Alarm!

Last night I actually went to bed before midnight in an attempt to get myself back on a reasonable sleep schedule.  My efforts came to naught because the fire alarm went off around 12:15.  At first I didn't know what it was because I had my earplugs in.  When I recognized the sound I frantically ran around my room, putting my laptop in my backpack and throwing on a robe and coat before heading outside with my stuff.  Only then did I realize that I'd forgotten my thesis notebook and that I was wearing flip-flops, which wasn't good because it was cold.

On the way, when I was going down the stairs, I smelled smoke and it stung my eyes a bit.  I found Martine outside.  She was half-asleep and everyone else was very annoyed.  I gathered from the people around me that the smoke was coming up from the basement.  It was probably a popcorn fire - someone left a bag in the microwave too long (this was later confirmed when Public Safety let us back in).

Everyone was complaining about the cold, but I didn't feel that bad, even being in flip-flops.  I just don't get cold that easily.  What was annoying was that I knew it'd be hard to go back to sleep after all this.

Our friendly neighborhood Public Safety folks finally turned off the alarm and vented out the basement somehow.  We all went back inside.  There was still some smoke in the air.  I went up to my room and actually managed to go back to sleep.

Microwave popcorn is the devil.