Sunday, February 19, 2006

Can I sleep now in peace?

Preface: About a month ago, I stayed home for a morning from school to work on a teacher inservice on curriculum that I was leading. While I was working, I decided to bake blueberry muffins. I preheated the oven, and about 30 seconds after I put the muffins in the oven, the smoke detector started screeching. I freaked out, called maintenance, and Guillermo, our maintenance guy, came and pulled out the batteries. Right now, the smoke detector from the kitchen is sitting on the kitchen counter. I'm counting on the fact that there is one in the bedroom, and sprinklers everywhere, to save my life. Anyway, I have a fear of fire alarms...I set one off at my condo. in Charlotte last year after some broiling gone bad, and then it was connected to my home alarm system which meant ADT called me and sent firemen, you get the idea...

So tonight I'm checking my e-mail one last time before bed, about 11:30pm, when a fire alarm starts screeching. I know it's irrational, but I first thought that somehow the fire alarm in my kitchen (dismantled on the kitchen counter) somehow could work without the batteries and was getting revenge on me. Then I saw flashing lights outside. Someone set off the alarm for the entire building, giving me flashbacks to my senior year at Dordt College when fire alarms went off when 1) someone set his fart on fire, and 2) someone decided to grill through their window.

I opened up my door, only after other neighbors in pajamas did so, and there was a woman above me (out of my sight, but talking with a neighbor across from me whom I could see) apologizing profusely. Her explanation was that she was trying to find her keys, that she had the wrong key...This didn't work for another neighbor either, who pushed the issue saying "Yes, but how did you set off the alarm?" The woman said something about how that happened in the parking garage. I don't quite get it, but whatever.

So now I have a list of a few things I know about these neighbors, all of which add up to an interesting picture:
  • They have set off the fire alarm in the parking garage, and blamed it on not finding the right keys for their apartment...um, yeah.
  • They have a bumper sticker on their Jeep that says "George W. Bush is a Muggle"
  • They occasionally work out together in the morning at our complex's gym, and the guy wears these Docker-type shorts
  • They create the only noise I've ever heard here from another apartment--the springs of a bed, usually on Sat. and Sun. morning.
  • They have pissed off most if not all residents in our building, and probably Guillermo.
Can I sleep now in peace?

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