Her first edict was that her murderous cousin was not allowed to set foot in Arkovia again.

Realizing that her hold on the throne was tenuous until she married, Alys cleverly held off all her suitors, constantly telling them that she would consider their proposals even though she had no intention of ever getting married. The most persistent of her suitors was the Merchant Prince of Tredony.

Alys enjoyed long jaunts through the forests surrounding her castle, where she would occasionally hunt bears. Her advisers hated this and constantly complained about it.

She was noted for having a bit of a temper; her advisers hated this and called it ‘unladylike.’

She also had some skills in sword fighting. She once had to defend herself against a bandit.

When she asked for money to build a magic laboratory in the castle, her royal advisers refused; instead she appropriated some of her dowry money to do it.

A magic experiment gone wrong is the generally accepted reason historians give for Alys de Montfort’s death; attempts to revive her failed. After her death, Arkovia fell to the Nimbans from the far north; the kingdom was never fully the same.

After the medieval period, most of the provinces were split up and boundaries realigned. I didn’t realize Sunset Valley was this old. Apparently it was built on the ruins of one of the ancient provinces.

A thousand Sim years ago, a remarkable woman named Alys de Montfort became queen of a distant land. How did her ghost wind up in Sunset Valley, at the home of my ex-crush and his current girlfriend?

With those questions in mind, I began the draft of my third book.

More from Satis

2011-05-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

In the old stories of Egypt, Satis was the goddess of the floods of the Nile River. My name means "she who shoots forth." According to the books, she was a war, hunting, and fertility goddess who was seen as the mother of the river. Our mother, Fatima, named me and my twin brother Imsety after Egyptian gods. I suppose she meant us to become god like.
I don't remember much about her or our father, Samir. Mom told us that he was a major crime boss in a company called MorcuCorp. We were little when we were adopted and smuggled away from Egypt and neither of us have been back since.
It has been a struggle for us to hold on to our Egyptian language and customs since arriving in Sunset Valley. When Halima was here she helped with that, but now that she is gone all Imsety and I have of Egypt is each other. I miss her, a lot. I'm sure Imsety does, too.

One thing Mom and I have in common is we both love to read. As soon as I got to Sunset Valley she gave me her own Simlish primers first, then I moved on to more challenging books, including her own aunt Meg Plumb’s Moon Colony series. My love of reading is the reason my Simlish is much better than my brother’s. I’ve been complemented on my good diction and penmanship.

The house next door to ours on Pinochle Point had been vacant for as long as I can remember, until very recently, when a family moved in. The best part is the family has not one, but TWO girls our age!

The oldest of the two girls, Carrie Phillips, asked if she could ride the bus home with me. I didn’t refuse.

School has not been easy for me or my brother. We’ve been teased for our heavily accented Simlish and I’ve often sat alone in the cafeteria, or if Imsety has the same lunch period, he’d come sit by me. “My parents thought a change of scenery might do us some good,” Carrie said as she sat next to me. I didn’t know what that meant.

I followed Carrie into her home, and she explained that they hadn’t quite finished packing yet, so there were boxes all over.

Meanwhile, I took a glance outside the window and I saw Imsety running toward our house with Carrie’s younger sister, Amy. Amy has a blond ponytail, while Carrie’s hair is darker.

“Satis,” Carrie said, “you have an unusual name.”

“It’s Egyptian,” I told her.

“Wow, you’re from Egypt? Where all the pyramids and stuff are?”

“You got it.”

Carrie told me her father Peter and her mother Elizabeth decided to move the family for a change of scenery. Then, Peter got a job at Landgraab Industries and Elizabeth began working at Doo Peas in journalism.

I got the feeling there was something Carrie wasn’t telling me.

Guest blogger - Satis!

2011-05-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

Hallo! It's me, Satis Plumb.

I am a teenager, living in Sunset Valley. It's a nice place. Not as hot as home, but no place can be as hot as Al Simhara, Egypt, where I'm from.

My twin brother, Imsety, and I were adopted back when we were kids by Savannah Plumb. We don't remember much about it, and Mom has not talked much about it, either. We were told that we were adopted and we just excepted it.

