Mid-morning excitement

So I’m teaching this training class today when the fire alarm starts flashing and we hear a garbled and crackling announcement come out of speakers we didn’t even notice were in the ceiling.  No idea what the announcement kept repeating, but we came to the conclusion that we should probably evacuate the building.  We joined all the other people streaming up the stairs (the class is held on the lowest basement level), but no one knew what was going on.  The security guards on the main level said only the alarms on the basement levels were going off and no one in the rest of the building had any idea what was going on.  They determined it was a false alarm pretty quickly (or so we heard) and we all went back inside, but the whole experience makes me a wonder a little.  I can only assume someone somewhere was taking it seriously, but I haven’t seen any evidence of that.  Nuclear summit, anyone?  Federal building?

I remembered one other reason I don’t want to make metro my primary way of getting to work: I can’t read on the train anymore!  How horrible is that?  I discovered that I get a little carsick on the metro (train-sick?  Motion-sick doesn’t sound right.  Nauseous will do, but that’s a little strong for how I felt.) even while not reading on Sunday, when we took the metro to and from DC for the race (but that could have been ’cause I’d hardly eaten.  Maybe I was hungry).  Then yesterday, I tried to read in the morning and found I couldn’t.  I tried again on the way home (Persistent, right?  Well, it’s important!), but I could only read when the train was stopped.  So if I can’t read, where’s the advantage of letting someone else drive?  Sure, I can’t read in the car, but I have books on CD.  And yes, I could download those books to mp3 and use my headphones, but that takes work.  And lest we forget, I’m lazy.  And super tired when I get home from work.  I’m barely able to make dinner.  I didn’t mean to start whining.  Not that much, anyway.

4 Comments

  1. Oh, that sucks. I get motion sick pretty easily, but I always had luck on the subway being able to read. No dice in a car. Can’t even look down for a minute. So much for not driving for you, huh?

  2. Zannah

    Yeah, that’s out. I used to be able to read in the car (and on the train), but it’s been a while. I tried it facing forwards and backwards – neither worked. And I’m too nervous to sleep – I’m convinced I’ll miss my stop. 🙂

  3. Zannah

    Huh. I didn’t have any concerns for my safety while riding the metro this week, and when I noticed a few people napping, it didn’t occur to me to wonder about their safety while they were sleeping. So apparently, yes, I feel safe enough to nap on the metro. 🙂 It’s my nervousness about missing my stop (which is really nervousness about being late) that would keep me from sleeping.

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