Nutty Day

Crazy Fire Totally Ruins Viki’s Day, and makes her car smell

I had an unbelievable day yesterday. It began with seeing a couple of my cabinets go into my kitchen. Which was nice, and I left for my tutoring session and class happy, thinking I would come home in a few hours to my cabinets up and my kitchen taking shape.

Then, all hell broke loose. I can’t even tell you about the first part of the hell, but let’s just say security was called. That’ll give you something to think about. I may be able to write about it sometime in the future, but for now, just trust that a good chunk of my morning was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

I survived, however, partly due to the help and support of my friend Richard, who listened to me babble on about it, so utterly baffled that the only way to make sense of it was to talk about it, and also to other friends present at the time and some faculty members who jumped in right away and helped me take care of the situation.

Anyway, after that, I went to class. Around 2:30 p.m., I noticed that there seemed to be an unusual amount of smoke rising from a building across the way. We decided it was just coming from a chimney and ignored it. By break time, there was a helicopter hovering above and several fire engines and police cars arriving, so a few of us took a little walk around the block to see what was happening. It was a damn building on fire! The old George Diamond Steakhouse and the Louis Sullivan landmark building that housed it (currently empty) was on fire, and we watched for a few minutes as firefighters broke in windows and entered.

I have pictures, but my damn phone won’t send them to my email, which is PISSING ME OFF. When I get them, I’ll squeeze them into this post.

Anyway, throughout the second half of class, we watched as the smoke grew more intense. Flames were visible coming from windows of the building, and chunks of burning debris were flying out and landing on the roof of the building next door. This building is, for your information, just a couple doors down from the dirtiest, grubbiest, most inexpensive and slightly dangerous yet totally fantastic hole-in-the-wall bar on the planet, George’s. There were a few of us in the room a little worried it might catch on fire. Because if George’s goes, where will I get a $5 Ketel One and tonic, made extra strong by Nick? And, most certainly, there aren’t many places in the city that feature signs that read “This is a SMOKING ESTABLISHMENT.” Fortunately, George’s did not burn.  The irony is not lost on me.  Thanks to the firefighters who prevented George’s from becoming a REALLY SMOKING establishment.
There were times when the wind shifted that the smoke blew directly to our window, completely obscuring our view. It was crazy. The building we were in was about a block from the fire, as the crow flies, so we had a pretty good view. Sam decided to let us go a little early, as we all began to wonder about the danger of breathing the smoke. The elevators smelled like smoke, which was a little creepy.

Of course, my car was parked in a parking garage practically across the street from the fire. Which meant I could not get my car. What to do? I went to a bar. Not George’s. I don’t think they were letting anyone in there last night, but down to Kitty O’Shea’s in the Hilton, where we watched news coverage of the fire.

I tried to get my car again around 7:30. No go. Back to the bar for another cocktail. I went to try again around 8:00, and ended up having a very nice, hour-long conversation with a police officer. He’s going to retire soon, and has just purchased some land in North Carolina on which he will live out his days. He helped me engineer getting my car out of the parking garage. The attendant had to drive my car up on the sidewalk, dodge between two parking meters and over a curb, but I did get my car.

And now it smells like chemical smoke. I don’t know what to do about it, but being in it gives me a headache. My husband has the brilliant idea to put a couple of bowls of vinegar in the car, but I don’t know what that’ll get me besides a car that smells like a burnt chemical salad with a vinegar-and-oil dressing, especially after I forget I’ve put bowls of vinegar in my car and start driving.

Anyone have any suggestions?

This story will be way more interesting when I supply pictures. Damn phone.