When we were little, we had an Egyptian nursemaid, Halima Meshkenet. She spoke both Egyptian and Simlish to us.

I love to read. In fact, I think my love of books is the reason why my Simlish is much better than my twin brother's. Since coming to Sunset Valley, I read a lot of books and most of them were in Simlish.

One evening we were in the kitchen where my brothers, Sety and AJ, were eating lobster thermidor the butler had cooked.

"Have either of you boys done your homework?" I asked them while they ate. When they didn't answer I knew they had not done it.

The only thing on their mind seemed to be the fishing trip to Pinochle Pond they were planning for the weekend. Sety was explaining to AJ about the types of bait needed to catch goldfish. Whatever.

AJ is my little brother. He's the son of Savannah and her husband, Andrew. That's why he is called AJ, for Andrew Jeffery. He had Halima as a nanny too and because of that, he speaks very good Arabic. He mostly talks to Sety in Arabic and me in Simlish. AJ gets very high marks in school. He is in the elementary school section while Sety and I are in high school.

Mom's Surprise Announcement

2011-05-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

Don't ask why but I decided to pay my mother a visit. And my mother has this hare brained idea to run for the at-large seat on the Sunset Valley city council.

I mean, I understand it's something to do and she's bored now that Bassy and I are out of the house... but still, it's a little surprising, considering we're decidedly apolitical.

Digging further, though, it's not so surprising that mom has political cajones. Her paternal grandfather, Sir Henry Bellingham, was a member of the British parliament. Even further back, another ancestor was a special aide to one of the British kings.

"Dear, sit and look pretty for the cameras," she told me as I sat next to dad. Talk about awkward. I'd rather be in the bottom of an Egyptian fire pit.

I don't know about mom's chances for winning. She's running against a pretty formidable candidate, Christy Gustafsson. Apparently Ms. G is well established in political circles. Mom has name recognition as the former conductor of the Sunset Valley orchestra so she has going for her. Ms. G's politics are pretty strange, though. She once led a protest against marriage in front of City Hall.

Hello again

2011-04-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone. C'est moi, just checking in.
Things have been pretty busy at Casa Plumb. Dad is still dad, of course. Sometimes I wonder where he gets the energy. He did another concert just last week. Mom is still mom, which means we get a steady diet of ambrosia and sharp commentary about our lives. She has not gotten over the fact that Bassy left Sunset Valley and is now a movie star in Bridgeport.
And Andy? Well, he is still Andy.
The other day I was checking the website for the new boarding school that's going to open in Sunset Valley pretty soon when he walked in. "You're really not thinking about sending the kids there, right?" he asked me.
"Actually, Andy, I am," I told him.
"What the heck is wrong with you?" he asked me. "You adopt two children from Egypt only to decide to send them off to some finishing school."
"I'm not sending them off, Andrew. I'm giving them opportunities I never had. Isn't that the point?"
"No, the point is to be there for them and give them love and attention, not to ship them off to the next person. You don't spend any time with them as it is. I don't know how you do it, between managing your aunt's estate, this household, and your brother's movie career. You're stretched way too thin."
"My brother has his own manager, and as for Aunt Margaret's estate, I have a financial planner."
"The point is, why are you even considering these schools?"
"I want my children to have the finest education possible. I've battled with the Sunset Valley school system long enough. Since they don't get that my children have special needs, then someone will."

"How much do these schools cost?"

"The one I'm looking at, Smuggleworth, is $1600 a child."

"Four children? By my math that's $6400."

I shrugged. "We can afford it. Besides, I could get my parents to chip in too."

"Savannah, that's not right. Sending your kids off to boarding school is not the way to go! What kind of mother are you?"

"Someone who grew up in a household that valued education and is seeking the best way of giving her children that much better a head start in life."

I sighed. I knew somehow that this was not going to end well.

Bridgeport Part 2

2011-02-23T08:17:00.001-08:00

I left Verhoeven’s apartment at 6:30 that evening and went back to Bassy’s place.

He came home in his costume…I have to say, that suit is pretty sharp. He says his character is Josh, the paranormal expert in the Zombies? Zombies! book.

