That would be a fire alarm.
Yes, that’s right, 90 minutes into my lovely trip to TWU’s Houston campus, the fire alarm went off and I got to lumber down ten flights of stairs and cross the street during what I’ve since learned is a fairly regular fire-drill routine here at our Houston center.
The culprit? We haven’t spent the $5 million necessary to install sprinklers in our building. So, to compensate, we must have regular fire drills and demonstrate that we can clear the building in five minutes or less (which, apparently, we almost always do).
The first couple of flights down were fine — but then, I did start on the tenth floor of an 11-story building. By about the seventh or eighth floor I began picking up other people, and the last four flights of stairs I scaled at the pace of a snail because of the sheer volume of people ahead of me. I couldn’t help but think how eerily similar the situation, if not the circumstances, was to how it would have been in the Twin Towers … a very small concrete stairwell, no windows, and the pervasive high-pitched squeal of the fire alarm, with people trodding down the stairs one after another. It was downright creepy … I’m SO glad I don’t work here all the time.
As I predicted earlier, not much is happening here today. I’ve had three takers in 3 1/2 hours for my lineup of classes and open Q&A sessions. I have two meetings this afternoon starting at 2 p.m., and then will be free for the day. THANK GOODNESS. I’m about to fall over asleep on my laptop.
I sent my boss an e-mail about something unrelated just now and mentioned that I’d stupidly booked myself on the 7 a.m. flight to Houston. She knows how much I hate mornings, and so I said, “I know you’ll be able to appreciate how much I enjoyed my 4:30 a.m. alarm today.”
Her response gave me a good chuckle:
“I’d have to stay up all night to be up at 4:30.”