Our Building,

So on Thursday night there was a fire alarm going off in our building at around 10:09. Not too late and not a big deal. Except we soon discovered that there was actually a fire. This was no drill. What actually happened was at 10:09 an alarm started going off in the apartment across the hall and one down, so we figured they just burned some toast or something like that. Our thought process was if it's not stopped going off by 10:30 there is probably a problem. Yeah, kind of laissez-faire attitude but we figured that it was just toast. But after we went out and looked to see if something was going on and got tucked back into bed the big alarm started going off and people (not that many, there are only 12 units in our building) started flooding out. The door of the offending unit was open and smoke was billowing out. Everyone quickly huddled up outside (most of us were fully dressed and were not too concerned) and the fire trucks arrived. Funnily (if that's appropriate) enough the last people to come out were the people from the offending apartment, you think they would be the first to know but the firefighters actually brought them out. Also sort of funny/ironic is that the lady of the house came out coughing from smoke inhalation and her first move was to light up a cigarette. They were also the first back into the building so that they could carry out their screaming match in private (not that private considering our doors aren't that soundproof). Surprisingly after our apartment smelt the best it had in a while because the firefighters brought in a super fan to blow out all the smoke.
The reason for our 10:30 rendez-vous: Hilda and Terry fell asleep while making perogies and the grease and food started on fire. I'm just going off of my experience but I think it takes no more than 10 minutes to make this tasty Ukranian treat which is not exactly prime time for a nap. But Hilda and Terry are a couple of characters with possibly some questionable habits that may have increased their likelihood of 'napping'. This is the kind of building we live in. And these two are better than the couple that used to be next door, at least the cops don't come by nearly as often. However, I learned that night that one lady has lived here for 2 years and the pseudo building supervisor has lived here for 30 years. So longterm, apparently this is the place if you don't mind smells and the occasional random moment. We're quite happy being here for no longer than a year and a half.

Come see for yourself at my birthday party tomorrow. I promise it will be an adventure.