set the night on fire
i think i better get this out of my head before i forget it.
setting the scene, it is 1:15 AM, and there are eleven of us stuffed into critter's dorm room in the corner of the third floor, johnson dorm. four of us on a mattress on the floor leaning against the a/c, two in chairs, on on the bottom bunk, one on the mattressless top bunk, three on the floor. well damn, that actually adds up too. we have been watching braveheart for hours, eating goldfish and stretching intermittently.
as karma dictates, when you have been watching a movie for nigh on three hours, if something will happen to prevent its conclusion, it will happen in the last fifteen minutes. such is the case. with a couple minutes remaining, before the film really concludes, the fire alarm goes off. in fact, it took a second for me to catch on. we were watching on vhs so for a second i thought the screeching sound we were all hearing was a glitch on the film. but, after a second, the familiar sound sinks in and it becomes apparent that it can only be an alarm of some sort. aw damn.
we all sortof get up, collect our senses, and amble out into the hall way. as critter would later remark, we have all been so desensitized to fire drills that if the real thing actually occurred, we might just be in trouble. in fact, he had the forsight to stop the movie and turn off the tv. come to think of it, it wasnt really a surprise. if theres going to be a fire drill, it would most certainly happen in the first week of school. figures.
well, we all wander down the hallway to the door to the stairwell and make our way down past my floor and down the three flights of stairs to where there is a large mass of people gathered outside. none appear to be freaking out or under much stress. i make my way with my group about thirty feet away from the building when i notice we are hearing a new sound, one that doesnt fit in with the chattering of my dormmates and the fire alarm bleating in the background. its a whooshing, like a waterfall, aqueous. so i turn and look and to my left, between johnson and bostwick dorms, smoke is pouring from the ground. it occurs to me that this may not be a drill after all. a minor annoyance turns to concern that all the things in my room might be in jeopardy {included among these: my phone, wallet, camera, keys, guitar, amp, mp3 player, clothes, laptop, printer... well you get the point}. there are people standing near it so i wander over and check it out. theres nothing more happening than all this vapor pouring out of the ground so i amble on back to my group. theres general confusion, no real order to the mess, just everyone in the two dorms standing around speculating and frustrating as a group. sean comes up and tells me that it is, in fact, steam. and why? because he stuck his hand in it. genious.
around that time, the annoying RA from the ground floor starts yelling at people to move away from the buildings and cross the street toward the mag quad. the group shifts in that direction but its slow; none of us really like to listen to him. by this time, the cops had started showing up and at least three cars, replete with the blues flashing, were parked on this little one-way street outside. i walked across the street with some others in time to see a firetruck pull up, making as much noise and light as ever. it stops at the walkway to our dorm and some firemen get out. they dont look like they are in a terrible rush, though. i make my way back across the street to where a couple of my friends and my hall's RA, nick, are. nick is cool about all this and we ask him whats going on. apparently, there was a meltdown in the tunnel between johnson and bostwick and, as we thought, steam was pouring from the ground. great.
i asked if my laptop was covered for this kind of stuff. he seemed to think so. also, none of the sprinklers would go off since there was no "fire". good, cause i wasnt looking forward to hundreds of gallons of water splashing all over my exposed electronics. we just wouldnt be let back in for two hours. wonderful.
we are sitting on the curb by a police car when someone {probably me} mentions food. critter and patrick get up and i hold my hand up to be helped up by kristen but she doesnt notice and patrick helps me. well the group of us walks up the mag quad toward reynolda, passing the drunks coming back from random frat parties {this is the first real friday night of school, after all}. most want to know whats going on... you know, why are there firetrucks and cops outside two of the central south campus dorms? i give them the nutshell and as i do i realize how much of an inconvenience this must be. lots of drunk kids wandering back to their dorms at 1:45 in the morning to find who but the popo waiting outside. heh. its not a time where the truth is too imperative, though, and critter tells the next group simply that the guy in the yellow pulled the alarm. i look behind me and dont see anyone and it takes a second to get that he is talking about me. playing along, i run on up the stairs.
we all walk around the west side of reynolda and up onto the main quad toward subway. as we might have expected, subway was packed so we go back. someone mentions {probably me again} that the library is open late and they have snack machines in there. critter is taking a call {{i originally typed postcard instead of call... i dont know why. its late.}} so patrick and i and some others go around front and inside to one of the library study rooms. there are already evicted kids camping out in there so we go on through to the machines. i figure out my deacon card has no money on the vending strip and have to beg a dollar from seth {i paid him back too} to get a cherry coke. when we get back outside, critter is there without kristen - we forgot she went with us - who, as it turns out, had gone back to her dorm, luter. so we all walk on down to luter.
when we get there, i follow a girl inside {my keycard wont work for any but my own empty dorm after midnight}, thinking everyone might want to hang out in their parlor instead of by the bike racks but only adam and jamie follow me in. after a minute of hanging out in their lobby, we all go back outside and sit with the group. drunk girls wander past and kristen and caroline meet back up with us. we all kind of sit on the wall by the bike racks or near it and talk. caroline mentions having seen part of 'a view to kill' in collins at a party so we talk about bond. some guy who didnt want to go into his dorm and try to get past his RA drunk starts talking about pierce brosnan and how old he is, when he started making bond movies, etc. i kindof argue with him but his math is weak so he just goes back inside. i wonder whatever happened to him...
