A Sleepless Night

So as I write this, it is 2:30am or somewhere thereabouts...or maybe it's 3am. I guess it's closer to 3. 2:30 is when the loudest and most irritating sound I've ever heard began. The fire alarm.

One of the conveniences of living in an apartment building of fairly new construction is the building-wide fire alarm system. There is a nifty little speaker in each bedroom of each unit in the building that emits a high-pitched squealing repetitive beep when the alarm is pulled. Throughout the building. Lovely. At least I know I'll wake up if there's a fire.

So it apparently started with our next door neighbors. They had been having a party all afternoon and evening (I could barely tell and only because I could hear a little bass) and one of them told me they had been "smoking" a lot. So I had walked to the front door when I heard the scampering of many feet down the outdoor staircase (we live on the 2nd floor). This was slightly alarming and Sean and I threw on bathrobes and went outside. Unfortunately we had to leave the agoraphobic cat in the apartment, she freaks out too much and doesn't have bladder control when she's scared. Stupid cat.

So we met our downstairs neighbor for the first time when we arrived outside. The fire department had been called and were on their way, and there was the strangest scent that reminded both Sean and I of a burning circuit board. The kind of sulfury smell that occurs when one fries a motherboard or graphics card. Soon a second fire engine pulls up, this one with a ladder. We speculated that perhaps the firemen wanted to check and see if there were any pot-smoking squirrels on the roof. Before we went back inside, our downstairs neighbor described the mass exodus of the party-goers next door running down the stairs as "cockroaches fleeing from a burning building". The residents of the next-door apartment spent the minutes before the fire truck arrived opening the windows and airing it out.

What a night. Being 6 months preggers, I am used to getting up in the middle of the night. Even so, this is a bit much! It did, however, remind me of my dorm days where if the fire alarm didn't go off every week or two I'd begin to worry. Ahh, the good old days, how I don't miss them.

So here I am, sitting at my computer because neither of us can get back to sleep, drinking a 7-up to settle my tummy, and posting to my blog because I have nothing better to do. Oy. At least it's a weekend....