It was my idea to check the hangouts in Bridgeport. Bassy showed me this little dive bar called Waylon’s.

It was a dark and dinky little place which was empty when we got there but filled up quickly.

I sat at one of the empty tables, trying to blend into the woodwork.

Meanwhile, I looked over and Bassy had gotten on the drums.

A crowd had slowly gathered to watch him play. “Hey, Vanna,” he called out, “come join me!”

So, reluctantly, I did. I hadn’t played guitar in public since Noah’s wedding.

A few minutes later I got hungry so I went to the bartender and asked for a plate of food. “Got any health food in here?” I asked.

“Health food?” he responded. “Are you kidding? You don’t sound like you’re from here –“

Screw my diet, I thought to myself. “Gimme a plate of nachos.”

“Nachos, got it.”

Meanwhile, Bassy was signing autographs for a female fan. I’m not sure if I could live HIS life, lol.

So to my surprise I was recognized in Bridgeport, too. “OMG it’s Savannah Plumb!” one lady screeched as she reached for her camera phone. “I read your book cover to cover, goodness, Egypt sounds exciting!”

After eating I had to make a run to the ladies room, and while I was there I ran into a woman called Caroline Custard, who was a staffer at one of the many magazines based in Bridgeport.

“Savannah Plumb, right?” she began. “I’d recognize that face anywhere. I remember that magazine spread a few simyears back. You’re a lot prettier than I thought. How did you manage to keep your skin moisturized in the desert?”

She gave me her business card and told me to drop by any time and “just make sure your handsome brother is in tow.” I laughed.

By the time Bassy and I drove away from Waylon’s it was nearly two in the morning. I know I’m a night owl usually because of my ghost hunting gig, but this was unusual for me.

“You had a good time?” he asked me. “Whoa, watch it!”

Before I knew it I was swerving off the road.

“You want me to take the wheel?” he asked.

“No, I’m good,” I told him, “I’m, I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“Vanna,” he laughed, “you’re drunk! Let me drive.”

“Heyy…what…was… that in that drink? I ordered a Spline Reticulator…”

“That’s it,” Bassy said, “I’m driving.”

Well, he didn’t get fully behind the wheel but he grabbed on to the other side while I was driving. It was an … interesting … ride home.

Bridgeport Part 1

2011-02-21T07:05:00.001-08:00

Can I just begin by saying Bridgeport is not what I expected?

I got all these pictures and letters from my brother, but it really is to be experienced and not talked about.

Bassy’s rented house is in the Hills area, the wealthy section of town where all the celebrities live. It’s … green … and hilly, not unlike home, actually.

“You want to get there on time right?”

“Sure,” Bassy laughed nervously, “but in one piece.”

With my foot on the gas pedal, I sped across the Bay Bridge. It’s as exhilarating as he described.

I arrived at Ms. Verhoeven’s apartment building, the Crescent Bay Pied a Terre, at one-thirty in the afternoon.

I spied the call box but I had no clue how to use it. What the heck are these buttons, I thought,

After pressing the buttons, my job was to wait.

Pretty soon she came out of the elevator. “Is that book good?” she asked.

I turned around. “Oh, um, yeah, I suppose so. I was just looking over some stuff.”

“Savannah Plumb, right?” Her voice was deep, deeper than my husband’s, lol. “Sebastian’s sister, finally. He talks a lot about you.”

“He does?”

“All the time.”

My phone rang again. My agent. “Um, sorry, got to take this.”

My agent wanted me to do a signing at Wilki’s Books & Bath here in B’port. “Look,” I told her, “I’m in the middle of a meeting, could you call me back? Thanks.”

“So,” Verhoeven began, talking a mile a minute, “your aunt, Margaret Plumb, wrote this series of books about a colony on the moon. I adored those books, and I used to imagine myself as either Syna DeLorean or an imaginary lover of Syna. Unfortunately, I don’t have long flowing red hair and I’m not exactly thin…”

That elicited a chuckle.

“So, I thought it would be a great idea to write a screenplay – but I’m running into a few snags.”

Snags?

