(open) the little things

[alexmurphy]

I'M ON MY WAY FROM MISERY TO HAPPINESS TODAY

It was quiet. There was a light blanket of sleet...slush? Whatever you would call this wet that was left scattered over everything, from the previous night, and the cold was keeping most people inside. He would’ve preferred the snow. The lack of birds was also an indicator of the season; it made the atmosphere a whole lot quieter without their constant stream of whistles and chirps. The only sound Alex could hear was the sounds of his own breathing, and the slap of his steel capped work boots on the hard pavement. Even the light seemed cold, the sun was struggling to get through the cover of clouds in the sky, and the reflection of what little light there was off his wet surroundings made it seem somewhat eerie, even for it being almost midday.

He walked along, settling his hands into the pockets of his jacket after a little while, feeling the tips of his fingers turning slightly numb. He wasn’t as affected by the cold as most in Addison were, the weather in Ireland tended to be colder than it got here, but it was cold enough, and the days were just growing more frigid.

Alex missed Ireland, sometimes. He missed his family all of the time, of course, but sometimes he wished he had never crossed the ocean and left his homeland behind. There were things he would never regret doing, but he figured, it was probably the reason why he had left the Emerald Isle in the first place, that made him regret it. He knew it had been a foolish idea, to leave his whole life behind, to chase after a girl he had only known for a mere six months. But he had been younger then, convinced that Laura was the one, and that they would settle down, have a happy life together.

But he also knew, things rarely turned out the way you wanted them to. Another six months passed after he moved to America with her, and it was the end of the relationship. He had wanted to settle down, start a family, but she didn’t want to. He had accepted that fact, making himself promise to wait to mention it again until she was ready. But, it never seemed she would be ready. They had parted ways, still on good terms, which he was happy with. He never liked to end a relationship, with anyone, with bad blood between them.

At least he had his job. It was dangerous, and the hours were long, but he loved it, nonetheless. It kind of gave him some sense of peace, knowing that he was helping to save people’s lives, saving them so they could go fill whatever destiny fate had laid out for them. And, it was almost like having a family, at the station, the relationships there was built so high on trust, because if you didn’t trust the man or woman next to you to watch your back in a blaze, you had no hope.

Alex shook his head a little, in an attempt to clear the thoughts from his mind. He tended to think too much, when he was by himself. That was probably one of the reasons he spent so much time at the fire station, rather than at home. Being there, and having someone to talk to, besides Jed of course, but it wasn’t like the Border Collie could talk back anyways, helped him stop dwelling on certain things.

He kept walking, his breath leaving his body in soft puffs of white cloud, thanks to the cold. He preferred walking, to driving. Besides saving money on fuel, it gave him time to clear his head, and he didn’t feel like he was in a rush to get anywhere. And the chances of someone deciding to mug the massive Irish fireman were far less than him crashing his truck, especially with the roads in the wet condition they were in now.

I'M ON MY WAY TO WHAT I WANT FROM THIS WORLD

tagged Open
words 662
outfit None yet
muse Looking Up - Paramore
notes I love Alex <3
credits Lyrics - I'm On My Way by The Proclaimers. Template by Irish

[mouse]

The weather never seemed to affect Jamie at all no matter how hot or cold it got. See, where she was from in Ireland the weather was drastically warm and drastically cold, well in her terms anyway. It was cold in the winter with lots of snow so the cold never bothered her, sometimes the heat did but never the cold. She was outside of her home, as usual, playing with her dogs in the snow. The two Great Danes had their blankets on to keep the warm while Jamie barely wore a sweatshirt. She had found her lightest sweatshirt she owned because the weather was rather warm for her, especially when she was running around with her dogs.

See, back in Ireland Jamie had been a huge jumper before she moved to America. She was young when she came to the US but she still had her thick brogue with a slight twist of a southern accent. In Ireland she had competed in many, many jumping shows and a few events but her parents moved to the states for some weird ass reason. They moved to Virginia where they picked up training jumpers again but this time they focused on the Hunter aspect of the jumping sport. Jamie was pretty damned good at it, taking her horses to the highest level she could go. She was still a teenager when her horse Soxy fell over a fence and she blew her knee out. Jamie was only sixteen with a nice big knee brace on her leg for about six months or so. Imagine walking around with an immobilizing knee brace on while everyone around you rode their horses in show and were winning left and right. Her parents knew she wanted to ride but thanks to surgery, she had to stay off of a horse until she was completely healed.

In America it wasn't terribly hard to get a job with horses but it was very hard to get a job training horses. Jamie had fought her way through barns, training what horses she was given as well as her own and showing multiple horses throughout the circuit. Those years were the hardest of her life because she had really had to fight with people to train and board horses while maintaining some kind of life. Of course she didn't get to do anything as far as having a ton of good relationships because she was always so busy. Horses took up her entire life but now that she only had her horses and two other training horses, she was able to just relax a bit. It wasn't everyday that she was able to come home and play with her two big Danes or sit down for more than five minutes. Jamie wasn't staying at the barn all day everyday riding ten to fourteen horses a day. Thank god.

