The beginning of Susie’s life isn’t all that well-documented. She started out very career-focused. She began practicing guitar and performing in the park for tips and adulation. She also spent a lot of time fixing the appliances in her crappy little house. But I don’t have photographs of that.

She met her first love outside the theater when she left work. His name was, I kid you not, Cycl0n3 Sw0rd. Susie, like me, has a weakness for geek boys.

They were both young, working crap jobs with ambition to make something of themselves. He was only a Spell Checker now, but someday he would be a journalist. They had a nice chat outside the theater, which he lost the thread of, being absent minded. Then he kissed her. She hadn’t even been flirting, she swears. Just a nice conversation, then instant-lip lock. Maybe it was meant to be. Or maybe not.

Suddenly, Susie was in love. She couldn’t think about anything but Cycl0n3. She wandered around the house fantasizing about him. She longed to call him, but she agonized that it hadn’t been long enough since she called him last. And he? Well, he didn’t seem to call.

Susie was a born party host, and hey, she wouldn’t look too desperate if she just invited him to her next party, right? He showed up at the party, got into the grove, offended all the guests by making disgusting remarks, and… kissed someone else. Right there in front of her.

Susie was heartbroken. She mooned over him for days, and in days in Sim-time is a lot of time. I have to deduce from this that, in addition to being absent-minded, Cycl0ne was Inappropriate and a Great Kisser. A combination like that is a born heartbreaker. He can kiss you out of the blue, not meaning anything by it, and suddenly he’s the only guy you can think about. I’ve met guys like that, come to think of it.

After that, she dated her boss at the theater for a while, a fellow named Stiles McGraw. He was charmed by her inner child, and they used to spend hours playing tag in the yard of her house. He also turned out to be rich. Susie might’ve pushed for a deeper relationship, but I hadn’t quite figured out how to make romance work. When she invited him to stay the night, and he said, “It’ll be fun!” and kept the whole thing chaste, she gave up on him. Maybe he was gay.

(Cycl0n3 and Stiles turned out to be roommates, and Cyclon3 later became her husband’s best friend, so these characters stuck around on the fringes of Susie’s life forever. Sometimes you can’t escape your exes.)

Then she met Connor Frio. The geek weakness was back. He was quiet, shy, socially awkward, and spent almost all his time with his nose buried in a book. In short, he was irresistible.

After a short courtship even by Sims standards, they were engaged. The ceremony was to be held at the Museum of Modern Art. Susie was there early, respendent in white, and the guests waited with bated breath. And the groom was…. where? Not here, where you’d expect him to be, where his bride was waiting for him.

Susie entertained for an hour, smiling and making small talk, trying to make it look as if this was the way things were supposed to be. She tried not to look at her watch too often. (I, on the other hand, kept pausing the game and scrambling around on the menus. Is there any way I could have thrown a wedding party and not invited the groom??)

Then he came dashing up, breathless. Connor apparently lost track of time and was LATE TO HIS OWN WEDDING. Turns out he’s absent-minded too, in addition to Bookworm, Good, Loner, and Unflirty. But at least his heart was in the right place, and he didn’t forget his vows.

Connor took Susie’s name, so they became the Sample family.