Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Monday Mom – Neetika:
We had the scariest day last week. When I woke up in the morning, I sleepily shuffled as quickly as possible to get myself and Haley dressed so we could attend to our weekly ritual of moving our car for street cleaning. Once the sweeper comes through, we need to sit in the car for roughly an hour to secure a decent parking spot and avoid a parking ticket. This is New York City! What can I tell you?

Life’s so funny. What I was mentally lamenting became a literal lifesaver about twenty minutes later. I heard a nearby construction worker yell, “that building is on fire” about my building! I was worried and dazed as I exited the car. I tried to call my good friend in the building but had so much trouble locating my Contacts because my hands were shaking. When I finally did get through, it went straight to voicemail. I prayed she wasn’t home. Within a minute, my friend ran out of the building, crying, and the fire department arrived.

The first started on the first floor and was contained to one apartment, though my apartment and my friend’s apartment sustained some smoke damage. After what felt like an eternity, we were allowed to re-enter our homes. The smell wasn’t too good—to say the least—but everything was basically fine. We are currently in a limbo of trying to determine when we can go back home (in addition to the smoke, the gas that controls our stove and dryer has not been restored), but we are so thankful that we are all okay. It’s a terrible feeling to see your home in such a vulnerable state, but there were no injuries, thank goodness. We are especially lucky for our options. There are worse places to be than hunkered down at Grandma’s.

The night before the fire, I found out that Haley was admitted to the grotesquely competitive preschool of our choice. I was so anxious to hear that news and concerned about her potential rejection. Funny how mere hours later, my main thought about preschool was “who cares!”  I think she’ll survive even if she skips a “three’s program.” The universe has an interesting way of pointing out our foolishness.