Smiling with a shake of her head, she turned around to take her sweatshirt off which left her in a thermal shirt. When she turned around she saw her younger Great Dane Kid barking at someone passing by. Butch and Kid, yes they are named after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, weren't aggressive dogs at all. They were actually the most friendly dogs she had ever had and might just be the friendliest dogs she'll ever have. Kid went down onto the sidewalk, wagging his tail as he trot over to Alex and started to sniff his pants. "Kid!" She yelled, now going off in a rant at the dog in Gaelic which she was glad people didn't understand in America. Jamie said some pretty bad things sometimes when she was going off in Gaelic and right now she was cursing at her dog up and down. There weren't really any terrible ways to say certain things in Gaelic but Jamie knew the words that were bad enough. Butch walked with Jamie down the walk in front of her house and onto the sidewalk, staying behind her like a good dog. "I'm so sorry, Faigh amach Kid!" she snapped, yelling for the dog to get off.

Now Jamie isn't terribly tall so she doesn't seem too strong. She barely broke five foot tall but she nearly picked Kid up off the ground completely when she got him away from Alex. "Téigh go dtí an madra teach." She pointed to the house with a shake of her head, turning back to Alex. "I'm so very sorry, he's really just overly friendly and a puppy. He doesn't understand that not everyone likes dogs." As she spoke her brogue broke through her speech and she even ended some of the words in what sounded like a question. Typical Irish woman. Looking at Alex softly, she realized she saw him walking most days and she quirked her head a bit. "I see you walking just about every morning, I'm Jamie."

OOC::She says, roughly, Go the house dog even though it literally translates into go to the dog house lol

[alexmurphy]

I'M ON MY WAY FROM MISERY TO HAPPINESS TODAY

He didn’t expect to see anyone beside himself out braving the weather. The only reason he was slightly feeling the cold now, was because inside the station, they had every heater within arm’s reach on, leaving the whole place far warmer than his liking, and going straight out into a colder atmosphere when you had been in that sort of hit you pretty hard. It was getting better though, the first bite as the cold outside air sucked the heat out of his body when he had first stepped out of the building had subsided, body quickly adjusting to the temperature as he walked. Enough so that after another ten minutes of walking, he removed his hands from the pockets of his thick fire fighter’s jacket again and shrugged it off, slinging the heavy material over one shoulder to carry it.

Maybe he would go back to Ireland for a visit, soon. But then again, he had the feeling, that if he did, there was a good chance he would decide to stay there. He guessed that’s what he missed the most, having family to talk to...and he had no family of his own here. He was content enough with his colleagues, but, then again, most of them had their own families to go home to every day, he only had an empty house. He had friends, he wasn’t going to deny that, but it sort of lacked that...closeness. And here he was, dwelling on what he had just told himself he wouldn’t dwell on anymore. Alex wasn’t even really the type to brood, maybe it was due to the turn of the shitty weather, rain was just downright depressing most of the time. Or maybe the thought of his age...well, he was only twenty six, but thirty wasn’t that far off, and he didn’t feel like he had done much with his life, so far.

He rounded a street corner, gaze falling on a young woman playing with two Great Danes a little way up the street. And here he had been, thinking he was going to be the only one out. That lack of sweater surprised him slightly as well, most people you saw around here at this time of year were wrapped from head to toe in several heavy layers. He figured, she was either completely nuts, or didn’t feel the cold...he was going to run with the second option. He planned on just going on his way, until one of the dogs, whom he presumed to still only be a pup, despite his size, started barking at him, not sounding aggressive, more as if it were a greeting, trotting over to him, sniffing inquisitively at Alex’s pants.

He didn’t expect the barrage of Gaelic that popped out of the woman’s mouth after that either. He chuckled, reaching down to scratch the dog between the ears briefly...oh well, if it snapped his hand off, that would be his own bloody fault. He stopped petting the dog when she approached them, grinning as she hefted the massive dog up with her slight frame, shoving him to one side, before telling him off some more. He probably would have just gone on his way, but he was surprised to hear another Irish accent beside his own and Finn’s, and there was that girl who worked over in the Sugar Shack, but hers wasn’t as prominent, around here.

“No, it’s fine,” Alex answered, grinning at her, his own accent hadn’t been affected from living in the States in the slightest, it was still as thick as ever. “And here I was beginning to think I was the only Gaelic speaking inhabitant of Addison,” he continued, tones joking. It was definitely refreshing to hear in the midst of all of the American accents he heard every day, and sort of made him feel a little better about being out of his home country. “Alex, nice to meet you,” he answered, extending his hand towards her to shake.