“What do you need help with? I’m not exactly an expert on screen writing –“

“Oh, it’s not format I’m having trouble with. You see, since Miss Plumb is deceased but copyright is still in effect, I need clearance from her estate, which is why I contacted you. Sebastian told me you were in charge of it. Also, Emmitt Stanley – the teenage son of the head of the studio – is working on his own version. I happened to find out about it by accident, and it’s pretty much a race against time as he’s well ahead. I did read a few paragraphs of his adaptation and I have to say, he’s completely botching the story. He made Syna a blond and said she was half-alien. If I remember the book correctly, Syna is the daughter of the NASA chief –“

“Do you know who gave Emmitt Stanley permission to do a screenplay based on my aunt’s book? Because, based on what I know about the law, unless he’s doing a derivative fanfic for his own entertainment purposes, what he’s doing is illegal. At least you followed the proper procedure in contacting her estate before proceeding on your version.”

I walked away from her apartment, and I swear, she was checking me out. Note to anyone wishing I was single, male or female, I am very much taken.

"Hey," she yelled as I was leaving, "you thought about being an actress?"

Off to Bridgeport!

2011-02-20T20:06:00.001-08:00

I was helping Satis with her world history assignment when my cell phone rang.

It was my agent, brokering a meeting with Sebastian’s boss, Kristy Verhoeven.

Apparently Ms. Verhoeven wants to write a screenplay based on my Aunt Margaret’s Moon Colony books, with an eye for an eventual translation to the silver screen. And of course, since the Moon Colony books are my favorite of hers, and since I’m in charge of my Aunt Margaret’s estate, I want to make sure it’s done right.

Soooo… it’s off to Bridgeport I go, in a rented Margaret Vaguester (how apropos, eh?)

Another Bassy letter

2011-02-05T07:46:00.001-08:00

Hey sis,

Sorry I haven’t written in awhile. Things have gotten real crazy this end. And there are two main reasons for it.

First of all, filming’s set to begin on the Zombies? Zombies! movie. It’s an adaptation of a novel of the same name. I got Kris’ finalized script yesterday and it’s a doozy. My character, Josh, is an expert in paranormal studies (sound familiar?) and be prepared if I ask you questions about what you do. Except his field of expertise is zombies, not ghosts.

Even got my costume.

Oh, and there’s something else I think you should know – I mean, before the tabloids tell you first, haha.

This is Kyra Foster – my new girlfriend. She’s one of Lola Belle’s backup singers. We met at a party at Lola’s place – in fact she’s the one who introduced us. We’re still in the ‘getting to know each other’ stage right now, but please, don’t tell Daisy. I know she’s getting all these letters, but I’m not ready to reveal all right now. I feel guilty about the fact that I didn’t say goodbye to her before I left. I’m not even sure if I can show my face back in the S.V.

Oh, before I go… wanted to tell you that the boss sent me to the salon today. Apparently the role of Josh requires me to cut my hair. I really didn’t want to… but I guess those are the kinds of sacrifices (sp?) you make in the name of art. lol

The barber is named Bronson Littler, and he came highly recommended by Lola. Actually he kinda gives me the creeps.

“Mr. Plumb,” he asked in his high pitched diffident voice. “Are you wanting the Bieber cut? Really popular now. Every male client I’ve had has asked for it and I think it would look good on your face.”

“Um –“

“We’ll try it and see…”

He didn’t exactly give me a Bieber but a modified version of it. It’s okay but I can’t wait for it to grow out.

Oops, that’s my phone. It’s Kris. I’ll talk more later.

Love, Bassy

Mishmash

2011-01-27T07:15:00.001-08:00

AJ has a little bit of an entitlement complex. He always has to be first, whether it’s getting breakfast in the morning or getting on the bus to go to school. Imsety and Satis basically humor him.

Speaking of AJ, his teacher asked for a common relic from Egypt or China for the archaeology display. He has to be the luckiest kid at school because of what his mom does for a living, eh? So I gave him one of my Egyptian fossilized apples to use.

