It's the Most Wonderful Time of Year

Its been a while, and the only new thing I have to say is that my apartment burned down last Thursday. Eva and I made it out fine, no serious injuries. Its still pretty depressing, but it got a little better when Virginia's boyfriend, Tim, went into my apartment to get out some sentimental stuff. He got all my jewelry, most of my pictures (except what was in my den), and my dad's baby brush. We're gonna try to get the smoke smell out of the clothes that were in my dresser and chest of drawers, but everything else is pretty much ruined. He got my hard drive out of my computer, and we're gonna see if we can do anything with that. The memory card from my digital camera still has my pictures on it from Spring Break in DC. He got out a lot of stuff, but the jewelry and pictures were the extremely important stuff. Its sad to lose almost everything you own in the world, but the only piece of furniture that I actually care about being gone is my Aunt Miriam's dining room table. My first thought was "I can't believe this is happening." After I got over the initial shock, I realized that everything that Chris had ever given me was gone. The first flower, birthday presents, anniversary gifts, and pictures of us together. When Tim asked me what I wanted him to get out of my apartment, those were the first things I thought of. The flower and some of the pictures are gone, but the jewelry box and necklaces he's given me are totally fine. The copy of Pride and Prejudice that he gave me for my birthday has some soot on it, but it doesn't have any water or fire damage. There are probably only one or two pictures I lost that can't be replaced, but the rest I received from somebody who has the original.

Everyone has been extremely helpful and giving. Its gonna sound cheesy, but I'm really seeing the Christmas spirit in people. Ann Taylor gave me a 20% discount and some free stuff when I was in there trying to rebuild my work wardrobe. I just got my new mattress yesterday, and the people there gave me a discount and free delivery, mattress pad, frame, setup, and pillows. My mom's friends have already bought me new dishes, a Brita pitcher, and towels. My sister has given me one of her purses to use that was exactly like mine. She is also letting me have her original Nintendo to give to Chris since the one I was gonna give him for Christmas is gone. Daddy has totally taken care of Eva. He gave her Merlin's cage to live in. He bought her a big bag of food, new bowls, a pillow, and a toy. Mother has already started stocking me up with kitchen utensils, flatware, glasses, pots, towels, bath mats, and her recipe box. Mine was recovered from the building. The recipes inside are ok, but the box is history. Gray and Jeannie said they were gonna look through all of their stuff and give me anything that they had two of. I haven't been to York, but I'm sure Precious is going to try and load me up with stuff when she sees me.

My car has some damage to it also. The front bumper is kind of melted, as well as the side mirrors. My hood is all scratched up from debris. I don't know what the engine looked like because my keys burned in my apartment. So I had a claim on my renter's insurance and car insurance. My mom had a MRI Saturday, so we had a medical insurance claim. I told her that something needed to happen to their house so we could put a claim on house insurance, too.

The building had 12 units, but one was vacant. Of the 11 "families" in the building, three had insurance. The only injury was a woman who had burns on her feet because she didn't get out with shoes on. I brought Eva to the vet that morning because she had burns on her feet, and I didn't want them to get infected. I had some first degree burns on my face, but they've already gone away.

The only person who wasn't helpful was the bitch at the DMV in Jackson. I go in there to get a new driver's license because mine burned in my apartment. I tell the woman what happened, and she tells me that I need two forms of identification. She asks if I have my old license. Uh, no, it burned, stupid. I could use my car tag title. "That's locked in my car, and my keys burned." Then she gives me this look like I'm an idiot or something. She says I could use a birth certificate or passport. "Those are all at my parents house in Biloxi." The whole time she's asking for this stuff, I'm reiterating to her that my apartment burned down, and that I don't have anything. She wouldn't even look at her damn computer to see if my picture matched what was on my license, or even ask me some information that was on my license to prove I didn't have some bogus story. And if the stupid woman watched the news or listened to the radio or cared about anyone but herself, she would have known that I wasn't lying. Cause the story is still all over the news and newspapers. I told her to forget it and just walked away. My mom told me that she would have lost it if it had been her. I told her that I was seriously considering it, but there were too many cops around, and I didn't want to get arrested. So on top of everything, I had to drive to Biloxi last Friday to replace my driver's license.