Dear Emmeline, I very much enjoyed our little talk at Sheila Mae's graduation party. I am comforted by your attention to Dalila. She is obviously happy at college and I am glad for that although I miss her and you and Sheila Mae very much. Esther is a charming little girl and I love her, of course, but I'm feeling my age and she has more interests and energy then I can keep up with. George, though, is a solemn little boy and very helpful around the house. I do not regret my decision to have him and his mother live here. He is not responsible for the mistakes of his parents and I want him to have every opportunity to make something of himself. Your Aunt Kiara sent me a picture I'm passing along to you for your amusement. It is Candida's mother having a good time at one of the clubs downtown (I'm afraid I forget which one). Mercedes is certainly an interesting woman. I have invited her over for dinner many times but she's only been here twice. I often see her leaving her house by taxi. Won't have a car, she said, because they cost too much money in every way. I have no idea where she goes, although I'm curious. I will not, however, meddle. I've also included a picture of Candida. She has so much hair that I think she has given up trying to control it. I have suggested, as diplomatically as possible, that she try a new hairdo, but she just smiles at me and shrugs. So I must get up and get some work done. Write to me, Emmeline. Love, Mom
Dear Mom, George and Esther, Griffin will be showing up at your door before my letter does and he could have brought these pictures but I was so afraid they'd be destroyed if packed in all of that luggage and junk that's going with him. One of the pictures is one I took of you not so long ago. You were painting and happy. The other is one of Dad that I found and thought you might like to have. The pillow fight is me and Griffin at his party. You can see Dalila (with her bright gold hair) in the background. Griffin's graduation party was great, like Sheila Mae's party. I can't wait to have one of my own. I want the whole neighborhood to be there! Wow, but Griffin and Sheila Mae had a jazzy rental house. Curtains and pictures and a dishwasher! Mom, I have an idea! I think that Dalila and I should move there. Sheila's boyfriend and Griffin's girlfriend are about ready to graduate themselves. There will only be Doreen and she's anxious to get roommates to help pay the rent. Think about it, Mom. Please! George and Esther, you are both getting so tall. Any day now you'll have another birthday and be officially teenagers. It's a fun time, inspite of the homework. Mom, I hope you're getting all the rest you need. I think you're working too hard. With Griffin there now, maybe you should retire from that job. We could spend more time together. Love, Emmy
Phone call from Sheila Mae to Marcel ... Hi, Marcel. Just wanted you to know that I had a wonderful, wonderful time last night. Dinner at Londeste was fabulous. The lobster was perfect. You were perfect. And you were beautiful, Honey. I don't even remember what I ate. You silly man! Do you remember dancing with me? Oh, yessss. That's all I remember. I wish I had my arms around you right now. Oh, Marcel. We weren't supposed to dance in that restaurant. It's not a dancing place. But that was so romantic, slow dancing to the classical music, in front of all those other diners. They were smiling. They were happy for us. *sighs* Except for that annoying little old woman who pestered us. What little old woman? The one that beat you over the head with her pocketbook. Don't you remember that? I only remember kissing you. Why don't you come over here now. I want to kiss you. Did you get the rose I left for you. Yes, my Love. And the chess table, too. You didn't need to do that. We're engaged. I know, but I like giving you things. So, do you want to take me out again this Friday? Hmmm? You bet. Guess I'd better get to class. The sooner I finish all this and graduate, the sooner we can spend every night together. We'll get our own place. We can both stay with Aunt Alison and Aunt Neala. There's plenty of room here and it will save money. I could tell. And they're nice ladies. But we need our own place, and we'll manage just fine. I love you, Sheila Mae. I love you, Marcel. Bye for now, my Darling.
I love reading this story. Thanks for continuing to write! That Mercedes is one scary looking woman. No wonder Dalilah was afraid of her. Brrrrr ... I'd hate to have her spying on me! Great pictures. I'm terrible about taking them. How do you do it? Do you do a screen capture into another program, or were those taken with the in-game camera?
