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 Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:27 am
Ivie's trick? She used handcream twice a day, and pumice stone too. Why? It wasn't out of vanity, it was because callouses and dry hands just really annoyed her. There was nothing worse than running your fingers across rough palms, in her opinion. It was for a similar reason that she filed her fingernails once a week.
Of course, she didn't know Nye was thinking about her hands. Or, more to the point, her looks in general. Ivie really didn't pay much attention to her physical apperance, despite enjoying nice clothes; she just didn't have time.
"Well you can if you want her to tell you all about her 'horrible' boyfriend, her possibly being pregnant and have her flirt heavily with you in hopes you might beat said boyfriend up and whisk her away on a white stallion." Ivie's tone was completely flat, though one eyebrow did quirk at the end of her little speech. "I'm not joking. She's tried it before. Well...guess we should pay and head out then, if you're done. No rush." She began counting coins out to pay for her waffle while Nye finished.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:36 am
Nye's good looks were upkept by special shampoos he got for free from the salon, a bit of hand cream here and there and general good hygiene habits. He didn't like to put any effort in, either, mainly because he had no time and also because he just didn't like to.
"She sounds like an insanely intriguing person. More so inane than intriguing, but you get my gist. I've done enough boyfriend beating in my day." Nye whisked out his walled and pulled out a ten and a five. He stacked the plates and cutlery neatly, and folded his bills in a visible spot.
"That should be enough to cover us both, and tip that poor waitress. Let's go freeze!"
Nye stood up to shove himself back into his coat and button both rows of oversized buttons, then pulled on his gloves, scarf, and hat. As a final precaution, he patted his pockets for his phone, glasses, and contacts cases, and wanted to say no more on the topic of paying for their meal. He felt obligated.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:07 am
"She's nice enough until you work with her. Eight hours, the only escape from her life story is changing bedpan. The pay's not worth it, but hey, what can you do." She stood, winding her scarf up and straightening her beani. "You know, I'm not sure I want to ask about the boyfriends. Or the lady-killer comment. I think I already have guessed enough on that."
She already had her five dollars of coins in hand and, after Nye walked out the door, she stooped and swapped his five dollar note for her coins. She the waved goodbye to Murial, who appeared to have perked up at the tip, before scurrying out after Nye. She shoved a hand in his pocket; no, she wasn't flirting. She was making sure he couldn't refuse to take it back.
"Now lets go find that parade, mm?" Better nothing was said.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:24 am
"My job suddenly got better."
Nye, regardless to Ivie, wasn't referring to his job as a hairdresser. There was a whole other universe he got tangled in for the thrill of it, and he could get away in there without saying a word. Just taking cash and giving bags.
No, he was not a sales clerk.
Post rolling of the eyes, Nye had to accept the fact that Ivie was just not willing to comply with much. He gave her a playful shove to the shoulder and a shake of the head. "Alright, alright."
Nye was very capable of getting the pair of them very good spots to watch the parade from. His cheeks were rosy and his nose was cold, but he was truthfully excited excited enough to bear it. The weather was incomprehensibly good, and the sun shone on the gleaming instruments as the marching band made their way through as the leads of the parade, followed by all sorts of different performers. In the sea of red, white, and green, there were dancers in dresses and dancing Christmas trees, tap-dancing elves on top of a snowy float, confetti, lights, and the atmosphere surrounding the excited onlookers.
Nye found himself particularly immersed in the series of sleighs that had more bells on the 'reindeer' pulling them than he could count, and he rather enjoyed the sound of bells. His eyes followed the procession curiously, from the dancers all the way to the carolers rounding up the back and scattered throughout where the marching band couldn't be heard as well. He spied several news station vans, and snapped pictures of those while he was busy snapping pictures of the parade itself for his parents, and for his own memory's sake.
He was even so immersed that he forgot about the cold. Huh.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:42 am
Ivie was about to ask just how Nye's job had gotten better, but he cut her off and she simply shook her head. This wasn't a date. She'd pay for herself.
It wouldn't be a parade she'd regret attending. It was over an hour and a half long - not some wimpy fifteen minute affair - and the performers looked overjoyed to be there, grins ear to ear. The floats were alive with colour and movement, people wiggling all over the place, and the cheer was almost palable.
The highlight for the children, aside from the excitement of Santa's imminent approach, was when some of the jugglers threw lollies and wrapped sweets to the crowd. On instinct, Ivie reached up to catch some, offering one of her prizes to Nye before her attention was once more rivieted to the makeshift stage of the road.