when nothing at all happens and we are bored of that spot, we go back out to the street between tribble and johnson and sit down in the grass out there. there are still cops. there are still firemen. we still cant go inside. critter goes off alone to see if the green room in reynolda is open. this is a good plan because we have been getting attacked by skeeters for a couple hours and it isnt really pleasant. he doesnt come back so i go up myself - no one feels like following me - and find him sitting with a group of people i dont know on one side of the room. he waves and introduces me so i join them. in fact, theres a girl from my seminar {a whole nother story, see below} there too. i sit on the couch between critter and a tired looking girl, stephanie, from basement johnson. we all kindof talk about nothing until another RA, clearly gay but everyone's friend, walks in with a group of his kids. he took them to some party and got them all drunk, like any good RA. he himself didnt drink, i dont think he does as a general rule, but the rest of them were pretty wasted. one kid was carrying two large glass mugs in one hand. he acted like they were just there and were supposed to be and really wasnt too careful about it. once he got excited, laughed at a joke, and clanged them together, oblivious to the fact that a chunk of glass flew up and landed behind him. when the girl from my seminar tried to explain this to him, he cant seem to wrap his mind around the fact that there is glass missing from one of his mugs. he wandered off to talk to other people and i walked around to pick up the glass and threw it away.
a second later, a girl walks up and introduces herself as sarah. sarah has been drinking and isnt shy about it. she goes around asking names and is generally conversational. when she finds out most of us are from johnson {the substance-free dorm} she praises us as being far more intelligent than her. her night was good until she started drinking, and as she told us, she was wasted and wasnt enjoying it very much. someone yelled at her and she wandered back off.
critter had taken my pillow and moved to the floor so i had stretched out on half the couch with basement stephanie on the other. someone asked the RA if there were still cops and firemen out there and he didnt see any. with a big sigh of relief, the group got up and got out. critter and i went off to the right and walked back down to the dorm. they were finally letting people inside. i think he went off to the right somewhere and i went back up my second floor.
i dont remember what else happened, just that i climbed in bed around 3:15 and slept until 1:30 this afternoon. the perks of college life i guess. as for now, it is nearing 3 and i have church in the morning so... goodnight.
setting the scene, it is 1:15 AM, and there are eleven of us stuffed into critter's dorm room in the corner of the third floor, johnson dorm. four of us on a mattress on the floor leaning against the a/c, two in chairs, on on the bottom bunk, one on the mattressless top bunk, three on the floor. well damn, that actually adds up too. we have been watching braveheart for hours, eating goldfish and stretching intermittently.
as karma dictates, when you have been watching a movie for nigh on three hours, if something will happen to prevent its conclusion, it will happen in the last fifteen minutes. such is the case. with a couple minutes remaining, before the film really concludes, the fire alarm goes off. in fact, it took a second for me to catch on. we were watching on vhs so for a second i thought the screeching sound we were all hearing was a glitch on the film. but, after a second, the familiar sound sinks in and it becomes apparent that it can only be an alarm of some sort. aw damn.
we all sortof get up, collect our senses, and amble out into the hall way. as critter would later remark, we have all been so desensitized to fire drills that if the real thing actually occurred, we might just be in trouble. in fact, he had the forsight to stop the movie and turn off the tv. come to think of it, it wasnt really a surprise. if theres going to be a fire drill, it would most certainly happen in the first week of school. figures.
well, we all wander down the hallway to the door to the stairwell and make our way down past my floor and down the three flights of stairs to where there is a large mass of people gathered outside. none appear to be freaking out or under much stress. i make my way with my group about thirty feet away from the building when i notice we are hearing a new sound, one that doesnt fit in with the chattering of my dormmates and the fire alarm bleating in the background. its a whooshing, like a waterfall, aqueous. so i turn and look and to my left, between johnson and bostwick dorms, smoke is pouring from the ground. it occurs to me that this may not be a drill after all. a minor annoyance turns to concern that all the things in my room might be in jeopardy {included among these: my phone, wallet, camera, keys, guitar, amp, mp3 player, clothes, laptop, printer... well you get the point}. there are people standing near it so i wander over and check it out. theres nothing more happening than all this vapor pouring out of the ground so i amble on back to my group. theres general confusion, no real order to the mess, just everyone in the two dorms standing around speculating and frustrating as a group. sean comes up and tells me that it is, in fact, steam. and why? because he stuck his hand in it. genious.
