FALSE ALARM
After many months of living at SJC, we had our very first genuine fire alarm go off today. These were a dime a dozen in undergrad, but quite rare now.
I can tell fire prevention technology has come a long way. In our decades old undergrad residences we had an clangy bell that would go off in the hallway. It was actually quite easy to ignore. SJC is about five years old and we have these individual alarms in each of our rooms that screech out this deafening banshee wail. It makes you not want to be in there.
So, when the damn thing went off, I was still in my PJs and hair unkempt. Damn, I thought, I don’t need this. I was going to ignore it, but over the screech of the alarm, I heard people outside the hall. Ah well, better go outside. So, I got dressed and made sure I didn’t look like a total idiot and went outside.
We were herded into the rear parking lot, apparently that’s the rally point during a fire. Anyways, no one was believing this was the real thing. Some one said, “If I see smoke and flames, I’m running back in there to get my computer.”
About a third or less of the College were in the parking lot. Some were dressed appropriately, some were not. One guy had a blanket around him and he wasn’t wearing shoes. Another guy had a 3.5″ diskette with him. I’m guessing that was holding some important files, but seriously, how much porn can you hold on 1.4 Mb?
Max comes out and he’s holding an empty laundry basket and an empty Tupperware container. People were saying that’s an odd set of things to take with you.
“He must really like those things.”
“Hey, if the place burns down and they give us food, he can save it for later.”
“I bet those hold his empty dreams… bittersweet dreams.”
“You people shut up, I was doing laundry.”
Since we were all in the back, we didn’t even get to see the fire trucks and the firemen. After about 10 more minutes of standing around, we get the all clear. On the way back in, I hear that someone was cooking with butter and it set off the alarm. Honest mistake I guess.
On the way back in, I found a ball hockey ball, so it was totally worth the inconvenience.
Sunday is completely over yet, but I get the feeling that’ll be the most exciting thing to happen to me today.