Alisha Sommer | Essentials for Living

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Ten.One Thousand, One Hundred & Forty-One

  1. Those trucks are so darn loud. 5:34am.

  2. Day two of school. Let’s see who can log in today.

  3. Celery juice. Leftover zucchini. I pour a cup of coffee.

  4. Not good. Headache. Nauseated. Lay down. Set alarm for 7:45 to wake the kids up. Close eyes.

  5. So much to do today. Sit up. Head spins, Lay back down. Throw up.

  6. He comes and asks me for help with his chromebook. I get up out of bed to meet him at the door but run to the bathroom instead.

  7. Evacuation advisory for Angwin/Deer Park. I tell him we need to make the go bag tonight.

  8. I sit on the floor and fold everything Marie Kondo-style. Fit everything into the bag. Doorbell. I bet it’s someone telling us we need to go.

  9. Another neighbor rings the bell. “Yes, Patricia told us. We’re leaving.” Sirens. A police car playing a message on loop. We need to go.

  10. The further away we get, the more of the fire we can see.

  11. I forgot shower caps. Of course.

  12. There are some things I couldn’t find in time because so much is still in boxes. And the boxes aren’t in order like I would have liked them to be because of the time crunch we were under to pack. We haven’t even been here long enough to properly prepare.

  13. Should we have taken both cars? Will it matter?

  14. What a very, very strange month. Year.

  15. What would you do if everything was just gone?

  16. The new first aid kit, flashlights, and N95s were supposed to arrive Friday, the generator on Monday.

  17. But, of course, Nature doesn’t wait.

  18. Safe.