I didn’t even need to travel to have this adventure.

What do these things have in common?

1. A fire.
2. An antibiotic shot in the butt.
3. Being stranded with no wallet or keys.

If you guessed that they were all part of my day, you would be correct! And I didn’t even need to travel to have this crazy adventure. It happened right here in my own backyard.

I’m blaming it on the leap year.

The started out innocently enough. Work was slightly weird in the morning, but nothing I couldn’t handle…although I have a weird swollen finger issue that I think might be arthritis (?!?) Super weird. Also, one of my co-workers got sick so quickly and completely that he couldn’t even walk back up the stairs to get his bag. We had to bring it down to him, and by the time we found him, he was in so much stomach pain that he was sweating. Totally crazy.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day in San Francisco, so after lunch my boss and I decided to head outside for a meeting we had scheduled. We planned to walk to a nearby cafe for cookies and coffee. As we left the building, we looked across the street and noticed flames shooting out of the hood of a mini bus! This in and of itself was bad, but the fact that the bus was parked at the pump of a gas station was even worse. We screamed and ran down the block, away from the fire and the gas station. As we ran, we called our office to alert them of the potential impending disaster.

We ended up at Sightglass coffee (which I highly recommend), found a seat (a minor miracle), and settled in for some work gossip and our meeting.

In the meantime, I got a volley of texts from Josh. He was at the doctor. Apparently a bump on the side of his thumb had gone from painful to excruciating within the course of several hours, the joints in his wrist and elbow were starting to ache, and there was an angry red streak spreading up his arm. Yeah.

As I was reading his texts, my boss got multiple texts from people at the office. Apparently they were all being evacuated by the fire department and no one could go back into the building, let alone back onto the block. Yeah.

So…we were stranded.

Now the texts were coming fast and furiously. Josh had to get an antibiotic shot in the butt, he wasn’t sure if he could make it to pick up the kids in time (my daughter plays the saxophone, and her combo had an important gig this evening), and he had to pick up a prescription for more antibiotics.

According to co-workers, the bus fire raged on, they shut off the pumps at the gas station, and they weren’t sure what was going to happen. But they weren’t taking any chances. The block was completely closed.

Luckily my boss had some cash and a credit card on her, so she gave them both to me and I took off running to get on BART.

This story ends well.

My daughter got to her gig on time (here’s a shot of her warming up).

The red streak receded on Josh’s arm so he didn’t have to get an IV drip (I’ll spare you the photo).

The gas station didn’t blow up (but that bus sure is dust).

How was your leap year day? Where were you? Anyone have any stories to share?