GEN I: Chapter 3

A new day at work for Alan, and so far he is loving his job. This morning he woke up feeling great, and actually headed into work an hour early. He was waiting at the front door of the building to be in there as soon as they opened up. He spent most of the day meeting his co-workers, but a few hours working pretty hard. His boss Bobby seemed to notice how hard Alan worked, and again was very impressed. Bobby walked up to Alan at the end of his shift with a stern look on his face. Alan was thinking he was going to be in trouble for chatting all day instead of working. He was surprised when instead of being reprimanded, he was promoted and congratulated.
When left the building, he could not help but double over with laughter. He was thrilled to be promoted again.

After work Alan had to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things. He went right home after that, but as he was getting out of the taxi he noticed his neighbor getting home from work as well. He realized he had been here for 4 days now and had not even introduced his self to the people living right near him. Alan got out of the taxi and went down the street to meet his neighbor. "You have a very lovely home!", Alan said "I especially love that you are right on the edge of the water, that must be peaceful."

Just then a woman came up and said "This is not a nice house, there are not even any decorations on the walls or anything!" She introduced herself as Gala, Jimmys roommate. Jimmy scoffed and went off into the kitchen. To Alan, it did not seem like these two roommates got along very well. He continued chatting with Gala so as to ease the tension that had built up by her presence.

After some polite conversation, Gala and Alan actually seemed to hit it off pretty well. He would not be interested in her romantically by any means, but maybe just a friend. Alan was getting pretty hungry and being the mooch that he is asked Gala for something to eat. She told him to help himself to the soup in the fridge, there was plenty to go around. He did so and happily ate it, but left right after he was finished. He was kind enough to wash his own bowl, and not leave it for them to do.

On his way back to his own home, he noticed his closest neighbor getting out of the car and going inside. Alan walked up and introduced himself to Robert, while he shook his hand, Alan realized that he works with this gentleman. Actually Robert is a few steps higher than Alan. "I just wanted to drop by to say hello," Alan said "I just moved in a few days ago." "I have seen you around work Alan, nice of you to drop by." said Robert. They spoke for a few minutes and Alan politely excused himself, he did have to work in the morning and it was getting pretty late.

Before he went to bed that night, Alan wanted to catch up on some sports games that were on in the afternoon. He had missed them because he was at work, then visiting friends. Right when he sat down to watch it though, the television broke. He got a little frustrated, but got over it quickly. It was a little late tonight to fix the TV, so he decided to take care of it in the morning. Alan went to bed and slept soundly.

When he woke the next morning, he had forgotten about the television. He actually slept in a little bit later than he wanted, and had to rush to do his morning routine, shower and eat. He was washing his breakfast dishes when the carpool pulled up to take him in.

Work today was pretty down to business, no mingling. He was determined to show his boss that he made the right choice in giving him the promotion. He only took a 30 minute lunch, and worked pretty hard for his whole shift.

After a hard days work, it is always nice to unwind a little bit. Alan had not gotten h is exercise for the day, and felt stiff because of it. He decided to go to the local pool, that way he could have some fun while he did his workout. He noticed a woman getting into the pool with him, they had gotten there at the same time, and she had caught Alans eye. He thought she was rather cute.

They swam laps together for a while, and actually did a little contest to see who could hold their breath longer. Much to Alans dismay, she won. She did more than win the contest, she wounded his ego a little bit. He was supposed to be this fit and healthy man, but he lost to a woman. After chatting with her for a little while, she told him that she was his boss's wife. Again, not only did she win the contest, but also shot all hope of a date in the future. He is not the kind of man to break up a relationship, much less his boss's marriage!

They swam for a little bit longer, until the sun started going down. Alan got out, dried off, got dressed and took a taxi home.

