6.16.16 - I'm not on fire.

Today my building--not just a building in my apartment complex but my actual building--caught fire. It turned out to be the apartment one over and behind my own. For about 25 nerve-recking minutes I watched fire fighters run around while the smoke just seemed to keep coming, and I thought there was a pretty good chance nearly everything I owned would be destroyed.

Even during that time, when I was pretty worried, I thought about how if that happened we'd figure it out. Jack was out of town and Clara was with the nanny and I was standing across the parking lot. We were all safe, no one was going to get hurt. So those are my first two joys: (1) my family was safe and (2) I've gotten to a point in life, somehow, where my baseline position is "It'll be okay, we will figure it out." Not to say I wasn't scared--I was. But I didn't feel like it would be insurmountable.

I was also grateful (3) the summer weather has been uncharacteristically cool. It was only maybe 80 out, instead of triple digits. The whole ordeal would've been worse if I was stuck outside in 105 degree weather.

But the fourth joy is that: (4) ultimately, my apartment was unharmed. No fire damage, no water damage, no irrepparable smoke damage. Just soot on the kitchen floor and the place smelling like a BBQ. I was so relieved.

For a few hours one of the fire trucks was parked behind my car, so I couldn't leave. I called Erin, who lives a few towns away, not really close at all, and asked if she could come get me because I was going to need to pick up Clara eventually. She drove between 45 minutes and an hour in rush hour traffic to get me, and even though the trucks had moved by the time she did get here, she stayed to keep me company, which I was grateful for. I was a little shaken up and would like to have someone to hang out with. So (5) is my good friend Erin being so reliable and supportive.

(6) Our nanny, Beth. I called her not long after the fire trucks had arrived to tell her what was happening, and she cheerfully kept Clara 1.5-2 hours longer than she's supposed to have to. She gave Clara and her son a bath, put them in PJs, fed them dinner, all while I was dealing with things on my end. She didn't even want to be paid extra for it (though I did anyway). She's such a sweet woman and I am so grateful to have her help.

So Erin went with me to pick Clara up. Since the water and power were shut off in our building, there was no hurry to go back. We found a Panera and had dinner together. That's (7): Frontega chicken sandwich with tomato soup. (8) Is that Clara was is so easy-going and just went with the schedule disruption and played in her high chair and ate pieces of my chicken and later bounced happily on the bouncy cushioned seat of our booth. What an easy kid.

By the time we got home the water and power were back on, and Erin still stayed and kept Clara company while I cleaned all the soot off the kitchen floor.

So yes, a lot to be grateful for today.