Thanks for the Memories

Round 3: July 2010 (Summer)
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Carlos (45), Sofia (42), and Angel Rodriguez (5)

(Joel Rodriguez is 18)

Narrated by Sofia

After being laid off from the 1st Street Boutique a couple months ago, I spent a lot of time lying awake in bed contemplating what I was going to do. I definitely couldn't stay unemployed with our money situation and I had no luck finding a job I really wanted.

After mulling it over for a while and talking with Carlos, I decided to open a salon of my own.

I found this great building in Summit Heights that was the perfect size for me to start out.

The previous owner pretty much cleaned it out when they sold the place but they did at least leave 1 chair in for me to start out with.

Since we didn't have enough money to buy the building outright, I applied for a small business loan to get started. It seemed like forever before the bank called to say I was approved, but it was actually only a couple of weeks.

So I've been up and running for a little while now and it's nice to see that some of my regular customers from the boutique followed me to Summit Heights.

But it's always great to see new faces.

Business has been going well. It's definitely not booming, yet, but it's busy to the point where some customers have to wait in the waiting area for me to finish with another client.

And I'm not at the point where I can buy a second chair to hire another stylist, but I'll get there in time. I do wish I had some company during the slower times, though.

I had one mishap since being open. The poor girl's hair didn't take well to the perm I put in and when I went to wash it out, her hair came out with it.

I was so embarrassed and mortified. I tried to make it up to her but she stormed out of the salon so quickly. I honestly don't blame her, though, but I still feel awful about it. I hope she doesn't tell too many people about the mishap.

On a lighter note, Angel is only in kindergarten but he's already starting to take after Joel by showing the same enthusiasm about school. He's always talking about what he did in school each day and he never complains about doing his homework.

And he's been bitten by the science bug. He's constantly going outside to look through the telescope at night trying to discover new planets and constellations. I don't even think he knows what he's looking for, but he'll be out there for hours if we let him.

We don't know where he gets his love for science but we're definitely encouraging it. We bought him an ant farm to play around with and he absolutely loves it. He checks on his ants every morning when he wakes up and every night before he goes to bed.

The only concern we have with him is his shyness. He doesn't seem to be making any friends at school. He never talks about anyone in particular and doesn't bring other kids home with him. And when he gets home, he seems content playing with his blocks or his video games alone.

The only person he even cares to talk to is Joel and he's always asking to talk to him on the phone. We sometimes have to tell him that Joel is busy preparing for his classes and he can't be interrupted so much. Angel really misses him.

We've been trying to break him of it with trips to the park on weekends in hopes of meeting the neighborhood kids.

It was slow going at first but he seems to be taking a liking to Brian Robinson and An Hu. They're a couple years older than Angel but I'm glad they played with him. Hopefully they'll also talk to him in school.

Carlos tried to get me into fishing during our trips to the park and I just can't get the hang of it. I've managed to catch a couple of fish but it's been a pain getting to that point.

Carlos, on the other hand, seems to have much better luck. I'm determined to get better at it, though. Once I try a new hobby, I kind of get obsessed and want to master it.

Joel stopped by last week and I didn't realize just how much I missed him until I saw him.

Angel hogged most of Joel's attention but we got to talk to him a little bit during dinner.

He seems really happy. He's extremely excited to start classes in a few weeks and he and Davina are still going strong.

I think he misses being home though. We didn't even ask and he started cleaning the kitchen and mopping the floors.

He even made sure Angel went to bed on time and tucked him in before he left. He's going to be great with his kids whenever he has them.

Extra:
When I rolled the ROS to lay off Sofia, I first thought I'd have her buy a salon. Then I remembered she's a fitness sim and thought I'd have her open a fitness center, just to try something different. Here's the lot I had her buy first (which, funnily enough, was a salon before I made it over).

I didn't want to put gym equipment in because I pictured her holding yoga classes (and tai chi if she ever learns it). Well, little did I know that sims don't join in when someone is doing yoga on business lot, even when you ask them to join (I'm not sure if they do on regular community lots). The customers just stood or sat around doing nothing or looking at the posters on the wall (that's her husband Carlos doing yoga with her). So it was a cool idea in theory but I couldn't execute it. So I went back to her owning a salon.

Notes:
-It seems like everytime I want to sit down to play, something goes wrong, whether it is real life or my game acting weird. This time it was my game. I had some corrupt file in my downloads that would crash the game whenever I sent a sim to a community lot. But it was like the corrupt file happened overnight because just the day before the crashing, I sent Sofia to her salon with no problems. After weeding through my files for 2 days, I finally got rid of whatever it was that was messing up my game.
-Why is it that kids can play on the playground together but they don't socialize/gain relationship? I sent Angel to the park in hopes that playing on the playground would help him meet the other kids in town but nope. They played together for awhile and he still hadn't even "met" them. So I had to have him greet them and sent them to play tag. Other oversight by EA. What kids don't talk or laugh while they're playing together on the playground?
-The poor bald girl in Sofia's salon is Jessica Whitmoore, a townie girl I made but also the girl Darren Stevens tried (and failed) hitting on during the winter. I made her over to have this long pretty hair and now its gone LOL.
-Special guest appearances from Carla (Sullivan Sims) and Laura's (Lakeside Heights) sims Jaya (red dress) and Anjali (blue stripped dress) in the salon. Those are the only 2 sims from the N99 project that I've had a chance to put in the game. But they look great and can't wait to see them hanging out in Summit Heights (I made them downtownies).
-Sofia's salon is called Nu Du in case you're wondering :). I didn't build it but I did redecorate it. I think the furnishings were all white and it was just too much white for me.