it begins!

I'm here. I'm in Dublin. However, I am so exhausted that it doesn't matter where I am. The overnight flight was not conducive to very good sleep (not that I really thought it would be). I always order a window but for some reason the plane wall was further away from the seat than normal....meaning that I couldn't comfortably lean against the window which is my normal M.O. And I had some delusion that I would be able to check into the hostel and take a shower and take a nap. Unfortunately, it's only just after noon, local time, and the room won't be ready until 2. So I'm doing everything in my power to keep my eyes open while I wait.

The Oasis

I always get so nervous when needing to get to the airport that I invariably get there (here) way too early. So, here I am. My flight departs in 3 hours 10 minutes.

The perk 1: there was NO ONE in line when I checked in!
The perk 2: the cutie that checked me in is Irish!
The perk 3: the cutie Irish boy asked me if I would like to get "alinge pass" for $30...unlimited beer and cocktails and buffet and free wifi. Of course I would! I have 3 hours! However, I couldn't figure out what "alinge pass" is. I had him repeat it. Still didn't understand. So when I asked the woman at ticket sales for "alinge pass", she sold me a ticket to the LOUNGE! I had NO IDEA that's what he was saying! I guess I need to get better at guessing what foreign kids are saying since that's going to be my world for awhile!

The lounge is called "The Oasis" and the bathrooms alone made it worth the expense. Spacious stalls, well stocked with toiletries, CLEAN, even free tampax and maxithins (oxymoron?). I'm currently enjoying a Kingfisher beer and a vegetarian samosa. I'm not normally a fan of the buffet thanks to a particularly frightening Chinese restaurant experience and having been friends with Jessi (who abhors buffets more than anyone I've ever known) for so long, however......compared to buying food on the plane and/or living off of Clif bars, I'm opting for a little fruit and fried delights.

I'm not that nervous. The 1/2 xanax may be part of that (thanks Ilana!). I'm quite calm. Also, nothing feels real. I haven't had to show my passport since I was 14. That was more than 1/2 my life ago. And not only did I show it to him, he swiped it through a machine like a credit card. Things have gotten super high tech in the many years I've been away!

Saying goodbye to the roommates didn't even feel real. I think I've been gearing up for this for so long that it is just "right" that it's all happening. Go me!!

t-31 hours to take off!

My flight takes off tomorrow at 9:40 p.m. My bag currently weighs 22.3 kg. That's 2.3 kg over the allowance from Dublin to Prague. That's not including ANY books, which puts all books in my carry-on. Not quite sure what to take out at this point.

I actually feel a sense of calm. I did laundry this morning. My bag is essentially packed. The animals are taken care of (although I WILL change the litterbox before going!). I've developed a little cold but I've been taking wild amounts of EmergenC and DayQuil so I think I won't explode on the plane.

My roommates are super wonderful. They're making a wonderful last supper for me tonight. Steak and squash and wine. Delicious! Then...drinks at a pub with a huge beer selection. Which means I need to get everything done today!

I'm working on a last box of things to send to my mom to hold for me. The rest either goes to Salvation Army (about 30 bags were dropped off on Thursday!) or my niece. I'll make one last drop off at the storage facility where I've left things for my niece to get when she arrives in NYC the first of September.

Things left to do:
- make sure all contacts from my paper address book are in my computer
- eat lunch! (I just realized I'm hungry)
- go through the small stack of paper work that needs to be dealt with
- pay credit card bill

I really think that's it! I'm in a state of mild disbelief that I'm really doing this and the day has finally arrived! I actually cried a tiny bit this morning thinking that THIS IS MY LAST FULL DAY IN NYC FOR I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG! That's so exciting and so scary all at once!

But first things first....nap time! If I'm meeting people out for drinks at 10 p.m. tonight....I should probably be awake!

Kiyomi knows

Kiyomi knows I'm leaving. Or...she definitely knows something is up. I've been going through my room and have gotten rid of SO MUCH STUFF!! I think she can tell that I'm gearing up for something.

My mom arrived last Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. to help me go through everything. Last night two of the dogs were out of town so my mom just took Kiyomi out to pee. Mom was going to take her for a little bit of a walk, not just a quick pee, but as soon as Kiyomi peed she was dying to get back home. She ran in the door and straight to the shower to see me.

It made me cry a little.

Fourth of July drama

Jess, Courtney and I had a great day out on The Lake in Central Park. We came home, showered, ate and sat down to play a board game.

Then we saw those telltale red and white flashing lights shining off the building across the street. Oh no!! What now!!

Apparently a line of cops were headed somewhere in a hurry and one of them got into an accident with a van. The van won. When we looked out there were SO MANY cop cars. Finally the two cops in the car were taken away on back boards. But everyone who was in the van were standing around talking.

At least nothing was on fire. But we are definitely ready for NO MORE SIRENS!!

Saturday, 4 July 2009

Needless to say, no one really felt like BBQ or fireworks. We pretty much had our fair share of excitement the night before and when EVERYTHING smells like a campfire, a BBQ doesn't sound appetizing!

Jess came up with the most wonderful idea: go row boats on The Lake in Central Park. The sky was clear (after a VERY rainy June this was a wonderful thing) and it was warm but not too hot. We took a bottle of wine and stopped at a deli for sandwiches. The line looked long for the boats but it moved quickly.

Out on the water was just what we needed. Jess, Courtney and I cruised out to a nice shady spot, listened to live music and ate our lunch. An amazing day on the water!

Friday, 3 July 2009

July 3rd 2009, Friday. Got up, had breakfast, chatted with the roommates, went to the gym, stopped by the bar where Jess works for a quick drink and then headed home.

