@Cikaf is the standing around linked to your sim having a change in emotions? There is a bug that causes all sims on the active lot to freeze until the emotions changes. The only way around this I know of is to hit pause and wait until the change happens and then the game should run as normal, well until another sim has a change of emotion anyway.
Ah, interesting, I hadn't spotted that one. I'll check it out next time I play. I suppose you could move mood altering items next to them when you pause to speed a mood change, or better, make one room in the house the club room with mood items and anything they need for point-scoring actions. A bit of a pain when you've got several clubs going but better than the constant freezing.
Excited now (I don't get out much ...
) - I hope that's the problem!