The dance floor scene was hysterical. The other dancers were applauding her, or making faces at her. Several had thought bubbles over their heads with her picture. She was making all kinds of weird faces while she danced. Thanks It's in the game and I think it's called free camera mode. Hit the tab key and you can get in much closer, using the Q to lower the camera, E to raise the camera, and the arrow keys to move left, right, back and forth. Moving in a circle to get around from different angles is trickier, involving using the mouse and left click and hold--I think --I do it so automatically now. What I usually try to do, although not always, is to pretend I'm sim-sized and right there in the scene with a camera, getting up close and sort of eye level. I also try to get action scenes. That means hitting the pause button a LOT, hoping to get them to do something interesting, like in Mercedes dancing. There's a cheat, now, that allows a character to have access to all career reward items, including the antique camera (cheats Help window lists it.) So I got the antique camera for one of the houses at college. The big advantage to that is that it gives a lot of options for posing. Sims assume different positions, like cross arms, and smile for the camera. They do it no matter where you have them standing and even if no one is actually trying to take a picture with the antique camera. It's great, because then I can get them to pose, pause the action and use the free camera mode to take my own picture. I do, however, have a couple of really nice pictures taken with the antique camera that are hanging on the wall at the family home in Baltimore. Strangely, those pictures are not in the 'storytelling' list anywhere available for upload. I really have fun with the picture taking. And I don't care if I use up all my allowance here for uploading. I can always go back and delete some of the stuff in the older threads. It does, I suspect, use up a lot of my hard drive space and pretty soon I'll have to organize. My neighborhood 007 'storytelling' properties lists almost 600 files .
Post script to above -- My camera setting in the game is 'large' and 'high quality.' Which means, bigger pictures and more hard drive space required. But my eyes aren't so good any more so I NEED big, high quality pictures.
Post post script -- move the camera around with the mouse but left or right clicking isn't necessary. It's awkward. I wish there were some other way to circle around the subject but I haven't found it yet.
Mrs. Sybil Sparrow requests the pleasure of your company at the marriage of her daughter Miss Sheila Mae to Mr. Marcel Mace at the Baltimore Chapel on Saturday, October 1, 2005 at 2:30 p.m. followed by a reception
Dear Emmy, Thank you, dear Emmy, for your gift. The food processor is already in heavy use. Our honeymoon at the beach was wonderful and so relaxing. Both Marcel and I came back very much refreshed. In case you haven't heard, being so busy at Le Tour as you are, we've bought the old country house next to Mom's place. It is quite dusty and smells of mildew but we can fix that. We have only a few sticks of furniture, just a card table for meals and no TV. The refrigerator was left in the house by the previous owners and it's quite a banged up mess. Our bed is the cheapest we could find and there's no room for overnight guests but I want you to come for dinner real soon. Marcel has taken a job with the police department. He's a patrol officer at the moment but I know he'll move up the promotion ladder quickly. My goal is to be a general someday. What do you think of that, Emmy? General Mace. General Sheila Mace! As soon as we start to get this place fixed up I'll send you some before and after pictures. Love and hugs, Sheila Mae P.S. Hey, Sis, when I saw the wedding pictures I was a little surprised to see you and Dalila hanging out in the middle of the isle. There were plenty of seats available. Griffin's wedding is in a couple of days and I'd like to see you and Dalila there--sitting appropriately in one of the pews.