And there he was. Santa. Or some professional Santa-actor, anyway. You could tell he'd done this before; he had the tone of voice down, the swagger and even a real belly to hold onto when he did his 'Ho ho ho' deal. Ivie couldn't help but giggle happily; Christmas made her so happy.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:51 am
Nye had kindly refused the sweets, lacking a sweet tooth of his own (although, even at that point, he realized that Ivie would make up for the both of them), but he ended up needing to conserve shots because he kept hitting the limit on his camera's memory card. He took a particular amount of pictures of the elves, giving the explanation that his parents had once dressed up as elves for a charity thing at a mall when they lived in Toronto.
Nye couldn't help himself once the Santa actor came about. He smiled from ear to ear, obviously recalling a few other encounters with the man's fellow actors. He leaned down to Ivie and said jokingly, "I wonder if the stomach fit the role or the role fit the stomach. I do believe my role as the cookie monster has been taken, don't you think?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 5:06 am
Ivie liked toffees. She liked sweets in general really, if you hadn't guessed by now. No sooner had Nye turned back her offer of sweets had she put one in her mouth, sucking on it happily as the dregs of the parade rolled off down the road. The post-euphoric-parade feeling decended on his section of the crowd, with children being tugged away by somewhat relieved parents who hoped that their boundless energies might be spent, and that they could perhaps spend tonight asleep rather than dealing with the pre-present hype.
A breath escaped Ivie, hovering in front of her in the form of steam. She realised how cold she was. "Pretty sure it's a mixture of both. Bet he was thinking 'Oh, I'm playing Santa again this year, it dosen't matter if I put on a few pounds. That's what women say about winter and their weight, after all."
She stamped a little in place, trying to return feeling to her chilled toes. A grin was sent in Nye's direction. "Cookiemonster isn't fat, so I think your title is defended. Now, did you have anything else in mind for this afternoon?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:20 pm
Nye had never liked sweets, so it was significantly harder to bribe him to do things when he was a child. While some kids settled for a lollipop in reward for cleaning up the mess they made, Nye had to be bribed with things like exotic teas and the occasional slice of poppy seed roulette, which he enjoyed quite thoroughly if he had a bitter drink to go along with it.
Nye checked his memory card space over, and seeing as he felt goofy and had space for one more picture, he snapped one of Ivie just to get her when she wasn't expecting. As the preview screen turned blue with the 'Memory Full' message blinking in front of him, Nye shut the camera off and put it into an inner pocket of his coat. "I never gain weight over the holidays. I can't cook anything to make me gain weight, and it takes me like, a week to eat a cake if I decide to be festive enough to bake one. My mother does, or so she says, and I don't hear the end of it until June. I guess the permanent role of Cookiemonster has been claimed by none other than me!"
With a raise of the wrist, Nye checked his watch for possibly the tenth time that day, although this time he did it with a purpose. "I wanted to go pick up a few things for my house, if you wanna tag along. I always end up doing something odd on the side."
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:13 pm
As a child, Ivie had been bribed by sweetened condenced milk. Highly unhealthy but oh so delicious, there hadn't been a lot she was unwilling to do for it. However, she'd been a very good girl growing up so the bribe hadn't needed to be used all that often. It would be a pity, but at least this way she hadn't grown up a blimp.
"Baking's not that hard if you follow a recepie..." She replied, shoving her hands into her pockets and fisting them there. "But if you don't like sweets that dosen't help so much. Heeeeey, that means you can't be the cookiemonster, not if you don't like sweets! That's just wrong, you know."
"What time is it anyway? I don't really have anything else to do 'cept loaf around at home, so I might as well follow."
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:31 pm
"I can hoard the cookies and prevent cavities all over the world, can't I?" Nye took a great stretch before checking his watch again. "It's like, 4:30 ish."
He felt like taking a shortcut back to the shopping center through a residential neighborhood, since being out in the cold any longer would completely kill him off. As he meandered down the street, making small talk as usual, an odd display caught his eye. Nye stopped in the middle of his tracks and looked at a burly, bearded sort of man and his little daughter siting bundled up outside with a box before them, labeled 'Free Puppies '.
"Excuse me for a moment," Nye mumbled, and started towards the two. The child seemed to grow a little sadder and reached a mitten-covered hand to pet one of the little golden puppies gathered in the cardboard box. "What breed are these?" The father grunted out something about retrievers, and then a 'help yourself'. The little girl looked up at Nye with teary eyes, and something just tore at him. Children were his weakness.
