2003-02-26 - 8:38 p.m. fire drill My screenprinting class is what I look forward to most each week. I made kick ass JAMC-type stars in metallic ink last night. Tres chic. If all goes well, I should have my personal screens delivered this week and can then spend Sunday afternoon in the studio, printing away... I left work at 1:00 today, unable to rid myself of the sinus headache I'd had since I arrived at 7:30 a.m. The bus ride home was uneventful. Given my crappy state of mind, my first impulse was to climb into a super hot tub of bubbles, but, instead, I changed into an old, soft wheat colored sweater, and black velvet leggings, and crawled into bed with the laptop to read emails and friends' journals. Perhaps 10 minutes into my vegging out, with daydreams of taking a nap dancing in my head, the building fire alarm went off. The super loud building alarm bell that is directly outside my apartment door. The alarm that has to be triggered manually by someone inside the building. Ever practical, yet quite aware that we have false alarms all the time, thanks to certain neighbors being ASSHOLES, after a minute or so, I stuck my head out into the hall... and saw smoke. I can say with clarity that the answers anyone gives to the "what would you save if your house was on fire" questions is a load of crap. Yeah, when given time to think about it, I'd prfer my Jesus & Mary Chain vinyl didn't melt into a pile of goo, but it's not actually something I'd grab. Ditto for the many photo albums and scrapbooks. Instead, I ran into the living room, and slipped on my favorite red mules, and my rain coat, and grabbed the metal mesh shopping bag I'd just brought home from work that still contained my purse and digital camera. I threw my cell phone into that bag, plus my laptop, and left it by the door. Next, I climbed under my bed, grabbed my cat by the scruff of his petrified neck, and shoved him into his carrying bag. He shoved himself right out, and I shoved him back in, and managed to get the zipper closed. Cat in bag, and other bag on my shoulder, I walked into the smokey hallway, then ran down the three flights of stairs, and left the building. I sat on the pavement in front of the building and wondered why the neighbors were not making any motions to leave. After asking a nieghbor who casually exited the building if he'd called the fire department, and receiving only a blank stare (well fuck-you nieghbor), I called the fire department then sat on a neighboring stoop. I called a good friend up and he came over to help me chill out. Four or five fire trucks showed up, and they determined my next door neighbor on the floor had caught food on fire in her kitchen. What an idiot. I mean, yes, we've all burned some dinner from time to time. BUT, you turn on a fan, open a window, etc., and it's all fine. When there's smelly, billowing smoke coming from your apartment, causing someone to pull the fire alarm, um, that's a serious event. One that upsets your neighbors. Couldn't she have bothered to knock on my door to explain her fuck up, and then call the fire department to have them turn off the alarm? The fire department spent serious time trying to get the alarm to shut off. It seems to have a short. Thus, it went off, then came back on after 90 seconds; off forf a minute, back on, etc. My ears are still ringing. By the time we went back upstairs, the smoke was pretty much gone, but the smelliness lingered, as did my headache, compounded by my stress. Living in a building full of irresponsible people sucks. any comments? (0 so far) previous - next recently on almostgoldsf... in defense of an email box I came to do battle with SPAM - 2008-05-17 hello 2006 - 2005-12-31 Happy Thanksgiving - 2005-11-14 bon voyage - 2005-11-05 October already? - 2005-10-09