Today he had a play date at Sammy Kincaid’s house (Sammy is Maeve’s younger brother). He’s like me in that he can be friendly but mostly prefers to do his own thing. I’ve heard Sammy Kincaid is REALLY smart and makes straight A’s. I’m secretly hoping Sammy rubs off on him, even though he has asked for a telescope. I have promised AJ that I will get his telescope if he shows me an A report card. Right now he has a B.

“Last one in the house is a rotten egg!” I heard Michael Falcon, one of Sety’s school chums, say. Poor Satis was bringing up the rear, struggling to keep up with the boys.

Andy used his day off to help Sety with his Simlish literature homework. I am beginning to suspect that he is dyslexic.

I brought my concerns about Sety to Andy at breakfast.

“Have you talked to his teacher?” Andy asked.
“Talking to the administration is like talking to a brick wall sometimes.”

Then he suggested that I get on the school board.

“The school board?” I said. “When am I going to have time for it, between my job and my archaeological work?”

“It’s an at-large position, last I remember it. My step-grandma was on the school board in her day.”

Andy had rarely mentioned his family to me, so this surprised me.

Even though I am apolitical, the school board does make some sense. It’s not a political position, but if I get on I won’t feel so damn powerless while my children are being abused by the people in charge just because they are different. I mean, damn it, I was born and raised in Sunset Valley. I grew up here. My father, my aunt, and all my siblings were educated in this school system. If anyone knows how things should work here, it’s me.

I still am hesitating about doing it. What I’m not hesitating about is getting Sety tested for dyslexia.

Meanwhile, Toya has had most of the Sage duties, especially since we put the baby crib in her room so she wouldn’t wake us up at night. Hey, if we’re paying her $1200 simoleans to live under our roof…

Meanwhile, she and Andy have been getting to know each other. He is slowly warming up to the idea of a butler being in the house. With his soccer games more and more often and with my situation being in flux all the time, though he misses Halima, he’s beginning to appreciate Toya being around. I love being right.

For a little bit of Sunset Valley gossip: There’s a new stylist in town. Francy is still the main coiffeur but she now has an assistant, Jhonnie. I found out about him when I took Sety to get a haircut. Fran says she has Jhonnie on board to handle mostly male styles since her clientele is growing by leaps and bounds.

Last but not least, my brother Sebastian (Bassy) sent me this glossy he had taken. Remember, he’s now an actor in Bridgeport. I kinda knew he’d go into show business, just not the branch he chose. Mom is still ticked off at him for leaving Sunset Valley, as she thinks he could have done the same thing here. Now that I am a parent myself, I can say Mom is just being protective. I actually can’t say I blame him for leaving. Obviously from his letters he felt like he needed to branch out and figure out what he wanted out of life.

Satis

2011-01-25T11:29:00.001-08:00

Remember when I said things were going swimmingly with the butler? I kinda fibbed… a little. And it’s because of Satis.

The butler went to get Sage out of the high chair when Satis raced to get her before the butler could get there. Satis gets really possessive when it comes to Sage. Funny, I don’t remember her behaving this way when AJ was little. She shoots the butler this look – I mean, you really don’t want to mess around with her when she gives that look.

I had to explain to Satis that Toya now has most of the duties with Sage, and that her only duty was to improve her grades in school.

To that end, I sat on the opposite end of the table while she and Imsety were doing their homework. Sety levied his usual complaint about school – in Arabic – and I heard them speaking in Arabic about the assignment.

Then, emphatically, I heard Satis grumble, “World history sucks!”

Of course, I pretended not to hear while I was re-reading a trashy romance novel. It’s as bad as I remember it, lol. The prose is trite and rife with clichés.

“What did you say about world history, Satis?” I asked her.

“It sucks. Our teacher wants us to write an essay.”

I took a deep breath. I knew that world history would be a sore subject for my kids, given that, well, they’re Egyptian. They cannot possibly give an unbiased opinion, and I knew that I in my own Anglo prism could not possibly comprehend their heritage and history.

“Satis, I’m sure your teacher might appreciate your unique perspective,” I said.

And that isn’t all. Satis’ teacher is recruiting her for the writing club, the same club I was recruited for back in the day. I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again – when Satis is ready to talk, she will. That simple.

