Fire

So, I’m sitting in a hotel room across the street from my apartment complex because of an electrical fire that started this morning around 7 am. I am thankful for the very nice accomodations and generous daily stipend the apartment management team has set up, that everyone is safe and the free high-speed Internet available at this hotel (although I can’t seem to connect to anything for work– perhaps for the best). Of course, given those things, I am very tired and more than a bit restless as I wonder when I can return to my humble abode and if there was any damage done, whether it was from the fire, from putting the fire out or complications with the electricity (oh Tivo, please be safe).

Despite the fire being out and the damage being seemingly contained, we’re still not allowed into the building because of the danger of asbestos. However, the firemen were nice enough to put on a whole lot of gear and go into the apartments to retrieve essential items so that we can get through the next couple of days (the price you pay for a fire breaking out on a three-day weekend). I made out my little list with all of the things I would like to have for the next few days, but then I prioritized and marked the items the fireman should actually bother with. Realistically, it would be easier for me to go and buy clothes than having a very large fireman searching through my underwear drawer for matching bras and panties. However, he did make a brave effort anyway to get some clothes and in the end, here is just a sampling of the weird items I have with me:

• My (work) laptop
• My briefcase with all important office keys, my new digital camera, and the bottle of nail polish from my last manicure (for convenient touch-ups)
• Some clothes, including a not very useful assortment of underwear and a velour jacket I threw on when the fireman (woman, actually) was practically beating down my door to evacuate the building
• Contact lenses plus related accessories as well as backup glasses
• Almost the entire line of Dermalogica products that I had in my bathroom plus random hair care products that were with them
• Disc 1 of the West Wing first season DVD set (happened to be in my laptop)
• My (khaki) Coach purse
• My watch
• Random CDs in my car that I never listen to because I usually listen to my iPod
• My wallet and my Blackberry, both of which I grabbed when evacuating the building
• The plastic laundry basket all of this was carried down in

What I would also like to have (and would have gotten if allowed to get my stuff myself):

• My iPod
• My Blackberry charger
• All of my clothes and shoes
• My Tivo (I still haven’t watched the newest ER and I am almost physically incapable of watching live TV)
• My brand new Tiffany Elsa Peretti necklace and my custom made ID necklace
• My silver hoop earrings that I wear almost everyday in four of my five ear piercings
• Some real luggage to put everything in

And while all of this is going on, one of my best friends is in the hospital with appendicitis! And here I thought it was going to be a quiet weekend.