Fire Drill

Quite the exciting night tonight at the art building. While finishing up my surface design project (the one due this afternoon that I spent 5 hours hand sewing tonight) in the lab, I heard an odd alarm-like noise.

Turns out, it was an alarm of the firey kind. But it was faint because it was in the new part of the building (I was in the old part—they are connected but the door was shut). I conferred with the other two girls working in the adjacent fibers lab as to whether we should leave or not. Nobody seemed too upset. Then my spidey sense went off, so we all left our projects and went outside with the other irritated art students. Amazing how many people were working on projects at 10:00 at night on a Wednesday.

The fire truck arrived dramatically. One girl looked hopeful—she was dreaming of a hot fireman rescuing her. Unfortunately, the three that showed up fell short of her expectations. Still, it was a nice spring night and everyone needed the break.

We were only outside for a few minutes before they declared us all clear. The alarm was turned off. We filed in through the doors. Just as I crossed the threshhold, the alarm went off again. We all pivoted 180 and filed back out the doors with a groan. The firemen jumped off the truck and went back inside. Again with the waiting. Again with the all clear.

Again with the alarm going off the moment I crossed the threshold. (Am I jinxed?)

Again, they jumped off the truck and took a look.

Again with the filing outside. Again with the waiting. Again with the all clear. Again with the return to the building.

Again with the alarm going off the moment I crossed the threshold. (This is getting ridiculous.)

Everyone froze. Only our heads did 180s this time as we looked to see if yet again we would be required to leave.

By golly, all three firemen, already on the truck (again), looked up in surprise at the sound of the alarm—then three sets of eyes rolled skyward as the truck pulled away. Their expressions said, "sorry folks, you're on your own".

The art students shrugged collectively and filed back into the building. I continued working on my project for another 45 minutes while the blaring alarm kept me company.

Suddenly, it was completely silent. It just shut off by itself. Or someone cut the power to it.

Well, the building is still standing, so it was likely a malfunction. Still, it was the highlight of the day.

Hmmm.

Oh. PS. So far, no life-threatening irrevocable illnesses have appeared (knock wood).

Labels: college life

posted by Jeanne @ 12:39 AM