1 building, 2 fire trucks, 224 stairs

so.... about 10:30 PM last night, burton and i were getting ready for bed when we heard a faint siren -- seemingly in the distance. we sat there for a minute, trying to understand what it was saying. it would make two loud siren noises and then a loud voice was saying something almost indecernible. i opened the window in our apartment and determined it was saying, "may i have your attention please. may i have your attention please. there has been a fire reported inside the building. please make your way to the nearest exit. do NOT use the elevators." for a couple minutes we listened trying to figure out which building it could be talking about -- was it the marriott across the parking lot?... or maybe the metro station right across the street? it couldn't possibly be our building 'cause we could hardly hear it. and then slowly, we started seeing people exiting the building in their pajamas into the parking lot. so, we got dressed, grabbed a cell phone and my purse and made our way to the stairwell. we tried to push the door open, but it wouldn't budge. we kept pushing and FINALLY the door opened, but we were pushing against an intense airflow that made it seem like the door was locked (kind of scary actually, to think if people didn't think to push it harder they'd think they were stuck for sure). anyway, we got into the stairwell and suddenly the siren and the voice were intensely loud. it was definitely our building, but the only place you could hear the alarm clearly was in the stairwell. we made our way down the 224 stairs (i know that not because of the way down... but because of the way back up to the 14th floor the SECOND time the alarm went off... i'll get to that), but saw no one else in the stairwell. we got outside and saw about 25 to 30 people standing around in their pajamas, looking up at the building for some sign of a fire. nothing. don't get me wrong, no complaints about there not being a fire. thank goodness there was no fire, because out of over 200 apartments, there were only 25 to 30 people outside. no one could hear the alarm. nor were there any flashing lights or anything inside the main part of the building to indicate that there was an alarm going off in our building. however, people are so funny... because even once the two firetrucks arrived and it was clear that what we were hearing was in fact for our building, people still stood inside their apartments looking out the window at the commotion... 3, 6, even 10 and 14 floors up. the firemen came, defused the alarm and let us all back inside. we took the elevators back up and got back to our apartment. we started to get ready for bed again when we heard the alarm a second time. so... in this circumstance, what do you do? maybe there was no fire again and the alarm was just having issues... maybe they thought there was no fire the first time, but there really was. we're on the 14th floor, so the possibility of the later option was not something we were going to wait around to find out. back to the stairwell, back down 224 stairs, back outside... and nothing. less people outside this time, and only one firetruck. this time, they couldn't defuse the alarm even though there was no fire, so they silenced it while they tried to fix it and let us back inside. this time... no elevators. so... up the 28 flights of stairs we went. nothing like a good hardy work out right before you go to sleep. but, on another note... i got to go outside, which is something i haven't done in 4 days. :)

(oh... and that guy in the picture is "bruce"... i used to randomly make him the wallpaper on my male friends computer at work when he wasn't looking... just for fun and cause often he wouldn't discover it was there until he had someone else standing next to him looking at his computer with him. haha. anyway, thought i'd introduce you all to him as well.)