I have told the school authorities some of my story. But I have not told them everything. I am not the kind of woman most people expect to have adopted children from a foreign country, but I am richer for it.

I think I understand now why Samir Amin fought tooth and nail to keep his kids away from me. I am a pale, blond, green-eyed Anglo, and thus, in his eyes, not to be trusted. The last I heard of him, he was in prison. I dare not tell the kids that he is still alive. They were afraid of him and had every reason to be.

Moving Day

2011-01-22T12:56:00.001-08:00

Well, we finally moved into our new home. What do you guys think?

Our butler, Toya, continues to be fabulous. She fixed PB & J sandwiches by the time they got home from school. Her traits – Brave, Unflirty, Natural Cook, Neat and Family-Oriented.

The kids are settling in nicely. They get up and they catch the school bus to go to school every morning.

Oh and one more thing. Imsety is in the throes of his first crush.

Apparently he went over to this girl’s house instead of going to his job at the supermarket. Her name is Maeve Kincaid, and Satis tells me she’s one of the popular girls in school. Apparently she’s involved with the school drama club and wants to be an actress. Hmm. I don’t know about this one, that’s not my department.

This is entirely new territory for me as I am not sure how to handle this. I am not Sety’s biological mother but I have raised him since he was a boy. I knew this was coming but you know, there's no way to prepare for this kind of stuff. I don’t know how to talk to him about this… and I’m not sure if I want to approach Andy with this.

This is Ross, Maeve’s father. He’s a freelance writer. I met him once, at my book club, but didn’t make the connection until now.

At any rate Sety seems entirely taken with her. I have never met her so I cannot judge how she feels about him.

My new house!

2011-01-16T19:29:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the new Casa Savannah

I hired an outside architect to design and build our new home on Pinochle Point. Six bedrooms, five bathrooms – is that enough space for us? I hope it is! It’s almost done and we’re going to move in within the week, hopefully.

How do you like it, Bassy? There’s a guest room so you’re welcome to come and visit – and bring whoever…

Response #7

2011-01-13T10:53:00.001-08:00

Hey Bassy,

Just got done reading your (long) letter while waiting in the principal’s office. Yep, it’s Sety. He blew up the science lab.

He had noble intentions. He was taking the new class in inventing they offered at the school for extra credit. Apparently he was trying to build robot toys for AJ and Sage, and his blow torch got a little bit too hot. So, for the umpteenth time I’m trying to explain to his science teacher that he is not a native Simlish speaker and his Simlish, while improving, still isn’t the best.

Satis’ Simlish, by comparison, is much better. I actually think the key to her improvement is the fact that she’ll gobble up a good book like it’s something good to eat. The other big thing is everything she’s been reading – has been in Simlish. So I’ve taken advantage of this by piping Simlish literature down her throat and I got her a new part-time job at the bookstore. She’ll read anything, and I’ve started her on Aunt Margaret’s Moon Colony series.

Wow about Matthew Hamming’s new GF. She sounds like quite a character. I can’t say I’ve heard of her or her work, actually. She must be new to Bridgeport. And your boss sounds like someone I might actually get along with.

I’m glad you did what I told you to do, came clean about your relationship with Lola. These reporters need to be set straight. Otherwise the misinformation that they’re feeding their audience is just going to continue.

I came home the other night from work when Halima made an announcement. “Today my last day of work.”

I nearly choked on my falafel. “What do you mean?”

“Tomorrow I go back to Egypt.”

“Going back to Egypt? Why?”

“I getting old. Me want to die in the desert.”

“Halima, you can’t leave now. Especially now that Satis and Imsety are teenagers. They need you now more than ever, to help navigate the tough social waters.”

“You no understand. I have no more visa. Visa go away today.”

“Can’t you apply for an extension at city hall? I mean, I’m sure they make exceptions due to extenuating circumstances. And these, definitely apply as extenuating circumstances.”

“I love Satis and Imsety a lot. They my children. But they no longer children. They growing up.” I could see her eyes welling up with tears.

Halima left that morning, before the kids even got up for school.

