After spending two days in bed due to a particularly nasty gallstone attack I’m feeling far better, and able to sit at the desk again which makes me exceptionally happy. I have completely changed my diet (no meats, no dairy, no sugar, no coffee, clear liquids only, etc) for the next month in an attempt at preventing these attacks completely until I can have my ultrasound and doctors can determine whether or not I need my gallbladder removed. Since the attacks are directly related to what you eat and how much cholesterol is in it this is about all I can do. For anyone out there who has dealt with gallstone attacks before you have my deepest sympathy, this is some of the scariest stuff I have ever had to deal with.
I spent the majority of yesterday (when not sleeping) playing Sims 3 and although at times it chugs a little slow on the laptop it runs fairly well. I learned a few new things.
First of all, my sim-self has a fairly small starter house. Deciding to throw a party with as many people invited as she can possibly add is a bad idea. A very bad idea. The majority of people showed up to the party and then spent a few hours all crammed into my kitchen while my sim-self stood there holding a plate of pancakes, unable to move. People told me I threw a pretty cruddy party and I had to agree, I couldn’t mingle and by the end my sim-self bladder was about to explode. Oh, and thank you whoever it was that broke my sink, because that was just what I needed!
My sim-self also quit her job, after taking on numerous ones in an attempt to find her calling. She tried to be a criminal mastermind for a little while and found the hours too annoying. Plus my first day there the boss asked me to stay late and work for some mafia leaders. I took up gardening which is a pretty neat feature in the game that I enjoy a lot, and promptly quit my job. Why not just create my own farm and sell that at the local grocery store! My meager seeds were not enough though and I headed over to the neighbours house to harvest their plants too. Then I used their garlic, onion, potato, and bell pepper seeds to cultivate my own plants, giving me even more selection. They won’t even notice that they’re gone.
Speaking of which, my sim-self is a kleptomaniac, so if things are missing, well. I can’t help it!
While selling veggies at the local grocery store is fairly good money (I was making 200 a day or so) earning money was still pretty slow. While my sim-self is not THAT hung up on material things, the extra coin is pretty nice, so she took a part time job at the book store a few hours a night. This still gives her lots of time to work on what she wants to do, including a grill-a-thon that the town held in the community park – I was SO CLOSE to winning! Off by one serving of hotdogs and if it wasn’t for the fact that my sim-self had to use the washroom so badly she ignored all other commands, I would have won.
I have noticed one drastic change for me in playing Sims 3 vs. the other sims games. In all of the other games I was a builder. I enjoyed creating and designing the houses far more then I ever enjoyed actually playing a character in game. This time around it’s the opposite, I have spent little to no time building aside from adding a garden and little upgrades here and there – almost all of my time has been spent following my little sim-self along and watching her life. It’s interesting to me, and something that I would not have guessed would change.
The achievement system within the game also appeals to my gamer self, and I find myself aiming for lifetime rewards and goals, something that I previously wouldn’t have cared about.
All in all, it was a great way to spend a few hours, and I’m looking forward to seeing what trouble I can get into today!
You have my empathy — approaching my ‘1 year without a gallbladder’ anniversary. I can appreciate the dietary fear associated with the attacks. Caused me a disproportionate amount of anguish for such a tiny organ. Hope the restricted (aka no fun) diet helps — I know it did for me pre-surgery.
Love your blog/gaming insight btw — take care!
I, too, am typically a builder/decorator type, but haven’t been doing it as much in The Sims 3. More often than not I’ve been moving my families into the prefab homes. I kind of like doing that, because I tend to make all my houses the same and it’s nice to try something different.