jynx_tsilevon

I really am liking the dorm life a lot more this year than last. But sometimes things just cause headaches and tired feet.

Especially faulty fire alarms.

I will note, for those interested, that I live on the 8th floor, guy's side. For whatever reason, there's one whole floor dedicated to girls and then seven more for guys on the East side of the dorms. I don't know why. Anyway.

Fire Alarm procedures include evacuating the building by making sure your roommate and you are out of the room, turning off the lights, locking the door, and trekking down the stairs until you're out in the safe area (that is, of course, if the hallway's not of fire. But since that hasn't happened I'll skip that procedure).

This procedure is supposed to be followed any time of day or night.

Now we had a drill earlier this week, at 10pm, where the alarms went off and we filed down the stairs like good little lemmings, then filed back up (no elevators after the alarm goes off) about 20 minutes later. All's good.

So when the fire alarm went off at 2:40 this morning, it kind of surprised us all. Needless to say my roommate and I groggily fell out of beds (lofted, without ladders, I'll add), grabbed coats and ids and stumbled down the stairs with the entirety of the East side dorms.

And that, my friends, is why we knew something was up. No one in the lobby or West side was evacuated. People muttered about drunks pulling fire alarms, and I began to grumble under my breath about which floor of guy I would have to kill.

40 minutes later we were allowed back in, the cause of the alarm not found. Up eight flights of stairs again and my roomie and I fell sleepily back into our beds.

At least nothing was on fire.

And hour and a half later, the alarm went off again. That time I swore at the ceiling and got my roommate up again. Same procedure as before, only a little less hurried. Upon getting outside, I said this to the first group of boys I saw:

"I am going to emasculate the person doing this."

Needless to say, they backed off quickly.

My roommate just chuckled (she's used to me channeling Elfe when I'm tired, stressed, or otherwise occupied). Someone overhearing said "Oorah!"

30 minutes later, we all filed back in. I started taking the stairs like it was a warm up exercise. Because why not? It was 5:00 in the morning. I had just fallen asleep after the last alarm too!

Back in the hall, floormates were grumbling about the alarm and whatever was causing it. Cheerfully, and a bit (or a lot) sarcastically, I stated "See you all in about an hour! It'll go off again!"

To which my next door neighbor just stated "Let me burn."

And yes, at 6:30am the alarm went off AGAIN.

This time my roommate and I got up, dressed, and down the stairs in two minutes. They let us back in after five minutes.

The cause of all of this? Faulty dust meters. They hadn't been checked in awhile, apparently.

I'm exhausted, but I know my roommate and RA are more-so. My roommate is in Marching Band and has been gone from the room since 8am. Meaning she got an hour and a half of pure rest before having to go do physical activity for 12 hours.

My RA was taking the GRE today. When the third alarm went off, she packed up her things to go to the test. She'll be taking her graduate entrance exams on no sleep.

Plus, the small smoke detectors keep going off in random rooms because of the humidity. It'd be going off in my room if I turned the AC off. It's Antarctica in here, but at least it's quiet.

Happy September.