He crouched down to the girl's eye level, feeling sort of bad that she wanted to keep all of these puppies and had to give them away. "Which puppy is the smallest one?" he asked her timidly. The girl blinked and reached into the box to pull out a squirming, hyperactive golden retriever puppy and held her out to Nye's face. "Lizzie is. Are you gonna take her, mister?" Nye thought about it momentarily, and held his hands out to take the dog. "I guess I will. That leaves three puppies for you guys to give away, huh?"
The father, glad to be rid of another dog, extended a hand for Nye to shake as he stood up and began to leave. The little girl, sad to see another puppy go, yelled out, "You'll take good care of her, right?"
"Of course!" Nye kept the squirming puppy bundled up in his arms as he walked back to Ivie and gave her a satisfied grin. "I have a dog now!"
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:46 pm
"Ah, not bad. I'd like to be home not too late after dark though. Don't wanna turn into a gremlin or anything, not before Christmas!"
This wasn't really Ivie's part of town so she let Nye lead the way, trusting him not to get lost. It wasn't the nicest of neighbourhoods - no picket fences here, not so close to the city - yet it was one of the more pleasant ones to walk through. You didn't feel as if someone was about to jump out and mug yout at any moment, anyway. The houses were well maintained - the lawns would be too if they wern't covered in snow - and kids rolled around throwing snowballs at each other in the dying light.
As Nye excused himself to go towards the house, Ivie wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm. With the sun beginning to sink across the road and the wind picking up, the chill was beginning to take its toll. The conversation was taking more than a minute and, curious, Ivie wandered through the gate after him. Ohhh, puppies! If her apartment hadn't boasted a 'no pets (goldfish excluded)' policy, Ivie would have scooped one up herself if just to get it out of the cold.
"Oh, she's gorgeous." Ivie cooed, scooting closer as they walked to lavish the puppy's head with pats. "You're allowed pets where you live? Where will you put her? She's too cute." You could almost see the lovehearts appearaing over Ivie's head.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:13 pm
"I'm allowed one big pet or up to three small ones, such as hamsters and stuff, or two medium pets, like a small dog or a cat. Fish are unlimited." Nye unbuttoned his jacket with one hand while holding the puppy with the other, and put her in beside himself to get the poor pooch out of the cold. The dog seemed to appreciate this gesture and licked his chin before returning to sniffing Ivie's hand and giving it the occasional lick.
Nye gave her a scratch behind the ears and a pat before placing his arm back under the new lump in his jacket while Lizzie stuck her head out. This was her chance to see the world! "I guess we're going to a pet store instead... I think there's one in the shopping center."
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:57 pm
"Lucky." Ivie pouted a little.""I'm allowed two goldfish. Two. No more. The landlady checks too, the old coot. Still, the place dosen't smell, I guess." She gave Lizzie one last pat before her hands, protesting the cold, demmanded to be re-shoved into pockets.
"Well I guess we can catch the bus if there isn't one. Anything to get inside, at this rate!" And Ivie picked up her pace, glad when Nye changed his to keep up. The shopping-center enveloped them like a warm blanket, and Ivie sighed in relief. She could feel the metaphorical icicles melting from her body and she shook herself appreciatively.
"The directory here says there's one on the second floor, if we wanna head up. It's twenty-four hour shopping right now though...so I guess we don't have to worry."
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:21 pm
"I actually shopped for 24-hours last year. It was kinda fun, but I completely crashed when I got home."
Up in the pet store Nye took himself straight to the dog section. He knew that if he looked anywhere else, he'd want another pet. As he looked at collars, Lizzie began to squirm in his coat, so he really had no choice but to take her out. "Mind holding her, Ivie?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 9:04 pm
Ivie had no such qualms when they entered the rowdy pet-store. Unlike Nye she couldn't possibly be tempted - she hadn't even the option of pets, and fish had grown boring last year - so she could coo and poke her fingers at the pet pens as much as she pleased. She'd been taunting a little ginger and white kitten when Nye called her over and, reluctant to leave it's little face pressed against the window like that, she hurried over.
"Sure!" It was obvious Ivie was an animal lover. She scooped Lizzie up quick as a flash and held her close to her chest, giggling happily as the boisterous puppy laid doggy-kisses on her chin and cheek. "Aw, Lizzie, I'm clean already, girl!"
Scritching behind the puppy's ear, Ivie peeked at the collars around Nye, thoughtful. "Perhaps a darker colour? Since she's golden and all, yes you are aren't you!" It appeared the red-head had gone back to baby-talking the dog. "Dark blue? Green maybe? Do you need one of the doggy-beds?"
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