I'M ON MY WAY TO WHAT I WANT FROM THIS WORLD

tagged Mouse & Jamie
words 666
outfit None yet
muse XO - Fall Out Boy
notes I shouldn't attempt long posts when I haven't had much sleep xD
credits Lyrics - I'm On My Way by The Proclaimers. Template by Irish

[mouse]

Kid wasn't exactly the most obedient thing in the world but Jamie had to keep reminding herself that he was a puppy. Jamie loved her dogs to death, they were her kids since she wasn't married and had a career to work on. Eventually she would settle down with someone and have a child or four, but as of right now she had to work on training horses. The whole thing with Jayden hadn't worked out at all, he had been too much of an opposite for Jamie. They always fought with one another and eventually they just called it quits on an attempt to make a relationship. Thank god they had because honestly, Jamie had been much happier without him. Once Kid made his way back onto the lawn and Jamie had made sure he was staying there, she looked up at Alex.

It took her a second to reach out and shake his hand, hearing the thick accent in his voice. She smiled brightly, glad to hear a familiar accent rather than the typical American one. "No you're not alone, although I don't think there are any other people who speak true Gaelic...at least that I know of," she gave a light smile. Butch sat down on Jamie's right side while looking up at Alex, tail wagging gently and Jamie reached down to rub his head. "It's nice to meet you, Alex. What part of Ireland do you come from?" Ok, that was one question she could never get the others that seemed like they were from Ireland to answer. The one girl she swore was faking it and the others just didn't like to express where they were from. Jamie's form of brogue was obviously Southern Ireland, her dialect being just a little bit different compared to those from the more Northern area of the country. Of course only the trained ear would be able to notice the difference since most Americans figured all Irish people sounded the same. It was funny to sit there and try to explain to someone how the accents were different because they never got it.

All of Jamie's life she had been subjected to learning three separate languages. She spoke English and Gaelic fluently and could speak enough German in order to get her by. Her mother was part German so she spoke German to her parents, meaning Jamie had to speak to her grandparents in German. She preferred to speak Gaelic, though, the language coming to her easily and next would be English since she could round off most of the letters. Sometimes she destroyed words that she hadn't quite gotten a hold on saying the syllables but she was getting there. "I didn't think I would find someone who understood Gaelic as much as I do here in the states." Well now she had someone who knew what she was talking about if she ever spoke of rainy weeks or certain customs that almost all Irish families had. Like Irish potatoes, the Americanized treat only came out on St. Patrick's Day but back home they were not only made slightly different, they were a more common treat. Oh god that made her want them now, she'd have to go make them tonight or tomorrow when she had more free time.

OOC: lol It's all good. My use is lacking today for some reason sorry for the crap of babbling :/

[alexmurphy]

I'M ON MY WAY FROM MISERY TO HAPPINESS TODAY

Kid’s antics reminded Alex of Jed. Even though the Border Collie had reached full adulthood, in fact, he had a few years back, he hadn’t seemed to have gained any sense of maturity. A memory tugged the back of his mind, a year or so back, when he had been on a break, a rare occurrence, he had decided to go out of town. It was the middle of winter, and he had been walking the black and white dog in the local park, off leash, foolishly. The idiotic animal had seen a woman in the distance, and had thought it would be a wonderful idea to go and say hi. Unfortunately for her, she had been standing next to a small lake...well, he would call it a pond...that was in the park, not frozen over but the temperature of the water had been close to it, and the sudden surprise of having a dog barrel into her had pushed her over backwards and into it. Suffice to say, the woman, Carly, as he now knew her, hadn’t been impressed in the slightest.

“I’m probably a little rusty myself, haven’t had anyone here I can speak to in it to keep me up to scratch,” he said, grinning at her again. The other dog walked over, sitting next to his owner, watching Alex expectantly, but he didn’t reach over to pat the other dog this time, he’d let him come to him, since he might not be as friendly as the younger Great Dane and might not appreciate an unasked for pat. “And I haven’t been back home in a while, but I can’t use that as an excuse, since that’s my own fault,” he continued. His father and mother were probably secretly mortified that he hadn’t been there to visit in years, even though they wouldn’t admit it to him. Weekly phone calls weren’t enough, really, and he did have the thought that they were probably worried that if something happened to him, either through his job or just randomly, they would never find out. Hmm, he hadn’t thought it like that before...

“Born and raised in Killarney,” he answered, flashing her another grin. He really didn’t care if people knew where he was from. And it was nice to form some sort of comradeship with people from his homeland around here, and it wasn’t like he was ashamed of his heritage. Anyone who had a problem with it could get stuffed, for all he cared. He did miss the space, even in the larger towns, it never seemed so crowded as it seemed here...and Addison wasn’t even as big as towns went, as far as America was concerned. Perhaps it was his upbringing, his parents owned a small property, where they still lived, so he had plenty of room to roam as a kid. Ideally, he would’ve liked the same for himself, but there probably wouldn’t be such luck, really, not to mention he didn’t have anyone to share it with.

He chuckled. “It’s a rare occurrence, I agree. Thought I was hearing things when you started talking, actually,” he said, still grinning.

I'M ON MY WAY TO WHAT I WANT FROM THIS WORLD

tagged Mouse & Jamie
words525
outfit None yet
muse She's On Fire - Train
notes S'all good. Sorry for the slight delay, been a bit busy over the past few days
credits Lyrics - I'm On My Way by The Proclaimers. Template by Irish