There's A First Time For Everything

Four weeks. Just four more weeks of class left. Out of that four weeks, I have two presentations, two final papers, and two finals to take. I really can't wait to get all it over with. I really can't wait to get back into North Carolina, even if it is for 3 days. A little more on this later, right now, I'd like to talk a little bit about my wonderful fiasco last night.

So, being the responsible student that I am, I completely wasted the past two days, vegging out on my couch, knowing that I should be devoting that valuable, limited time to my papers and presentations. Well, my damned couch just happens to be really comfortable. Trust me. If you eat a good meal, and then relax on my couch watching TV, you'll soon be passed out. That was me for the past two days. Anyways, if I happen to nap on my couch, I usually have trouble sleeping when I actually do go to bed. Fortunately for me, I kind of stayed up into the early hours of the morning chatting with a friend on my Mac. Finally, I got my shower, went through my nightly routine of shaving and skin care, and after a bit of surfing the internet, I finally got in the bed. I laid there, quietly, listening to my radio that was in the other room. It was 1:45 in the morning. I tossed and turned a bit, and finally found a comfortable position on my back. *BAM* My apartment erupted with the sound of an eerie screech that only a residence hall smoke alarm can make. I've been through this routine before at UNCA, but for the first time in my graduate career, a fire alarm happened without me knowing it was going to happen.

I laid there, my eyes wide open. "Shit!" I thought. I covered my ears and laid there for a second more. The sound was so annoying, so penetrating. I didn't want to take my hands off my ears, but I knew that I had to get up, throw something on and get the hell out. Finally, I took my hands off my ears and rolled out of bed. I was kind of grateful that I hadn't been woken up. That would've just annoyed me even more. I put on some sweatpants, but had some difficulty putting on my shirt. With the deafening sound of the smoke detector, I managed to put my shirt on backwards, and struggled a bit to get it turned around. Then, I had to locate my ID, my keys and the damned duty phone (because it just so happened that I was on duty this week) which were all scattered through out my apartment. Finally locating everything I needed, I stepped out into the hallway and started to vacate the building.

Stepping out, I realized that I was one of the first out of the building, so I had to tell everyone else to get away from the building, because I was the grad assistant, and a bad ass. As more people came out of the building, I turned to look at the building. I stopped, and stared at the lounge area for some reason. Something didn't look right, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Maybe it was because it was so early, or because I was so distraught by the aural assault on my ears, but I was able to finally make the connection. As I looked up into the lounge area, I saw the gushing torrent of what could only be a ruptured sprinkler head. Water was everywhere, it was even leaking down on the first floor and even in the main entry way.

Immediately I called the main duty phone to report the problem, and then followed up with the appropriate people. The fire department and the police department both show up, along with people from facilities management. Facilities entered the building and began the process of turning the water off so they could get up there and assess damage and clean up. It was probably about 2:15 in the morning at this time.

While standing there, watching the sprinkler head rain down on the floor above me, a resident who assumed I was just another resident approached me and asked me if I was a resident of my building, to which I said yes. He then told me that he had a friend who lived in the same building who was very drunk. Well, I had to act on this, so as we walked over, this particular resident looks at me and says, "Uh, you're not a person of authority, are you?" To which I looked at him and said, "Why, yes. I am." Although I was not looking at his face, I could tell that the expression "Oh shit" crept across it. I approached the drunk resident, and damn. What a site to see. This girl was stumbling all over the place, and generally, a mess. I asked her how many beers she had, to which she said, "A couple." "Oh really? How many is a couple?" I asked. I took her ID and did what I needed to do, and told the both of them that I would be documenting them. Then I turned to the resident who confronted me. I could tell he was scared shitless. I asked him for his university ID number. "I forgot", he says. "Well, can you tell me your name?" I ask. "I don't know what my name is," he replies. "Are you intoxicated too?" I ask. "No sir." Obviously, this kid wasn't playing by the rules. "Alright," I said. "You can be cooperative with me, and I can take your information and document you, and call it a night, OR I can end this right now and you can deal with the Police Department." "It's your call," I said. That must've softened him up a bit, because he immediately took out his wallet and produced his university ID card and his name. That was fun.

Back to our sprinkler, it's now about 3:00 AM, and facilities management has shut off the water and is up in the community room, wet/dry vacs a-blaze trying to get all the water up. In addition, they tore up all the water logger carpet in the lounge, and removed all the furniture. But not only did the lounge receive some damage, but the office directly under the community room below, completely flooded. This particular office happened to belong to our Residence Hall Director. We gathered RA staff, and checked rooms, initiated "fire watch" and called it a night. All this, took place over the course from around 2AM to 5AM. Finally, I crawled back in the bed, only to get up 3 hours later for an open house event.

This morning when I got up and was getting dressed, I noticed that some of the water had seeped into my apartment. Although my carpet was not heavily saturated, it was damp. So once again, I call maintenance, who comes in, rearranges my bedroom, and sucks up the water. They brought me a blower to so I could move some air over the carpet, and I've been running it since.

So now, I'm pretty sure that you can see just why I want to get this semester over with. I just really would love to get home, eat some good food, not worry about classes, and just play with my dogs. I want to enjoy life again, and not worry about what's due, or what I have to work on. Another year and a half of this. I can do this. I can do this.