so those of you who saw my away message early this morning know what happened... at 5:45, we were rudely awoken by a screaming alarm. of course, my mental faculties at 5:45 are not *quite* up to par, especially when i've just woken (or haven't really woken) up. so i look at the clock, out the window, and in turn at each of my roommates. dawn is starting to creep over the horizon, which gives the east this vague, eery glow. it's 5:45, mind you, and i've been awake for approximately 10 seconds. the first thought through my mind is, "oh, shit, nuclear war." i kid you not. i'm lame. but anyway, after a few minutes, the siren has not stopped, and heather and i decide, hey, we should go out into the hall to see what kids are doing. kids, it appears, are holding their ears and staring at each other. so we join in the fun. "WHAT'S GOING ON?" someone screams at someone else. "WHAT?" someone else screams back. this enjoyable activity continues until we decide that, due to the fact that alarms are screaming bloody murder at us, we should go outside. you know, all evacuate the building and stuff. so i go back in the room to tell jenny that we're evacuating the building ("uuungh. i'm staying here. i have a track meet today."), grab shoes, a sweater and leave the building. of course, i didn't remember to bring my water gun to get my assassins target, but really, that's okay, because it's before 6 and i'm damn tired. so we stand outside. and we stand outside. police cars pull up and stare at us. a fire truck pulls up. two guys in fireman outfits go inside. after a few minutes the alarm turns off. and there was much rejoicing. oh, but we continue to stand there. and stand there. finally one of the guys in the fireman outfits comes out, pulls off his helmet and rubs his head. he talks to kennell for a few minutes. the other guy comes out and joins in the conversation. then the mob moves back inside. yeeeeeah. it was, at this point, about 6:10. i was thinking about staying up and getting shit done (my japanese homework remains untouched to this point), but it was 6:10. yeeeeeeeah. considering i'd gone to bed about four hours previous, i decided that it was in my best interest to finish up my sleep. so i got up about 10:20. i guess that works out to 8 hours of sleep, albeit interrupted... ah well. it works.