Thursday, February 5, 2009

Spills, Chills & Fire Drills

4:47 am

There I was, snug in my rented bed...dozing fitfully and nightmaring about the coming day...


*NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH*

First thought...doesn't *sound* like the alarm clock...

Second thought...FIRE ALARM!! (in a hotel--aaaaahhhhhh)

Third thought...but I'm not cooking!!

So I grabbed my coat, threw on my snow boots, grabbed my purse & my room key and split. Down the stairs. Now you know how well stairs and I get along, so as you might guess, rousted from my bed, freaked out and wearing boots. Yup...took a tumble down about 4 stairs. But hey...I was going that way anyway, right?

Get outside to discover that it's a balmy, breezy 17 degrees. LOVELY. Guess I'll go sit in my car.

That would be nice, but since I left my car keys in my room...impossible.

So I take a perch on my car's hood (sorry, baby!) and hunker down. I take a peek around and realize that everyone around me took the time to get dressed. No wonder everyone is avoiding me...

So there I am, hair every which way, wearing my glasses, freezing my hiney off and WEARING MY JAMMIES. (Thank God for long flannel nightgowns, but still!)

It's then that I realize that I really need to shave my legs.

A kind fellow displaced person invited me into her car to stay warm while the fire department cleared the building. (Shout out to Donna---Thanks so much!! I'm not sure I would have invited me in, scary as I looked!) Building cleared and back we went.

Apparently, the culprit was not through with us yet! I had just gotten warm again, ready to hop in the shower (gave up on getting back to sleep) when the FIRE ALARM went off again. Two seconds later and I'd have been soaking wet, freezing...but NOT in my jammies (learned that lesson!)

Oh yeah, we're off to a GREAT start today! (Thinking this is NOT a good omen!)