Zub Tales

Peeled awake at 1am by the fire alarm screeching here at the apartment building. It took a minute or two before we realized what it was, groggily got shoes and jackets on and headed down the stairs to the lobby just in case it was genuine.

Firefighters waltzing in the front door made me wonder if the night was going to be more memorable than I’d like, but it did turn out to be false after all. It was a strange mix of irritation and relief really.

I also realized that once people leave grade school, they have no idea what to do during a fire alarm and/or no one telling them to go outside. There was a pitifully low number of people in the lobby or outside compared with how many actually live in the building. Maybe a dozen out of the 200+ who live here. Of those who were there, half of them used the elevators to get down (obviously a big fire no-no).

Adults are never tested on fire safety or chastised for not taking it seriously. It was a false alarm, so they’ll feel vindicated that they stayed in bed, stayed in their apartments or took the elevator down instead of the stairs. It sets a bad internal precident and if there was ever a real fire, these people would be crispy critters.

Being violently woken up from a deep sleep was irritating enough, but realizing we’re surrounded by idiots made it even more unimpressive. Now my brain’s awake even while a headache is pulsing in my brain and my body feels like it’s moving through jello from exhaustion. It’s the first day I’ve gone to bed before midnight this year and now I’m awake anyways.

Ugh.