An Episode of Interest

Before I continue my chronological epic concerning the start of my college days I feel compelled to narrate the most interesting events that have happened as of yet. (Yes, more interesting than the game of Ping-Pong tag that is currently causing normally sane young men to charge up the halls of the dorm.)

I'll start with the hook:

We set off the fire alarms in the girls dormitory.

To detail the events leading up to this dramatic event I must start with the trip to Wal-Mart. I'm not sure whose idea it was initially, but a number of people among my circle of friends decided that they needed to buy things, so they found someone who was willing to drive them to Wal-Mart. We left at around 5:00 PM, seven of us in a mini-van. These are the main players. Theresa, two Abigails, Andrew (Quincy on this day), Dan and myself. (Heather went with us to Wal-Mart, but she left before the culmination of events.

We bought many things, as a group, though I managed to only spend six dollars. Being poor college students we bought a variety of food, along with other necessities of which we had either run out or which we had not thought to bring. Among these things Theresa purchased the ingredients to make Pizza. After a good two hours of shopping we returned to campus. When we arrived we dispersed our various ways to put our loot away, and to gather things that would be either useful in the making or consumption of Pizza. I collected the tub of cookies my sisters had sent me and then we proceeded on to the Girls dorm where the Pizza was going to be made.

Since it was not open hours we were forced to make the pizza in the lounge (which is much nicer than the lounge in the guys dorm.) Theresa carefully shredded the cheese with Dan's pocket-knife and they greased the pans with pepperoni grease. It wasn't until we tried to use the oven that we discovered that the oven on the first floor does not work. The girls proceeded to test the ovens on the other floors and discovered that only one oven worked. So we quite naturally started to cook the pizza in that oven. Since the guys were still not allowed out of the lounge on the first floor the girls mostly stayed and chatted with us, though they did keep an eye on the pizza to make sure it did not burn.

Of course, the first thing we knew of the disaster was the alarms going off and the strobes blinking. The loud wailing and flashing lights drove us out of the building before the RA's told us we were supposed to evacuate. It turns out that the oven had produced enough smoke (not from our pizza) to set off the alarms. And the best part was that it was just before the kick-off of the Steelers game.

When the alarms go off, the fire department comes. It was only a matter of a few minutes
before two fire-trucks and a police car come flying up and stop outside the dorm. Moments behind them were campus security and a few of the college administrative staff. The RAs explain the situation and the fire-men go in to check it out. While we were standing around waiting to be let back into the dorm I handed out cookies and Dan took pictures. Theresa, proving her notoriety was approached by a number of people jokingly inquiring if it was her fault. They were however surprised to find out that she was involved.

Many people were concerned and annoyed by our pizza.

We were just hungry.

The firemen took a huge fan and blew all the smoke out and after a short while let us back into the building. To our relief we found that the pizza was not burnt. So we settled in to eat while the others went back to their football game.

The pizza was great.

As we ate the pizza everyone walking by either glared or snickered at us. Which was even better.