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Friday, October 14, 2011

“Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.”

The last seven months of my life have by far been the most intense and most humbling of my life. Let's start where we left off though, shall we?

It was a Wednesday, and like any other Wednesday in the summertime in this amazing city we live in, we spent the afternoon picnicking (aka drinking obscene amounts of boxed wine) outside in the grass listening to the orchestra with thousands of other people. It was a relaxing time made even more enjoyable by the knowledge that I didn't have to go to work the next day - I had taken the entire day off in excitement/preparation for closing on my VERY FIRST HOUSE (having moved from college-type apartment to college-type apartment every year for the past ten years). I kept telling people not to discuss it though, as I felt the whole house-buying process had gone too smoothly and something bad could still happen so I didn't want to jinx it. Eventually we ended up at the bar for karaoke night. Well...when you've been drinking since 4pm, it can be a very very crazy night. One friend ended up on the floor of the bathroom stall with a pizza. Another's drunken problems were a little more dramatic though. BFF and the new guy had officially started dating. This didn't sit so well with this guy, who eventually drunkenly sent BFF a series of text messages. When these text messages were ignored though, he turned to the public nature that is Facebook and OUTED HIM ON HIS WALL. The ensuing drama continued until about 3am, when I finally made it home and to the safety of my bed.

Two hours later I was roused from the comfort of my bed by the sound of my phone ringing AND the sound of someone knocking on the door - AT FIVE IN THE MORNING! Groggily looking at my phone and seeing that BFF was who was calling, I made the assumption that he was just being a jerk and deliberately waking me up early. Eventually, I got up and went out to the living room to open the door - the living room that was oddly pitch black. At this point, my thought process wasn't working yet. A voice on the other side of the door told me to get out, so I did. I didn't think to grab anything. I stepped OVER my laptop and my purse. As I walked down the hallway, a burning ceiling tile fell down. I just looked at it confused. They fell down all the time, but this one was glowing...weird. I realized my flip flops were on the wrong feet. When I got outside, rational thought came to me...the building was on fire. Not "somebody burnt chicken" on fire, but "flames shooting from the roof, the whole block full of smoke" on fire..."ON FIRE" on fire..."everything I own is destroyed" on fire.

Then I bought some underwear, got a new ID and closed on my house.

A WHOLE NEW BEGINNING...A FRESH NEW START.

Ok, weird. I started this in October, but didn't post it until the end of JANUARY. And it still posted as October. So when I say 7 months, I mean the end of June.