BREAKING NEWS!

Today was the health fair at the State Capitol for all state employees. This means that the 1st and 2nd floors and rotundas are lined with tables and vendors. Everything from gyms to diet programs, chiropractors to mattress companies, arbonne to shaklee show up to offer their services and products to us state employees, to achieve a healthier life. And then there is my favorite booth of the day, it is a free, 10 minute massage.

So, this morning I walked into work and ran the gauntlet of booths and vendors without stopping. I got up to my office and talked with the ladies around me about last year's experience and we all decided that after lunch we'd go down for our free massages.

So, 3:30pm comes around and I'm diligently working to get an answer for my boss (no, I'm not joking, I really was working). I hear the ladies on either side of me say "ok girls, lets go", next thing I know they are practically running down the hall. I assumed they were talking about the massages, and just really eager to get down to them. However, I was waiting on an answer from my boss, so I calmly pulled out my compact and reapplied some lip gloss while I was waiting. Right as my boss answers me, an announcement comes over the loud speaker:

"Attention Employees, please disregard the emergency notice just sent to your computers"

I look over at my desktop computer whose screen had gone black, I move the mouse around to clear the screen and see the emergency message: "Please evacuate the building, due to smoke and flames". Well, I laugh because I already know I don't need to evacuate, but never once did it dawn on me that the others from my hall had seen the message before going down to get their massages. I had my answer, so I decided to go and get my massage. I made a quick trip to the ladies room, where I ran into two ladies from the 5th floor. Purses slung over their shoulders they asked "Are you evacuating?" To which I responded: "Oh, didn't you hear? It was a false alarm, they just cancelled it"

Still thinking nothing of this, I proceeded to walk down to the first floor, still determined to get my massage. But alas! they were almost completely packed up! I was so disappointed. I walked back up the stairs to my floor, expecting to see the ladies from my hall, but they still hadn't returned. I checked my phone and saw a missed message from one of the ladies, then I looked out the window and there they were, everyone from my division. By then, they had received the message that this was a false alarm and they could come back to work for the last 30 minutes of the day.

I got a little bit of a "talking-to" when they all got back inside, until they realized that I had no idea we'd been told to evacuate and I didn't know why they were all running down the hall......

So, at the end of the day, I have to ask myself: what have I learned today? Well, I have learned that in the event of a real Capitol emergency, I will still be inside the flaming capitol building, while all my co-workers stand outside, wondering why they can't get ahold of me. The good news is that at least one state employee actually works and even puts work before her own personal safety. And that, my friends, is today's breaking news!

And I never DID get that massage...............

Hard Week

This week I need to spend time studying and preparing for the weekend. I have two vastly different commitments that require preparation. Yet I find myself unable to concentrate and only wishing to sleep, hoping that when I wake up, the world will be a different, happier place.

But that isn't the case, the problems don't just disappear without a fight. I can get over this, I can get through this....sad thing is, it isn't like it hasn't happened before.

University Adventures

A little over a month ago, the fan in my dining room broke. And by broke, I mean the light chain came out of its place and stayed in my hand, as I was turning the light off. My housemate and I have lived without a light in our dining room for over a month now and are starting to adjust to the life of a photophobic. 

Broken/Lightless fixture

So, my housemate and I have spent the last couple of weeks picking out new fixtures. Because, lets face it, when you have the opportunity to redecorate, why not do it right? We currently have new fixtures going into the kitchen, dining room, hall and switching the living room fan with a bedroom fan. Tuesday night, as we were waiting for an electrician to show up and preform this work of magic, we began discussing doing the job ourselves. Sure, neither of us know the first thing about electric workings, but replacing a fan couldn't be that hard, right?

After laughing at the picture of us replacing the fixtures ourselves, my housemate said "we'd probably get shocked if we tried". To which I replied, "except, we are smart enough to flip the breaker before attempting such a task, right?"

It was at this point we both realized that neither of us had a clue where the breakers in our house were located. We shot up out of our chairs and raced away. She to the garage, me to the hallway. I remembered a box in the hall closet that I wanted to inspect......

Suspicious Box

The conversation went something like: "Hey! I found a box....um....its locked...do we know where the key might be?" At this point, we were both laughing. I think the picture running through both are minds was flipping a breaker, being left in complete darkness and then discovering that we had to find a key to get to our breaker system. Thankfully, the mad search did not last long, and I discovered the key and opened the box. What I found inside scared me, it looked like something out of Chuck.......

Do I cut the red wire?!

End of the story is anti-climactic; we realized this was the alarm system and later discovered the breaker box in the master closet. (Yes, we think that is an odd location as well, but we didn't chose it) I think our next great adventure will be figuring out which switch goes to which part of the house and labeling them correctly.

Found it!

So ends this episode of University Adventures. Oh, and for the over-curious, our electrician never showed up that night, but I hear he'll come on Saturday and fix all our wonderful lighting issues. Yay!