My sister is in the hospital with appendicitis and I have one week to collect $33,200 still outstanding from our residents. Happy Monday!

We had a fire in one of our buildings around 6am Wednesday morning: a resident put something on the stove, forgot about it and went to sleep, only waking once his entire kitchen and living room were in flames. Everyone from all 40 units in the building (and their pets) got out safely. We spent all day in the office with them while the Red Cross interviewed everyone for compensation information and the firemen ensured the structual soundness of the building. (Luckily, only the unit in which the fire originated was declared unliveable. All the others are totally fine, save for some soot, which we've since cleaned for them, and a scent of barbequed hotdogs throughout the hallways that apparently refuses to go away.) There was one resident, a young guy who works for Best Buy, who cracked up and sat in the office crying for three hours even though nothing in his apartment was damaged at all, but everyone else was remarkably unruffled by the whole ordeal. This has only been my second official week as Assistant Manager (complete with raise, finally), but I think I handled everything very well. We've taken on a great part-time leasing agent but are still grossly short-staffed. I leave work most days to only come home and take a nap, or at least to need one.

It's pretty late to be summarizing my holiday season, but it went well. This was my second trip to Arizona and the one that confirmed for me that I do not at all like it there, or probably anywhere else where, on a level playing field, the natural environment has been proven highly adept at killing people. The landscape, plants, buildings and people there are all the color of cardboard. Jagged mountains spike up suddenly from the flat ground looking lonely and anemic; after growing up in the rolling greenery of the Blue Ridge Mountains they seem almost like a cruel trick. The clear 80-degree weather was pleasant but not very Christmasy. I was there with family I don't see very often, including my mother, grandmother and brother, and felt acutely separate even though I enjoyed myself. I read a lot, and played with the kittens, and was relieved to get home again.

Evan and I celebrated our own Christmas when I got back in Athens, and it was definitely the most fun part of the season. I gave him a few things I knew he'd been wanting and he gave me, among many great things, a set of flannel Batman-print pillowcases that he made himself. Have I mentioned how much I love this man?

Notable events and occurances of 2006 to date not related to aforedescribed fire: I grew a full beard (which has since been shaved, but was quite rakish); I started exercising every night and am already seeing results; my beloved black Razr met a mysterious and untimely braindeath and had to be replaced on Cingular's dime; not enough of anything else. I hope we can hire a full-time person at work soon, because this lack of energy because of work is leeching away all the other parts of my life.