It was a little after 9:30 p.m. and I had just taken the dogs for a walk. Courtney and I had just started another episode of Dexter when some people were yelling outside. In Harlem this is not unusual but what made me remember it is that it was so loud we had to pause Dexter...how rude! A few minutes later I paused Dexter again. This time because I thought I smelled smoke. My roommate thought so too. We walked around the apartment trying to figure out what could be burning. Then she opened the front door. She screamed because the hallway lights were out and the hall was filled with smoke. We grabbed the dogs (3 in all) and ran to my room, furthest away from the door and at the front of the building. We stuck a towel under the door and opened the windows.

Our street already had firetrucks and more and more kept coming. We were crying and looking around, trying to figure out what was going on. We were in an apartment on the 8th floor on the right side of the "U" shaped building. The fire was on the 5th floor on the left side of the "U".

First there was just smoke billowing out of the window. (It must have been an amazing site from the south side of the building where most of the windows are. We could only see the one window on the front of the building.) We were watching the smoke and then suddenly there were huge flames shooting out of the window. That really freaked us out! Although I knew that the fire couldn't spread to us because it would have to travel 3 floors, our door was closed and the construction of the building is such that it restricts fire, my roommate was freaking out so much that it did get me riled up for a bit, especially when I couldn't get a hold of my mom. (I did get her by calling her home number and the first thing I did was yell at her for not having her cell phone with her!)

After what seemed like forever, water started shooting out of the window, replacing the flames. (Something that I JUST NOW REALIZED: While watching the event, I couldn't figure out how the firemen had gotten into the apartment to be shooting water out of the window......but the south side of the building is ALL WINDOWS. They could have gone in any one of them. A perfect example of where certain logic and reasoning skills disappear to while in a crisis!)

During all the mayhem, I couldn't find Charlie Parker (my cat) anywhere. My mom told me he'd be fine but I left my room 3 or 4 times to try to find him, each time with my shirt covering my nose and mouth, and the last time even covering my eyes. Our apartment was so filled with smoke that you could hardly see and it stung like crazy. On my last trip out, I had made sure that the front door was unlocked so the fire department could come in.

Finally, my dog started barking at my bedroom door. We opened the door a crack and a fireman was walking through our apartment. He made sure we were all okay and told us to open all the windows and keep the door open for maximum air circulation. While we were getting our instructions, Harper, Jess' dog, made a run for it. I didn't notice at first but did a quick count and he was gone.

I ran out of the apartment and started heading down. At each landing I asked a fireman about a black dog and I was told he had gone down, down towards clean air. Finally a fireman said that another guy had carried him outside. I dashed down the dark stairs and into the night. I saw a fireman holding Harper outside of the crime scene tape. I got him and proceeded to receive a lecture about tags on dogs. I didn't go into it, but his tags are on his collar in the house because he (normally) doesn't ever leave the house without it.

I headed back into the building wearing sandals, not appropriate post-fire footwear because of the enormous amount of glass everywhere, and carrying Harper, a 25 pound dog. I'd dashed out so fast I hadn't thought to bring his leash....but I couldn't have set him down in all the glass anyhow.

On the way back up, I ran into another black dog, Vagabond. I told the firemen that I knew the dog but not where he lived, but I would take him. Of course I couldn't carry him because I already had Harper. I was able to get Vagabond to follow me up a couple of flights but after that he got distracted. I found out later that Vagabond belonged to the burnt out apartment and that another woman found him and took him in for the owner.

Jess got home during the fire and had to stay behind the police tape. Some asshole told her that the black dog, Harper, was dead. Of course she freaked out and called Courtney. All Courtney knew was that I had run out of the apartment looking for Harper but hadn't returned yet. I didn't have my phone on me because it all happened so fast. That, of course, made Jess freak out even more. When I came home Courtney told Jess that Harper was fine and Jess was able to get back into the apartment shortly after that.

Our apartment doesn't really smell anymore. The dogs do, maybe they'll get baths today. The hallways of the building REEK like smoke and although they've been cleaned once, are still gross. One of the elevators has a metal interior which has some pretty neat discoloration from the smoke. Many of the windows on the stair landings are broken out from the firemen bringing in air.

And....how did the fire start? A French masseuse on the 5th floor (Vagabond's mom) lit a candle, went into the kitchen for something, came back and the curtains were on fire. From there everything went up pretty quickly. She ran out, LEFT HER DOG AND LEFT THE DOOR OPEN. In our building, if the door was closed, the fire would have been nicely contained. Instead, the fire spread to the hallway, trapped many residents in their apartments (everyone from the 5th floor to the 10th floor because of the amount of smoke!), and filled the whole building with smoke. (and how do you leave your dog?)

~~The pictures I took with my camera during the blaze didn't turn out well because the flash was going off and I didn't have the brain power to change the settings. But my camera has a wrist strap so it wasn't until after the major event that I took out my phone to shoot pictures when I wasn't shaking anymore. It is the phone pictures that I'm posting because they look so much better.~~

All day Saturday there were firetrucks pulling up in front of the building, checking things out. Apparently our building is being used as some sort of example of bad preparedness. A.) no emergency lighting came on. B.) there is a standpipe on each floor THAT DOESN'T WORK. C.) I heard NOT ONE fire alarm going off the entire time. (These are just the things that I noticed or was told about...who knows what else is wrong!)

I've heard many grumblings from people, the younger residents, looking to move ASAP. I can't figure that out. After this event, it would seem that the management company would have to put in a lot of safely features, very soon making this a very safe building. And, even without those features, this building is built so solid that no one should really be that panicked. People are crazy.