I'm okay--San Diego fire

Just want to send out a message to all family and friends first and foremost that I'm totally fine, no damage whatsoever to myself and my house.

THE NIGHT BEFORE
So it all started on Sunday. Since I had to take Paul to the airport early in the morning, I had a really long peaceful Sunday to myself. On my way to a mini family's party to celebrate Paul's cousin, Sam's pregnancy, I-15 was already masked with smoke but at the time I thought it was just another wild fire out in the east region.

By the time I headed home, the sky was filled with snowflakes, but of course it doesn't snow in San Diego, that was the ashes from the fire. I only started to sense how serious it has become when the ashes continued all the way home, and in fact, my neighborhood near Sorrento Valley also smelled like ash. Since I live right off the canyon, I quickly went to the backyard to make sure it wasn't burning already, then I spent about 30 minutes watering my backyard, including all the dead branches, then I closed all the windows and went to sleep, didn't know that at the time the fire had quietly spread all over the places throughout San Diego.

THE PACKING BEGINS
My lack of awareness helped me get a good night sleep ready to face a stressful day on Monday. Actually I wasn't that stressed at first. When my coworker called to tell me not to go in, I was like "Yes!" thinking I got myself an extra day off. So I had the leisure to eat my breakfast while catching up things on the TV.

After breakfast, I thought maybe I should start packing for a emergency pack just in case. At first I was packing my 22" carry-on, but soon, it got downsized to half a backpack. Coz seriously, it's not like I would have a place to take a shower so not much I need to pack. The most important thing was water, so I packed all I have, in case I need to give it to others. Then Paul called to remind me to pack all the documentation, and I just remembered that yeah, passports are important too (I thought my wallet is good enough!). He also reminded me to find his expensive watch, then I realized I should pack all my expensive jewelry too (which is like, very few). He also wanted me to pack up all his expensive (or not so) suits & gadgets, including his Wii and his 5 year old digital camera (Thank God we haven't bought our LCD TV yet, or he would have asked me to pack that too, in fact, many people did, and the news had to gently remind people what's really important in life--NOT YOUR TV).

Of course, easy for Paul to remotely give orders while I had to run up and down the stairs trying to catch up with the news while making sure I got all his goodies. (while I only packed a couple of underwear and my engagement ring for myself) The ironic thing is, I'm definitely the material one in the house, with all my expensive shoes and bags and dresses... but it never occurred to me that I need to pack anything that is not going to help me survive in the wild. (I guess I wasn't prepared to come back to civilization if things should happen to our house).

As more and more news came in, I gradually piled up things at the back of my car, sleeping bag, pillow, water, dry food... and at about 2pm, the electricity was out for a while (and my car was stuck in the garage!!!), I ran outside the house to see if it was just me or everybody, and everyone but me already pulled out their cars (smart!), and saw our neighbor packing his bottles of wine into his BMW, some people certainly know how to live!

Later that day, I went over to Shannon's place for dinner and she was sharing how everyone's packing strategy. One of her roommate packed all her expensive Coach bags and her nice boots, another girl packed the Wii before anything else, and Shannon herself put on her most expensive jeans. And then Shannon's mum and I looked at each other like "darn, why haven't we thought of that?!" Girls! (sigh~)

THE EVACUATION
As the news keep broadcasting all these distressed development of the fire, and we learned couple people's houses were burned down, but overall everyone was still very positive. And we were definitely not the only ones. We heard several Chinese mums "hanged out" at the Chinese supermarket, others took the Chinese restaurants as their "evacuation sites" and had dim sum as their survival food...

We were telling all these crazy stories while having a cup of hot tea before they come to my place for the night and try to leave Shannon's place for her roommate's friends, as there were not many unaffected areas left in San Diego, and we were lucky to still be in that safe zone.

But at around 10pm, the news informed us that Sorrento Valley Rd was now added to the mandatory evacuation list, so all of a sudden, plan changed, and we needed a back up plan quick! While Shannon try to contact her friend to find alternative shelter, I went back home to pack and found most of my neighbors were already gone. The streets were dark and quiet. That was when I first started to panic and what if her friends place is also under evacuation? What if our house got burned down? I made a phone call to Paul, he tried to find us a hotel but only two left, one in San Ysidro and one in Chula Vista, both seriously affected by the fire. And then he suggested that I packed the wedding gifts from his mum's friends--a pair of chopsticks and a crystal bird and a boy & girl miniature sculpture--and that was the last draw, I erupted and exploded with fury. I think he would have acted very differently if he was in town, but when he was out of town, he'd just name whatever items came to his mind, and that, did not help!! While being furious yet panicked, I thought maybe I really should have load up the car because what if the house really got burned down?

But before I could turn my thoughts into action, Shannon called and they were on their way to her friend's place. We arrived at her friend's place, her friend was kind enough to host 11 people under evacuation from all over the town. But we were just lucky to have a place to sleep by then, we were exhausted.

TODAY'S UPDATE
I went back home around noon today and thankfully the house is still there. While the outside still looks kind of hazy but nothing has happened at the Los Penasquito Canyon. As of now, the fire has burned through many areas of San Diego and other parts of Southern California. More than 517,000 people were ordered to evacuate in San Diego county and we're still not sure when the fire will be contained. Right now there are more than 1,300 homes burned to ashes, of which 1,000 of them are in San Diego. Several people we know had lost their home due to the fire. Many others are still in temporary shelter mostly in Qualcomm Stadium. Please pray (to whoever your god is) for those people still out there and if possible, donate to those in need. But for me and for most of other San Diegans, we are okay. In a way, I am very thankful that because of this disaster, it taught me what's important in life, and I am also very grateful to those who lend a hand at a time like this. Thank you Lana.