Sim Images: Camile, the Pretty Tough Girl

I’ve been friends with Camille and Tess for 7 years now. Hard to believe. I met them both at Michael’s Arts N’ Crafts where we worked together for over 3 years, but then continued with wine & cheese parties and birthday parties, hikes and just hanging out. They brought a lot of fresh perspective and youthful vigor to my life. I really enjoyed having younger girl friends! Admittedly, there were times when I felt like their favorite aunt or much older sister– but that’s okay. They seemed to be okay with it as well, so it worked. Today and tomorrow I’m going to present them to my readers officially.

Camille is a Type 9 with both 3 and 6 Lines. She has a delicate kind of sweet and gentle beauty about her. She has a high and airy voice to match the face as well. She’s a little shy and hesitant, very feminine and — well, kind of the ideal as far as many men are concerned. She’s even half Norwegian (like me!) and a natural blond! (Though she tends to bleach it lighter sometimes.) She’s actually more pretty than even a sim-image can convey. Don’t let the innocence fool you though, Camille also has a very realistic understanding of the world and a keen cleverness.

I met Camille when she was 19 years old and pregnant with her first child, a sweet little girl who just turned 7 this month. (Camille married her daughter’s father years later when he finally ‘grew up enough’ and is now VERY pregnant with their second child, a little boy by all reports.) Her baby-daddy was into drugs at the time, so- being a very family-oriented person, she found a job and stayed at it until she got training in framing and specialized in that years later. She very much wanted her baby and was determined to figure something out. She grew up in poverty with an alcoholic father and depressed/delusional mother and they were even homeless through her teens. She turned to some less honorable ways of getting by back then, and she’s under no illusions about how tough life really is now. She’s also confessed she has a rare but powerful temper, and she’s gotten into knock down, hair-pulling, fists flying fights with her sister, even as adults!

Working along side her in retail taught me to appreciate her kind spirit and silly sense of humor. Her life was pretty grim, but she managed to laugh and refused bitterness through it all. She was always working, taking care of her parents or her kid, and never had time for herself. So I threw her a birthday party with other friends from work and we took her to Portland to a good Indian restaurant and then out to Bhangra dancing (Indian rock) and I loaned her a black sari of mine to wear for it, so she could be the undisputed Queen of the Night. She loved it– and it was the only gift she got for her 21st birthday besides a bottle of liquor! After that we hung out a lot, and she admitted that someone helping her have some relaxation time with other women was a big deal she was grateful for. I discovered she was a talented artist, who could draw very detailed and amazingly skillful renditions of animals and people– she’s good enough to make a living at it if she can find a niche that pays decently– like painting children’s bedroom murals or something.

The likely future: I think we’ll stay friends, but while I live in Ghost Lake, we won’t see each other more than once or twice a year. She’s also about to have a new baby in her life and so she’ll be very busy and very tired when she isn’t busy. But we’ll be in touch and make an effort to see one another. Its hard because she’s the only truly responsible person in her household, although her husband Rico is getting better over time and found a job he loves as a delivery driver. They hope to move out of her parent’s home (where their elders live on disability) and into their own place within the year. Like many Millennials, they haven’t been able to afford their own place the entirety of their lives, and they’re in their mid-20s now! I’m hopeful for this lovely young woman, though- because she’s got ‘grit’ and if anyone can find a way to a better life, its her.

Which makes me proud to be her friend!

Over the years we’ve been friends, she’s offered me a lot of patient kindness that I really needed. When my life seemed to get (inevitably?) dramatic, and people threw dark accusations at me, she would just laugh to think of me as any kind of bad person with evil intent– and that may be the most healing thing any friend could do for me. Don’t argue at bullshit, laugh at it! She’s grown up poor like me and run into unscrupulous types and predators (as a pretty girl, I’m sure you can imagine…) and knows how vile other humans can be. She knows that bad people set good people up to fail and fall, and so she’s NEVER doubted me when I was confronted with yet another betrayal from someone I liked, or loved, or helped.

“People suck, Lucy. You can’t let that ruin your day,” she’d advise me. Seems simple, but its wise, too. Maybe her Type 9 personality means she imposes innocence upon darker truths, but unlike my mother, who is also a Type 9, she doesn’t shy away from dealing with reality. She just shrugs and gets on with living. That’s not a bad trait in a faithful friend, and Camille certainly is that.