To all five of my faithful readers (you know who you are) I've been too tired to write the last few days. You see, I've had an unusually busy week. Between escaping from a fire in my sister's apartment building, my 31st birthday, attending 2 exhilarating Mets games and working a VH1 promotion in which I had to run around NY following an ambulance to promote their "Save The Music" concert. Factor in my heavy alcohol intake during the week and now you know why I've neglected my blog.
Getting back to the fire, tomorrow will be a week since I had to flee Roz' s apartment not knowing what was going on. Everything happened so fast. I woke up around 7am that morning to the sound of what I thought was the construction crew at the rear of the building. There were these loud thuds and crashes that seemed to be too close to the building. Since I'm not exactly a morning person I wasn't too thrilled that this was going on. I was trying to get as much rest as I could, since I was supposed to go the Mets home opener a few hours later. I was also waiting to hear from my friend Dan on whether or not we would be sitting behind home plate in Fred Wilpon's box! Needless to say I never made it to the game. When I reluctantly rose from my slumber to look out the window to see what all the commotion was about, to my surprise I didn't see anyone there. Before I could make sense of anything I could hear more of a commotion towards the front door of the apartment. Still trying to shake off the cobwebs from the night before I open my door and notice that there is some black smoking leaking into the apartment! Without thinking, I opened the front door and all hell seemed to break loose and before I could react I realize that I'm being enveloped by smoke. I immediately went to close the door but before I could I notice a cat trying to squeeze through. I let it in, slammed the front door shut and run back to my room to try and get out that way. After opening one window I heard a thunderous bang on the front door and knew it was the fire department. They told me to open the door and exit the building through my neighbor's window. Before leaving the apartment I threw on my sneakers and made my way down the hall. This was the first time I got to meet my sister's neighbors: Marco, Nicole and Lindsey. Before we could be formally introduced I ran in there looking for their window. They asked me if I saw a cat and I said yes but didn't know where it was since I left my apartment. Nicole seemed really upset that she didn't know where their cat was but at that point we all needed to get the hell out of there. I was the first one to get through the window which was tough since they had a child barrier in it and so I had to wriggle through, suffering some minor scratches on my right leg. I helped Marco out which was hard since he had his right arm in a cast and couldn't put any weight on it. Once he was out we helped Nicole and Lindsey out. I know what you're thinking, so much for women and children first, but it wasn't like that. They were still looking for Nicole's cat and Lindsey had her ferret with her and wouldn't get out right away. As soon as we were outdoors we were down the fire escape faster than you could say "second hand smoke."
It was a bit chilly and so we were told to head over to one of the ambulances so the EMT's could check us out. For some reason my blood pressure was through the roof and so they made me take the ride to the hospital just to be safe. As it turns out, I was the only one who had to go. They put me on oxygen and hooked me up to a EKG machine to monitor my heart activity. I knew I was going to be fine but I had to wait for the doctor to discharge me which wasn't for another 4 hours. To make matters worse I didn't have my cell phone, my keys or my wallet and so the only people I could call was my parents and my friend Sarah. I assured them that I was ok and that I would call them once I was able to leave and could get back to the apartment to suvey the damage that was done. I even had to walk back to the apartment which wasn't too bad since the hospital was only 10 blocks away from the apartment.
Before that day I wasn't that big of a fan of smokers and to hear that the cause of the fire was due to a smoker, I think it's safe to say that I won't be picking up a cigarette anytime soon. In fact, the hint of smoke makes me want to gag which is problematic since I enjoy walking around the city.
After I was able to get into the apartment they helped me clean up as if it was their apartment that was damaged. I was shocked to see that my sister's room was still intact and that the majority of our stuff was fine. Aside from her mattress being soaked and a portion of the ceiling was missing, needless to say we were extremely fortunate. Unfortunately for her roommate I can't say the same. In fact her room was completly demolished because the fire made it's way in there. She lost everything, and I felt terrible when I saw all her stuff scattered on the ground below.
Thankfully no one was harmed in the fire. The other good thing that came out of this whole ordeal that I was able to get to know Marco, Nicole and Lindsey. It's unfortunate that we had to meet under those circumstances but in retrospect I'm glad we were able to spend time with each other. They really took care of me once I got back from the hospital and for that I will always be grateful. Later on we went out to dinner at this nearby Mexican place where I was able to get to know them better. As the night went on the severity of the morning's events started to set in and I started to feel a little uneasy. I called Mike, Lynda and Chris to see if they could meet up with me for some dinner. I just really needed to be around some of my closest friends and thankfully they obliged. I ended up spending the night at Chris and Greg's place thankful to be alive and to be able to celebrate one more birthday.
What a way to start the week...
