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Showing posts from November, 2018

Pajamas

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We woke up yesterday* to a wrong-colored world and a dark cloud that looked like the coming apocalypse. It happened so fast. Before I even left for work I’d gotten word that friends’ houses were burning and everyone we knew in the town of Paradise was evacuating. I drove to work under a strange sky and ominous cloud. All day we relayed messages, waited, and prayed for people who were trapped at home or trapped in evacuation traffic. We fielded harrowing phone calls, e mails, text and Facebook messages. By evening all those we knew were safe and accounted for. But by evening the fire was reaching for Chico, and Paul and I began our own evacuation preparations, just in case. We valued and de-valued our possessions and were surprised at what did and didn’t make the cut. We decided to sleep in shifts. Paul slept on the couch for a couple of hours. Then I climbed, fully clothed, into bed for my shift. I’ve battled insomnia off and on for the last four years. Times like this are not