around that time, the annoying RA from the ground floor starts yelling at people to move away from the buildings and cross the street toward the mag quad. the group shifts in that direction but its slow; none of us really like to listen to him. by this time, the cops had started showing up and at least three cars, replete with the blues flashing, were parked on this little one-way street outside. i walked across the street with some others in time to see a firetruck pull up, making as much noise and light as ever. it stops at the walkway to our dorm and some firemen get out. they dont look like they are in a terrible rush, though. i make my way back across the street to where a couple of my friends and my hall's RA, nick, are. nick is cool about all this and we ask him whats going on. apparently, there was a meltdown in the tunnel between johnson and bostwick and, as we thought, steam was pouring from the ground. great.
i asked if my laptop was covered for this kind of stuff. he seemed to think so. also, none of the sprinklers would go off since there was no "fire". good, cause i wasnt looking forward to hundreds of gallons of water splashing all over my exposed electronics. we just wouldnt be let back in for two hours. wonderful.
we are sitting on the curb by a police car when someone {probably me} mentions food. critter and patrick get up and i hold my hand up to be helped up by kristen but she doesnt notice and patrick helps me. well the group of us walks up the mag quad toward reynolda, passing the drunks coming back from random frat parties {this is the first real friday night of school, after all}. most want to know whats going on... you know, why are there firetrucks and cops outside two of the central south campus dorms? i give them the nutshell and as i do i realize how much of an inconvenience this must be. lots of drunk kids wandering back to their dorms at 1:45 in the morning to find who but the popo waiting outside. heh. its not a time where the truth is too imperative, though, and critter tells the next group simply that the guy in the yellow pulled the alarm. i look behind me and dont see anyone and it takes a second to get that he is talking about me. playing along, i run on up the stairs.
we all walk around the west side of reynolda and up onto the main quad toward subway. as we might have expected, subway was packed so we go back. someone mentions {probably me again} that the library is open late and they have snack machines in there. critter is taking a call {{i originally typed postcard instead of call... i dont know why. its late.}} so patrick and i and some others go around front and inside to one of the library study rooms. there are already evicted kids camping out in there so we go on through to the machines. i figure out my deacon card has no money on the vending strip and have to beg a dollar from seth {i paid him back too} to get a cherry coke. when we get back outside, critter is there without kristen - we forgot she went with us - who, as it turns out, had gone back to her dorm, luter. so we all walk on down to luter.
when we get there, i follow a girl inside {my keycard wont work for any but my own empty dorm after midnight}, thinking everyone might want to hang out in their parlor instead of by the bike racks but only adam and jamie follow me in. after a minute of hanging out in their lobby, we all go back outside and sit with the group. drunk girls wander past and kristen and caroline meet back up with us. we all kind of sit on the wall by the bike racks or near it and talk. caroline mentions having seen part of 'a view to kill' in collins at a party so we talk about bond. some guy who didnt want to go into his dorm and try to get past his RA drunk starts talking about pierce brosnan and how old he is, when he started making bond movies, etc. i kindof argue with him but his math is weak so he just goes back inside. i wonder whatever happened to him...
when nothing at all happens and we are bored of that spot, we go back out to the street between tribble and johnson and sit down in the grass out there. there are still cops. there are still firemen. we still cant go inside. critter goes off alone to see if the green room in reynolda is open. this is a good plan because we have been getting attacked by skeeters for a couple hours and it isnt really pleasant. he doesnt come back so i go up myself - no one feels like following me - and find him sitting with a group of people i dont know on one side of the room. he waves and introduces me so i join them. in fact, theres a girl from my seminar {a whole nother story, see below} there too. i sit on the couch between critter and a tired looking girl, stephanie, from basement johnson. we all kindof talk about nothing until another RA, clearly gay but everyone's friend, walks in with a group of his kids. he took them to some party and got them all drunk, like any good RA. he himself didnt drink, i dont think he does as a general rule, but the rest of them were pretty wasted. one kid was carrying two large glass mugs in one hand. he acted like they were just there and were supposed to be and really wasnt too careful about it. once he got excited, laughed at a joke, and clanged them together, oblivious to the fact that a chunk of glass flew up and landed behind him. when the girl from my seminar tried to explain this to him, he cant seem to wrap his mind around the fact that there is glass missing from one of his mugs. he wandered off to talk to other people and i walked around to pick up the glass and threw it away.
a second later, a girl walks up and introduces herself as sarah. sarah has been drinking and isnt shy about it. she goes around asking names and is generally conversational. when she finds out most of us are from johnson {the substance-free dorm} she praises us as being far more intelligent than her. her night was good until she started drinking, and as she told us, she was wasted and wasnt enjoying it very much. someone yelled at her and she wandered back off.
critter had taken my pillow and moved to the floor so i had stretched out on half the couch with basement stephanie on the other. someone asked the RA if there were still cops and firemen out there and he didnt see any. with a big sigh of relief, the group got up and got out. critter and i went off to the right and walked back down to the dorm. they were finally letting people inside. i think he went off to the right somewhere and i went back up my second floor.
i dont remember what else happened, just that i climbed in bed around 3:15 and slept until 1:30 this afternoon. the perks of college life i guess. as for now, it is nearing 3 and i have church in the morning so... goodnight.
posted by sunshine at 2:07 AM
1 Comments:
WTF Angela. You didnt enjoy the middle?
Post a Comment
<< Home