Anyway, at the start of this Popmundo Year 74, I spent some time reflecting on my little gray, formerly blue, world. It's been 34 Popoyears since I first burst onto the scene. Well, 34 full years on Tuesday (Senia's birthday). Tomorrow will be five real-life years since Richard and Senia got married. I actually remember being at work and logging in to enact the wedding in "real time" with interactions. Senia kissed Richard at an appropriate 'You may kiss the bride' time. She hugged and greeted all the guests. Friggin hilarious. I would get so bored if I did that today.
Today is also Natalia's 30th. Man. It's still so weird. Olivia just turned 13, Nat's 30 today, Senia's 54 on Tuesday. Logan will be 8 next Saturday. This whole 8-week year thing makes me feel like time is legitimately flying by, it's so... I don't even know. Especially Olivia. She's 13! Anytime Natalia expresses disbelief, it's really my own.
That's not the only time Nat's feelings about it are my own. That whole depressed, 'I don't want to have this kid' pregnancy... that was all me. (A lot of you have heard this story before.) I did not even see that she was ovulating yet, it was her first one and Tony snuggled her maybe one hour into it. Again, it was so far down the diary entries that it wasn't on the main character page, so I never noticed it. It turns out that later that day is when I finally had her stock up on condoms, knowing that she could ovulate any minute. #Timing.
Anyway. I found out she was pregnant when I saw Affected by: Pregnancy under her character pic (this was still old popmundo). At that point, she'd been pregnant for three or four days. On her first ovulation. Yet it took seven or eight ovulation "cycles" for Senia to get pregnant with Natalia. It was aggravating. I had no plans for Nat to have kids until she was in her late twenties, so that screwed things up. But seriously, when I saw 'Affected by: Pregnancy,' I was so RL upset that you would have thought I was the pregnant 16-year-old. I was so pissed that my plans fell through, so Nat became devastated and resistant to being a mom.
But then Chelsea became the one who didn't want to have kids until later. So, there's that.
It's just funny to look at my character selection page now, remembering when it was just Senia. And then Senia, Natalia, and Chelsea, but the latter two were just toddlers or young kids. Now there are 11 characters. And who knows what will come down the road for Troy, Parker, Madalynne. Even though, by then Senia might be gone. Who knows. I'm gonna have to get even more character slots at some point, I'm sure. Hopefully CafePress sales will keep going the way they are.
Sometimes I legitimately feel like these characters are my children, even Senia sometimes, so watching them grow up is fascinating to me. Yes, even though I'm the one growing them up and making their major decisions, it's still fun to watch. Sometimes they say things that surprise me - I write it without even thinking about it. My favorite part about writing is when your characters surprise you. It's awesome when it does. In my fiction writing, I rarely plan anything out except two or three major plot points, and the characters usually tell me where the story goes. Sometimes that happens here, but it's a slightly more controlled environment so I'm not surprised as much.
Okay, I'm done rambling... Ciao!