Meanwhile, Andy and I had our first major ‘fight.’ He’s upset with me because I hired a butler to replace the departing Halima. Yet he sure slugged that French toast she cooked down, lol.

“Where’s Halima?” he began by asking.

“She went back to Egypt.”

“Went back, without telling us? That’s not like her.”

“Her visa expired and she couldn’t get an extension at City Hall.”

A bit earlier, I overheard AJ ask Satis if she had any trash in her room. He should know better. Satis is neat as a pin. It’s Sety that’s the problem.

Meanwhile, this is our new butler, Toya Patterson. She got immediately to work, fixing our broken trash compactor and making scrumptious French toast. “Why did you do this, and without consulting me,” Andy said. “We’re wasting twelve hundred simoleans and an extra room in our home to provide lodging for a butler. Halima was just fine.”

“Andy, Halima was getting up there in age. Her visa had run out so she returned to Egypt. You have to admit, this was for the best. Her time here had run its course.”

“I don’t understand how you could be that callous, Savannah. To just dismiss someone who was a part of our family. You fired her, didn’t you?”

"I didn't fire her, she left."

"But you didn't make any effort to stop her."

"I don't have that kind of power."

"Yes, you do. You just elected not to use it."

Andy and I didn't talk to each other for the rest of the day. I hate to say it, but things are a lot more orderly with Toya around than they ever were with Halima. She had breakfast ready for the kids, got them on the bus, fixed the trash compactor, made beds, and even dealt with Sage.

Will talk more later.

Love you, Savannah

Auditions and Obsessed Fans

2011-01-10T14:55:00.001-08:00

Hey sis,

I can stay on the treadmill now. You proud of me?

I had to give up the cookies and the key lime pies and stick mostly to salads and seafood. I’ve dropped three pants sizes since arriving in Bridgeport. I’m seldom home these days, between celebrity appearances at nightclubs and actual film work, so not much time to play video games or watch TV.

It wasn’t long ago that I was the one seeking autographs, and now weak-kneed teens are sneaking out of the house at night looking for my signature on a piece of paper. This young lady is Belisama Hemlock, daughter of the Hemlocks who live downtown. I have to admit, all this is still pretty weird to me.

Had to help the boss with an audition, and what do you know, the paparazzi showed up. She’s trying to pick out extras for this new spy movie that’s supposed to come out. Hamming, of course, is playing Steve Glue, the super-spy who’s supposed to leap from tall buildings and disguise himself as anyone and anything. In one scene Steve goes back to the middle ages to stop a tyrant king.

I know all this – the fans, the autographs, the entourage - can go away in an instant – just ask dad. I’m pretty sure someday I’m going to look back and wonder what would have happened if I had done this differently or that differently. But for now I’m just going to take life as it goes.

Love, Bassy

Clearing the Air

2011-01-04T14:24:00.001-08:00

Hey sis,

The next day it was back to the grind, which means back to my new role as a hot-shot mayoral candidate whose gift for oratory wins him fans the world over.

When I got back from work the paps were waiting, even as I was gardening.

Ms. Ornelas whipped out her pad. I don’t know what came over me but I decided, right then and there, to clear the air while I had her as a sounding board.

“Sebastian, there are rumors of your involvement with the pop star, Lola Belle.”

“I know the rumors are going around because of the video of the two of us dancing at Aquarius.”

“Everyone in Simdom has pretty much seen this tape, if they haven’t they’ve been living under a rock. Lola Belle is noted for being incredibly reclusive, so for her to be seen in public with you is a monumental deal. What’s going on?”

“’Tis much ado about nothing, dear,” was my response.

“I can see by the smile on your face that something's making you happy.”
“I can see where you're going with this, and no, I will not bite... I'm just a genuinely sunny and happy person, ask my sister.”
”So, you like gardening?”

“Yes.”
”Anything in particular you like to grow... flowers perhaps?”
”Mainly organic stuff, everything we ate from the time we were born till the time we were teenagers, was made from home grown ingredients. Mom taught us well to be self sufficient as and when the time is needed.”
“So, no flowers.”
“No.”
“Maybe some special food for a 'special lady'?”
"I cook because I enjoy it, besides, I like to see the enjoyment on folks faces when I cook them their favorite meals.”
"So, has Lola got a special meal that she likes?”
I laughed. “You'll have to ask her that one.”