As soon as he stepped on the porch at home, Alans cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was his boss. He hesitated for a split second and thought 'I hope he does not think anything of his wife and I at the pool together.' Then he realized that was silly, nothing happened, even though he thought about it. So he picked up the phone. Bobby had just called to say hello. They chatted for about 20 minutes before Alan had let him go, it was time for dinner. He made himself a salad, cleaned up the kitchen and went to sleep. Alan woke up a few times that night because he, repeatedly, thought he was still swimming and if he fell asleep he would drown.

When he woke up the next morning he realized that he was off today and did not have any plans. It felt a little odd for him to have a day off. Since the day after he had arrived he had worked everyday. With the promotions lined up the way they were, he had not had a day off yet. He sat there on the edge of the bed for a few minutes to gather his thoughts and think of something to do today. He kind of wanted to work out, but he had not met to many people yet, and wanted to do that as well. "Well," he said to himself "I am not getting anything done just sitting here." He got up used the bathroom and took a shower.

As he was in the shower he noticed his shower could use a cleaning. When he got out of the shower, he saw the same thing about his toilet. "I guess I'll start my day off cleaning," he told himself "not a bad thing to do." He got busy cleaning his bathroom. While he was doing that, he remembered that the TV had broken the other day. As soon as he was done in the restroom, he decided to tackle that television as well.

Being a handy person, he got that done pretty quickly. Alan turned it on just to make sure it worked, and flipped through all the channels to make sure they came in okay. Everything worked as it was supposed to. He stood there for a minute after he was finished just looking at the television. 'Hmm, I could probably tinker with this a little bit, and get a few more channels.... or at least boost the signal and have the channels I get come in a little better.' he thought, 'but I'll do that later.' Alan started making his breakfast, pancakes today. While he was eating, he was thinking of what to do next and decided to go out to the local park to meet some new people.

As soon as he got to the park, he noticed a woman in pink. She introduced herself as Sofia, right away Alan noticed that she was very snobby. He does not like snobs. They talked for a few minutes, but Alans patience grew thin, with every topic. Then out of nowhere, something else caught his eye. Sofia seemed not to notice, he did not want to be rude and stop talking to her so abruptly, so he tried to pay attention both things.

Right beside them, a woman and a man argued. Pretty soon it got into a full blown fight. Alan found his attention floating more toward the fight than the conversation Sofia was holding basically with herself. After a few minutes of this, Sofia noticed that Alan was not paying enough attention to her as she would like, and walked off.

The woman won the fight. Alan did not even notice Sofia leave until it was too late. He shrugged and thought 'I didn't much care for her anyway'. He looked around for someone else to talk to.

It did not take long to see Penny walking around, she seemed to be watching Alan. She walked up to him and said hello, and they talked for a while. Alan noticed she was very easy to talk to, very charismatic. She also openly admitted that she was a party animal. Alan asked if she was seeing anyone. "I'm flattered you asked," said Penny "but yes I am seeing someone at the moment." She then challenged Alan to a game of chess. They played for hours, just chatting away and winning or losing. Penny seemed to know what she was doing when it came to chess matches, she won 2 out of 3 games.

After his and Pennys games of chess, she noticed it was getting dark and said goodbye. Alan decided to head home, but as he was walking away a gentleman walked up to him and shook Alans hand. He said his name was Robert. Robert was very friendly, and the first topic he brought up was marraige and children. Alan could tell he was a family man. "I just moved here from Sunset Valley," Alan told him "This park seems like a good place to meet people, everyone is so friendly" Robert agreed, and told him that the park and the pool would be the best places to meet new friends. Jokingly Robert also said "When it comes to women around here, the pickings are pretty slim though. All the good ones are taken, the ones remaining do not want to tie themselves down." They both laughed. Alan decided it was time to go, and said goodbye to his new found friend. He was happy to have met a few more people today.

Alan reached his home and noticed that the mail had come while he was out. He paid those bills, happy they had not exceeded 90 simoleans yet. As soon as he was putting them back in the mailbox he realized he had not eaten all day, and was famished. He went in and made himself some dinner, washed the dishes and went to bed. He had to work tomorrow, that meant he had to get up early.