Curly joined Coach and I at the out of state adventure on July 4th (more on the reasoning behind that coming . . . at some point)- days before she and I flew to Arizona for Irish Dancing National Championships on the 6th. It wasn't ideal, but it was the way it worked out.
All along I thought to myself, What could prevent us from boarding the plane on July 6th? I could think of nothing. I banked on smooth sailing.
I'm silly.
We planned to bolt early Monday morning, July 5th.
At 1:30 am on the hotel's fire alarm went off. Coach leapt out of bed. He stepped on Curly on her air mattress in the process.
Groggy me: IT'S GOTTA BE A FALSE ALARM. GO BACK TO BED. *have I learned nothing from sleeping through the tornado?
Coach (after opening the door to the hall): EVERYONE'S EVACUATING. WE GOTTA GO.
Me: *%^$+!@#&*!@
I'd already packed. The clothes I was going to wear in the morning were out. I put them on. Ain't no one gonna see me in my nightgown (or at least no one in the parking lot of the Fairfield Inn) - trust me, my nightgown is cute and could pass for a summer dress. Still, I couldn't do it. I grabbed my toiletry bag, slid on my favorite sandals, grabbed my purse, and followed Coach with my roller bag into the hallway where the alarm was ear-splitting.
While I prepared my escape, I called out to Curly: TAKE ALL OF YOUR STUFF WITH YOU.
The girl was so confused and sleepy that she tried to walk out of the room carrying her blown up air mattress. I apologize for not having a video of that. Her bouncing off of things. Priceless.
As tired as I was, I thought: WE'RE GETTING ON THAT PLANE. I NEED MY WALLET, MY FAV SANDALS, MY ROLLER BAG, MY TOILETRIES. (priorities)
Outside, I looked at Coach. After a few minutes I said: THIS PLACE BURNS UP, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DRIVE CURLY AND I HOME TONIGHT AND COME BACK AND FINISH UP WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH OUR PROJECT TOMORROW.
Coach aka Sherlock pointed out that there was only one fire engine for the entire hotel. That's when I noticed that a fireman sat in the driver's seat, looking relaxed (and tired). We deduced that fortunately the place wasn't going up in flames. Once the partner guy was done assessing the building, we were allowed back in.
Coach and I were awake for'evah. I think I went back to sleep around 3:15 am. The 6:30 am alarm physically hurt.
*****
When I got home, I took the time to educate my children who'd all been home for the week while I was away taking care of something that needed to be done.
THIS IS THE BROOM. IT WORKS WELL HERE IN THE KITCHEN. THIS DRAWER FULL OF DISH TOWELS IS APPROPRIATE FOR THE COUNTERS.
I'll leave it at that.
After laundry, more food prep and packing for AZ, I collapsed.
*****
Switching gears: NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS OF IRISH DANCING
Uneventful: I did NOT leave an essential bag in a taxi. No one had a fever. I didn't temporarily lose my credit card, or my mind. Thank you, sweet baby Jesus.
Curly celebrated the upscale hotel chosen by the dancing association. A step up from the Fairfield. The heat in Phoenix: oppressive. Our hotel was less than 2 blocks from the venue. 'Twas a sweaty 2 blocks.
Curly placed 9th.
The highest she's ever placed at Nationals is 19th or 20th. She qualified for World Champs in April, in Belfast. I'm sad it's not Dublin, the pandemic location that we intended to visit, but it was cancelled.
It felt a little like there should be an * next to this win. I'll explain the * in my unplanned post tomorrow along with our latest makeup adventure. You'll be proud.
Oh, anyone ever been evacuated from a hotel? This was a first for me, and I feel like I've stayed in a lot of hotels.
19 comments:
We've been evacuated from a hotel. It was in D.C. and it was a high-rise that caught on fire around midnight. The restaurant next door was on fire and the flames jumped onto our building. Because I'd lived in high-rise apartments and dorms I knew to grab a towel to cover your face. We stumbled down 12 flights of stairs, through some smoke, and landed outside in an alley. I didn't worry about my jammies, but I was frantic that we take our wallets and glasses and coats with us. Did I mention it was December and darned cold outside? After about an hour of standing on the sidewalk across from the hotel, we were allowed back in. We didn't sleep a wink after that.
The excitement never ends! Can't say I've ever been evacuated from a hotel, thankfully.
