What a Night!!

I apologize for my lack of entries as of late...life has been crazy busy. There were several things I meant to write about but never got around to putting my thoughts down on here so...sorry!!

Tonight was definitely an adventure. After I got home from school I hooked up my new converter box to my tv and managed to get a few channels using my little rabbit ears! I can get NBC, Fox, ABC, and a 24-hour news channel. Maybe I won't have to pay for Comcast afterall...I mean, really, NBC is all that matters because now I can watch The Office. After getting that set up, I decided to rearrange my living room so that whoever sat in the chair in the corner wouldn't have to twist his neck to see the screen. I like it much better now.
Of course I couldn't stop there...I had to set up my Christmas tree!! My parents sent a little 4-ft fiber optic number with me when I came back from Thanksgiving vacay, so now that that's up and running, my living room is cozy and festive. Also, David and Cindy gave me their old recliner so now the living room is more homey and less "hotel lobbyish" with all the crazy print furniture.

Shortly after putting my living room back together, I nearly jumped out of my skin because the fire alarm started going off!! It took me a minute to figure out what it was, and when I peeked out my door I realized that there is a bell in the hallway just on the other side of my living room wall. So it was VERY loud. Suddenly a million thoughts started running through my head...I need to go outside! Where are my shoes? I'm in my pajamas! Where is my coat? Should I take my computer? Where are my shoes? Don't forget the keys! Is this a real fire? Where are my shoes? Surely they don't have fire drills at night - that only happens at Moody! Where is my phone? WHERE ARE MY SHOES?!

Finally I mustered enough sanity to find my shoes and dug my phone out of the couch cushions. where it had managed to wedge itself earlier in the evening. I put my coat on, grabbed my keys, and went into the hall. The alarm was still going strong but it was the only sound. As I walked down the hall toward the stairs, I didn't hear or see a single person. Walking down the stairs I thought about how this was so typical of a Moody fire alarm - late on a COLD winter night. The only different was that I wasn't surrounded by students playing football in the plaza, and I wasn't in the middle of writing a paper that's due the next day. I got all the way downstairs and went out to the parking lot...and waited...and waited...and waited...finally I spotted an old lady standing in the doorway in her bathrobe. She looked at me, then turned around and went back into the building. I'm desperately trying to figure out what in the world is going on, looking for smoke, or flames in a window or something...and then a cop car followed by a freakin' FIRETRUCK pull into the parking lot. An officer and three very large firemen troop into the building as a few tenants finally make their way outside.

(side note: I actually saw a woman come out of the building with a DOG!! AHA!! Maybe the "no pets" clause in my lease is negotiable after all...)

We stood around for about 15 minutes before the alarm was turned off and then we were allowed to go back upstairs.

The cause of all this drama? Apparantly our smoke detectors are uber sensitive and cooking with certain spices or oils sets them off? Word on the street is this has happened three times this week.

Clearly someone hasn't learned their lesson yet...