Ugh. If there’s one thing I hate about this life, it’s the constant questions of the paparazzo.

Talk soon. Love, Bassy

First Post of 2011

2011-01-02T09:41:00.001-08:00

Hey sis,

Happy 2011! Did you and Andy and the kids do anything special? I’m sending you this pic, courtesy of those firecrackers you sent me from China.

I went down to the Bay Bridge and let loose. The noise was LOUD!

I was in the business building recording this radio commercial when my boss spotted me. “Sebastian! Sebastian Sunshine!” she called. “I need to speak with you.”

I had to laugh. Sebastian Sunshine, ha!

“Hey Flying Dutchwoman! What’s up?”

“Major crisis! Someone hacked into the main computer at the studio and erased everything, even the script for the ‘Zombies?’ movie.”

“Calm down. Do you know who could have had access to the files?”

“The only people I could think of are myself and Stanley. I will say this, though. Whoever did it did so from a computer not located on the premises.”

“Have you told Stanley?”

“He and Emmy are in Champs Les Sims on their honeymoon –"

“They got married?”

“Yep. Over Christmas. And she’s pregnant.”

“Wow. Have you called the police?”

“They’re completely swamped right now, with the holidays and all. They don’t sit around eating doughnuts like they do in Sunset Valley –"

“Hey,” I teased, “we have our petty thieves in the S.V. too you know.” Then I suggested that she hire a private investigator, someone who’s good with computers, to try to trace the address of the computer that hacked into their files.

“And that isn’t all. I spoke with Silvah Spencer about the other project I’m working on –”

“Oh?”

“I’m in the middle of reading this fabulous book. The main character was this spoiled princess named Syna DeLorean and she was the daughter of the NASA chief, and she got picked to head this mission to the distant planet Zircalon –"

Oh. my. God. I know that book. It’s Aunt Margaret’s. She wrote a lot of science-fiction novels. She wrote in other genres, too, but sci-fi was her favorite. I can’t say I knew her – you did, obviously – she died when I was a baby.

“That’s where I stopped. I can’t wait to find out what happens next.”

I took a deep breath. She can’t possibly be thinking what I’m thinking she’s thinking. No. Silvah Spencer as Syna DeLorean? Seriously? She complained to me about the dearth of good roles for women in cinema, she’d die for this one. Even though I know it would be a big career boost for her, I just can’t see her in the part.

“I was thinking about securing the movie rights. I know she’s deceased, how do I contact her estate?”

I told her she’d have to talk to you about that.

“Your sister?”

“Savannah Plumb. She’s in charge of my Aunt Margaret’s estate.”

Kris looked at me quizzically. “Oh damn! I saw the name ‘Meg Plumb’ on the cover of the book and I didn’t see the connection. You folks are a talented bunch. How many of you are there?"

"A lot." I laughed.

"By the way, I’ve got Savannah’s two books on my very long to-read list.” She gave me a wink as she left.

Looks like you’ve got a new fan, Vanna. ;)

Kristy Verhoeven plays a girl searching for her missing father in “Kelly Keene.”

Kris has more ideas for films than actual movies under her belt. I can only find one movie of hers in the SimSearch database, a detective drama called Kelly Keene (clip above) from 2006. It’s about a girl whose father is murdered and, unhappy with the police, she takes matters into her own hands. She’s billed as “Kristy Verhoeven” and listed as the chief writer, executive producer, and star of the film. Yes that’s her in the red wig. I haven’t actually seen the movie, I think I might check it out, see if it’s on DVD here in Bridgeport.

I decided I needed a drink. Don’t worry, it wasn’t jungle juice or anything like that. Heck, it didn’t even have alcohol in it. It’s pink lemonade, with a special ingredient for energy. I’m gonna need it, especially if Kristin Verhoeven is talking about making a movie out of Aunt Margaret’s book and she’s got Silvah Spencer pegged as the lead. I truly wonder about my boss sometimes.

GTG. More later. Love, Bassy