Fire & Freedom – A Preface to Hello Remote Year

I woke up at 4 am to a burning fire outside my apartment, and I’m not speaking metaphorically about “the end of an era”, but literally to a huge mass of flames burning 10 ft from my window.

I had fallen asleep abruptly – in a swim suit top and bottoms – which I had ordered in preparation for my year long trip abroad with Remote Year starting in early February.

“How awkward, I’m going to die in a swimsuit before I get to do this trip. Hmm I should probably put on clothing…or call the police…or just call the front desk in case the fire department is already on it’s way. Man, I’m a goner if our building goes up in flames in Kuala Lumpur.” – the insane ramblings of a sane person in the wee hours of the morning.

I call the front desk, and Terrence begins to laugh –

“Oh they are filming a movie and the fire department is already here and everything.”

I perched outside my window and watched the flames grow until finally the fire department began to extinguish them. The flames fought back and continued to spread. I had faith that the fire department had the situation under control; however, mesmerized I couldn’t fall asleep until I was assured that the fire was truly dead.

In the morning, I am informed that the fire was not staged, but a freak accident.

The Universe speaks in strange ways.

“Today is the day you are are going to make me face music that I am leaving this life I’ve built in Chicago – all the places and people. The memories can come, but it’s time for me to go? Did you really need to set a movie trailer on fire to tell me that?”

When your wrong, the Universe isn’t afraid to speak up and let you know you f***ed up.

I paid a visit to the Chicago Art Institute for the FIRST time today to cross it off my Chicago Bucket List with two friends.

While eyeing a Magritte painting which provoked the question, “Why two noses?,” I get a text from someone I had being seeing for 4 months. I told him I was leaving 2 months in, but we continued to see each other in a no strings attached kind of way. After all, how does one start something serious when they know the end is in sight?

He says that he isn’t going to say goodbye to me because “I should know that he’s met someone else.”

“Why two noses? Why not two faces? Isn’t that more appropriate? Why do I care? I’m leaving and everything else is irrelevant.”

Sigh. Ending things in a Surrealist exhibit at an art museum is a little overwhelming.

My friend consoled me.

“Let’s go to the tiny rooms. It’s my favorite spot in the museum, and it will cheer you up.”

Turns out – Wes Anderson is a huge fan of the tiny rooms, and he also happens to be the favorite director of he-who-cannot-be-named. I feel sick to my stomach.

We leave to go to a bar and just talk… drink…digest…cool down and come back to reality.

We were always incompatible. I knew it from day one, but I ignored it.

Universe –

“You lit a trailer on fire today to tell me that I’ve been playing with fire all along. That I’ve been lighting matches for fun, mesmerized watching embers flicker ignite and recede, over and over, and it’s time to call it quits before I get burned. It’s a stretch, but point taken.”

I believe strongly in the interconnected nature of physical and spiritual coincidences that are in fact more related than we care to admit; as well as, the flow of destruction and creation in the Universe. With the death of one life ushers in room for another.

My heart is ready for a new adventure – RemoteYear – here I come 🙂 .