Mrs. Sybil Sparrow requests the honor of your presence at the marriage of Felicia Schehl to Griffin Sparrow at the Baltimore Chapel on Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 3:00 p.m. followed by a reception
Dear Dalila, Griffin and I thank you and Emmeline for the lovely candle holders for our dining room table. We will think of both of you every time we have dinner by their light. We were glad that you could share in the celebration of our wedding on Saturday. As you know, I have no living parents, nor brothers and sisters, and am grateful for the kindness all of you have shown to me. Griffin has assured me all along that I would be welcome and loved, and everything he said about all of you has turned out to be true. Griffin and I will both be continuing our studies in medicine. These early days will be very physically and emotionally demanding so we will not be buying a home of our own just yet. Instead, we will be staying with Sybil for a little while. She has generously offered to take us both in. I look forward to seeing you soon, Dalila. Love, Felicia
Dear Emmy, Wasn't Griffin's wedding wonderful? A real roof raiser! I didn't even get tablecloths at mine, although I DID have a bartender which Griffin chose not to do. He confided in me that he had maxed out all his credit cards to pay for everything else, obviously counting on earning BIG as a doctor. Since that is the career chosen by both of them I'm not in the least worried about the debt they are carrying at the moment. Mom tells me that Griffin and Felicia will be staying in her house for a while. I'm glad that she'll have their company around. I worry about that Candida woman. I'm enclosing a copy of a picture from the wedding where she's talking to Marcel. Dalila says she saw Candida FLIRTING with him. That WITCH. Marcel is such an innocent, so gullible when it comes to women. She was also being pretty friendly with Felicia. By the way, what's with the two of them, Griffin and Felicia changing their hair color? They're both true blonds. Now Griffin has dyed his hair black and Felicia has dyed hers red. The colors don't suit their skin tones. They both looked quite handsome as blonds. Let me know if you can't make it to dinner this weekend. Dalila certainly had a good time at Griffin's wedding. Does she go to dances a lot at college? Or was it the juice bar that loosened her up like that? Love, Sheila Mae
Dear Sheila Mae, I'll see you this weekend for dinner, if you promise there's room enough at your card table. (just kidding, Sis) As for the hair color business, you'll laugh at this one. Apparently, Griffin and Felicia got into a little argument about what they found attractive in the opposite sex. This, I think, is a pretty strange argument for a couple who are engaged to be married, but the two of them have always been a little, shall we say, intense. I gather that Felicia prefers black hair on men and Griffin goes for red hair on women. So these two blonds (and you know what they say about blonds) decided that their future happiness was at risk unless they dyed their hair to suit the other's preference. But now that they're safely married I think they'll both allow the dye to just wear off and they'll be blonds again. Now, for goodness sake, stop worrying about Candida. She's got a few screws loose and imagines herself to be mysterious and irrisistably attractive to everyone of either sex that she meets. Marcel adores you. He may be flattered by her attentions but that's it, period. She has no chance of winning his heart away from you. My studies call me. This is the boring part of college life. See you soon. Love, Emmy P.S. As far as Dalila is concerned, it takes just one glass of juice and she's the dancing queen. No harm in that, although it took quite a bit to persuade Mom that Dalila's OK.
Dear Emmy, Wonderful news, Sis. Marcel and I are expecting a baby! Although we were hoping to save more money before starting a family, I suppose this is the best way. Whenever would there be enough in the savings account? The house looks a little better since you were last here for dinner. Remember the card table? It's in storage now. We have a dining room table. No chairs to match yet. Mom gave us a chess table which adds a little to an otherwise bare living room. We found a more comfortable bed at a garage sale. It's an old four poster. Very romantic, I think. It may be the real cause of our "bun in the oven." The kitchen is almost complete. Both Marcel and I got promotions and all the money went into renovations on the kitchen. We have new appliances and cabinets. I REALLY wanted to do the walls over--I HATE that bamboo wallpaper--but being pregnant I thought all the plaster dust and paint fumes might not be a good idea. I had Dalila over for dinner, too (picture enclosed.) I wish the two of you could have come together but I understand how demanding term papers and final exams can be. The other pictures are before and after shots of the kitchen (isn't Marcel cute making pancakes for me.) The new dining table will look better once we get chairs for it. That'll take time. Each chair costs a fortune. Love, Sheila Mae
Dear Sheila Mae, A baby boy! He's so darling. I know how busy you are now with diapers, bottles and middle of the night feedings but take a moment now and then to call me. And don't forget that Mom is right next door. She'd love to help with her new grandchild. All new mothers need a helping hand now and then. Don't be too proud to ask. Here's the picture I took of you, Marcel and Corbin. Love, Emmy
This is so much better than reading a story on the exchange for some reason! I love it! Can't wait to read more! =)