I've been evacuated from a hotel twice. Once when a wedding party got out of control and set a banquet hall on fire (we were not part of the wedding party nor were we attending said wedding, just unlucky enough to be in that hotel at that time). Another time there was a flood, and we were unlucky to be staying on the bottom floor. For the flood, we grabbed our stuff before leaving the room, thankfully, and just left all together (it was part of a road trip). The flood was NOT because of rain or anything, it was a broken water main and poorly thought out drainage around the hotel.
ALSO! 9th Place! That's awesome! Go Curly!
The visual image of Curly trying to take her blow up mattress through the doorway makes me laugh out loud. Poor girl. I can totally identify with the state of your house when you got home. Kids are so clueless!!! Don't worry - eventually you will have a quiet clean house (and you'll miss them:(
I can't believe the number of people in the comments who've been evacuated from hotels! That is a higher percentage than I thought. I mean think of the odds of just YOUR commenters alone? I've personally never been evacuated from a hotel, thankfully. I hope to continue my lucky stretch, Universe, please, and thank you. :)
I can't believe you took your time to get dressed, Ernie. :)
Add me to the list of people who have been evacuated from a hotel in the middle of the night. I, had pajamas and a robe on - but grabbed my glasses, phone and purse. It turned out to be a false alarm, thank goodness.
Up until that point, I've always wondered if I would wake up if a fire alarm went off...now I know.
Congrats Curly on your placement!!
Luckily when the hotel I was staying in had to evacuate I was in the bar. So we took our drinks outside and felt sorry for all the poor people who were out there in their nightclothes. Especially those with small children. Luckily it was a false alarm and we went right back to the bar afterwards! I have been in Barbados in a hurricane too, when half the roof came off the restaurant building and there was no electricity for 36 hours and some of the rooms were flooded. That’s an experience I’d not care to repeat.
Ally - That's awful. 12 flights up? Yikes. Waiting outside in December? I just knew ours was a false alarm. It was 4th of July and I figured someone just did something dumb. Thankfully I was right j- well, that is was a false alarm. No idea if it was due to someone doing something dumb.
Martha - Excitement that I just really couldn't have anticipated.
Kara - Stop it - TWICE? That's nuts. That was quite a wedding party - emphasis on the word party there. Good grief. They lit the place up. Then a flood. You are an unlucky hotel guest. Good thing you escaped both times without injury.
Thanks - it was so exciting. She's over the moon. Over the weekend after we got home, she was in the basement PRACTICING. What on earth? You're done. Give it a rest. I think the word is obsessed. We typically get an entire week off from dancing, but for some reason we only had Monday off. Tonight (Wednesday), it was back to regular class. I could've used more of a break. Curly was chomping at the bit to get back in there.
Pat - That bumping of the air mattress against the wall caused me to look up- it was so funny. Poor girl. So very tired. So much for trying to get good sleep before our travels to Arizona.
Kari - I totally agree - and since you commented, even MORE have shared evacuation stories. What in the world? I was never great at statistics, but there must be some math formula here that would shock all of us with the high percentage.
Somehow, I just knew this was a false alarm and grabbing clothes would not kill me. There was no smoke. No burning smell. No shouting. Maybe I watch too many movies.
Gigi - You TOO. Wow. Thank goodness for the false alarms. See, I didn't have a robe. And it was summer - so no coat. Thus the need to change my clothes. I did not stop to put my contact lenses in.
Thanks for the congrats for Curly - I will pass it along. She's at dancing right now, as I type this. Of course.
Charlie - If I knew you better, I'd say 'OF COURSE YOU WERE IN THE BAR' but I can't actually say that without any knowledge of your 'habits.' Hee hee. Right back to the bar? So funny. Yes, we saw people carrying their toddlers and it made me shutter. What an ordeal.
We went to Barbados for our honeymoon. That experience does sound awful.
Congratulations to Curly! THIS IS BIG. I know you're proud, what a feat.
But really, I'd pay good money to see her trying to carry out her air mattress half asleep-this made me giggle just picturing it.
I don't know that I've been evacuated from a hotel. yet.
Suz- it was great . . . and yes the what not to do with your air mattress in an evacuation was very funny. It didn't dawn on me that she'd done that until the next day.
Congratulations to Curly for placing 9th!!!
Beth - Thanks. When they count backwards and your kid wants to be in the top 10 and doesn't get called for 11th place - it's fairly exciting.
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