This past week has bee Hell on Earth in San Diego and the surrounding area. The fires raged, the winds blew, the smoke beclouded our skies for days. On Tuesday, in fact, it was so dark that I had to run my lights in the house all day. The sky was a murky pumpkin-yellow: appropriate for Halloween, perhaps, but the horror and agony of the victims outweighed the interesting spooky color scheme. Plus, I was locked up in my apartment all week, with the AC running, to try to avoid the outside toxic atmosphere. Schools were closed all week; I missed my Short Story I class.

The parking lot at St. Gregory's was half full with tents housing all kinds of relief supplies the community had donated. St. Gregory's has become the focal point for a lot of the relief efforts for the Scripps Ranch area. Some 50-odd parishioners lost homes to the fires. The parish is also coordinating some relief efforts for Crest, Ramona, and Julian.

It's been entertaining watching the politicians jockey for the blame-game. The local Republicans, who have cheapskated our community for years, all tried to blame Gov. Davis. Yet everyone knows the CDF procedures allocated firefighters (I would prefer to say "firemen," but hey, poticial correctness ueber alles!). And even the Union Tribune, snot rag of the local Republican Junta, ran articles last week on the front page showing how the Bush administration has been shortchanging the local communities, sending out a memo saying "cost containment has to be equally important with safety." (<-- Paraphrase)

On other news, my birthday is this coming Thursday. Number 48! Wheee! We will be celebrating this coming Tuesday at Chin's in Miramar, since I have class on Thursday.

Meanwhile, I keep getting rejects on stories. "Chalk it up to showbusiness," Nancy says. Yeah, right. But it still is "teh Suck," as my EverQuest friends would say. It wouldn't be so bad if writing were still a hobby, but now that I'm trying to make a career of it, every reject notice is money out of my wallet. Argh! That being said, 3 other stories/articles are out in circulation, maybe my ship will eventually come in. Please, God, don't make me have to grind away in a cubicle again! Noooooooooooooooo!!!

One other interesting note. I got a call from the Health and Human Services eligibility worker who's doing my Medi-Cal evaluation. She claims to have never received my packet of documents, which I mailed over a month ago. I was really upset, as some of those documents were originals (they always require originals). I don't understand where that envelope could have gone: it was printed with her HHS address and worker number on it. I think it's really there, probably buried on another worker's desk, perhaps. Tomorrow I'm calling Aleyda at Protection and Advocacy to complain and lay the groundwork for an appeal if this screws up my Medi-Cal and IHSS eligibility.