we didn't start the fire!

And apparently no one else did either.

Ok, so the fire alarm went off at approx. 5 am today. My first thought was that this was the "oh shit you're in hell now" alarm. I had never heard this particular alarm go off before, thus it was extra jarring when it woke me up.

After climing out of bed, throwing some clothes on (no sandals though, massive hobo feet [or is it hobit feet? I guess it depends on how PC or nerdy you are]) I start to walk walk outside with the rest of the people in my hallway. I get outside with a few other people, but not nearly as much as actually live in the complex. This freaks me the hell out because I watch too much twilight zone of course, and I immediately think:

"Oh great, I didn't make it and neither did any of these other people. We're all going to stand around for a long time before we realize we're really dead and probably have to haunt the building forever"

of course the real answer to the mystery of the missing people was just that its summer in a college town so everyone is in their city of origin. Damn you Rod Sterling, damn you to hell.

Because we only live like 2 blocks from the fire department, they were here by the time I got to the sidewalk, so kudos on that I guess. People started to come out with their dogs and I was worried that this particular puppy who didn't have a leash on was going to get hit by either the fire truck or the multitude of people leaving in their cars, so I pick the little guy up after he crawls under the gate separating our parking garage from the rest of the world. I try to hand him to his owner, still in my sleepy haze mind you, without saying a word. She just says "Its ok for him to be on the grass" and I put him down thusly because trying to explain myself is still out of the question at this point.

Its not until about an hour later until I realize how silly I must have looked to her. Here's some guy just randomly picking up her puppy and handing it to her without saying anything. Ah well, I'm sure she's not the first person to assume I have a mental problem.

So I walk around the building a little, just kinda passing by everyone else who's sitting on the curb and the few determined souls trying to get some sleep on the benches. It occurs to me that I want a soda so I can maybe wake up a little while I wait out the alarm. I go back inside (I'm like 90% sure there isn't a fire at this point, so its not like I'm actually just risking my life for a Dr. Pepper) fallowing some people who i guess decided that they like the noise better then they like the mild humidity of outside, and make my way to the soda machine. During my journey to the 3rd floor where the good machine is, the alarm goes off and on several times, raising my hope and dashing it just a little more each time.

I get my soda, and walk around the place a little, seeing if the sprinklers are actually on in any section of the complex. Of course, none of the sprinklers are on, and now the alarm is only going off in each individual room so the hallway is somewhat quiet, except for the almost distant, yet ever constat, EEEEeeeEEEEeeeEEEEEeeeeEEEeee. It really reminded me of a zombie survival game, which mixed with the odd light out in the hallway and no one else around kinda freaked me out.

I decide to go to the parking garage roof and watch the rest of the city, which was nice until I realized that I would be doing this in a few hours. It occurred to me that I would probably blog this event, then maybe write something in my facebook, and tell the people in the online game I play. Then it dawned on me that telling everyone else about this event would take much less time then it would here. My, what a bleak and terrible future we live in.

After I've had enough of the scenic beauty, I go back down and kinda dick around in the street a little bit, while contemplating if I should just walk over to the donut place a block away. I'm kinda of regretting not going now because I could really go for a kolache. Damn, I still might go if I decide to just stay awake. I can hardly resist the siren's call of a sausage link in dough.

Its at this point I realize I could go to the pool, which I do and it was really nice to just let my feet soak in the pool as I lay down and look at the now blue sky. That is to say, it was nice until I found out I was covered in small caterpillars and rolly pollys. After picking the bugs off me, I decide to just lay in a lawn chair and maybe try to get some some sleep, which of course means that 5 minutes later the alarm went off for good and I was able to come back in.

Right now my biggest fear is that as soon as I finish this post, its going to go off again and I'll have wasted time that I could have used taking a shower or doing something productive. I'm afraid to do my laundry because what if it goes off again while my stuff is drying? Bah. I'm hungry and tiered.