Eismann: A New Adventure

Title: A New Adventure for A New Life
Lot: Eismann, Monika
15 Silver Vein Rd.

First Visit

As Monika waited patiently at the airport, she allowed her mind to wander back over the past two years' experiences. Never in a million years would she have thought that this is where she would have ended up. Two years ago seemed more like a lifetime ago and, actually, that's just what it had been.

That afternoon, Monika had arrived home from her grocery trip and had put her key in the front door, as usual. But, it didn't work. She twisted it and then pushed on the door. Finally she'd started banging on the door. Worried that she'd lost her mind, she'd gone down the steps to the mailbox to check the address. Yep, 6517 Warbler Dr., this was the place. "What's going on?" she wondered, pulling out her cellphone to call Monty, her faithful husband of the past 38 years. What she heard next stunned her to the depths of her soul.

To sum it all up, Monty had met a 20-something named Tiffany-someone and had decided that his life with Monika had become too hum-drum to bother with even spending another moment of his time. So, he'd asked Tiffany-someone to move in and had changed the locks on the doors. Since the house was in his name, she needen't bother trying to break in or he'd be happy to notify his pals on the force that an intruder was breaking into his house.

An intruder!!! Monika's blue eyes flashed angrily, even now, as she remembered those words. Intruder indeed. Caretaker is more like it. For 38 years she'd cooked, cleaned, paid the bills, done the laundry, ironed his shirts for the man. She'd typed all of his papers when they were in college. She'd given up her own career in business to help Monty make a name for himself as he moved up through the ranks of the police force until he'd gotten his law degree. Then, she'd thrown all the formal paries, made sure that his schedule was organized and basically did everything and anything he'd needed so that he could move up in his law firm until he'd run for district attorney. All she'd ever asked for was his fidelity. And, now, this!

Monika's life had spiraled down into a dark depression where for months she ate her pain away, until one day when her friend pointed out that she may have lost a husband, but that was nothing compared to losing herself. She'd lost a great deal of dead weight, Monty, but had gained enough to make up for two of him in his place. What was she doing to herself? Why was she still letting Monty waste her time. That very day, Monika stopped mourning and started living.

Later that very afternoon, she went to the grocery store to pick up some diet foods and a whole lot of salad stuff. At the counter, as the clerk rang up her purchases, she spotted an entrance application for Ms. Senior Sim Nation contest. It was a beauty contest and, *gasp!*, they even wanted these golden gals to model off swim suits. "Well, if those old gals could do it, so could she," Monika thought stubbornly. She filled out the application right then and there and mailed it on her way out of the store. She was going to use that as her motivation to lose weight.

Over the next several months, Monika lost all the weight she'd gained and then some. But, even better, she worked out and her body looked fantastic. She had to admit, even to herself, that compared to the other women in the competition, she stood out. All that hard work paid off the moment a sparkling tiara was placed on her crown and the purple victor's sash draped over her shoulder and she glided down the runway, waving to the cameras and the audience. "Take that, Monty!" she thought. And then, she thought to herself, "No, YOU take that, Monika and you take all of that applause and all of those rewards that are coming your way and you give yourself a new life, because today, you're free."

From that moment on, she never gave her old life a second thought. Everything in her new life, was strictly what she'd made of it. She'd gotten nothing in her divorce from Monty. He was, after all, a very powerful judge, so he couldn't take credit for one bit of her new life. It felt really good to be free to be herself. But, that's the trouble, isn't it? Who is Monika Eismann? Since that time, Monika had been on an adventure of self-discovery and reinvention to learn the answer to that question. And, now, today, she was starting another leg of that journey.

She watched as the cab pulled up to the sidewalk to take her to her new home. One of the "rewards" from being Ms. Senior Sim Nation, was a new house. Of course, there was a slight catch, (isn't there always?): the new house was located on Silver Shores Island. It's a cute little island in the pacific ocean, previously undiscovered. This island was being used as a sociological experiment, now, and they wanted a Senior with a title and a mission to represent the elder population. Ms. Senior Sim Nation was the perfect candidate. It sounded very exciting, so of course, Monika couldn't very well say no to an adventure. She'd done that enough in life. This part of her life was goign to be all about saying yes to adventure, yes to new things and most of all, yes to her own desires.

After getting into the taxi, Monika wondered where this road would lead her? There were some rules involved in this sociological experiment: She couldn't bring anything with her. That meant, no furnishings, no clothes other than the clothes on her back, her pj's, underwear, a formal, and a sweatsuit. That was it. They said that she'd have everything she needed supplied to her in the house and a little spending cash to tide her over until she found a part time job. Yes, they expected her, and every able bodied sim on the island, to get a job and be productive. The last rule was the hardest of all, though. She'd had to say goodbye to everyone she knew. She had never had any children, because Monty hadn't wanted kids, so that wasn't a problem, but she had to say goodbye to all of her friends and that was ever so hard. A small tear welled up in her eyes and she brushed it away with her well-manicured fingers, just thinking about them. She could have no traces of her future life with her when she started this new adventure. And, based on what she saw at the immigration center just a little while ago, everyone else had had to do the same. She wondered how long it would be until she could meet some of the others. She knew that the island was already populated to a small extent, but her neighborhood would be primarily made up of the six families, including herself, who were chosen to participate in the experiment. It was called The Prosperity Project and had all the markings of a history-making event. But, would making history be worth all the sacrifices each family was making to be here? Monika had butterflies in her toned stomach just thinking about all the possibilities.

How many times do sims ask themselves, "If only I could do it all over again?" What would you change or do if you had the chance to start a brand new life, one that only you create for yourself? What would you fill your life with? What kind of sim would you be? How would you design your present and future if you could start all over again from today? These are the questions that each of them were asking themselves, she was sure, and these are the questions that this experiment hoped to discover the answers to. Only time would tell how much of life is fate and how much is really in a sims' control?