THE DAY THE BELL WENT OFF

emotional vulnerability aside, today was really one of the most dramatic days of my young life...=P

i headed down to the studio at past six and sung my heart out before everyone else came in.

we had a briefing, then our class, then as the class ended and we were about to start a rueda...the fire alarm went off.

uhhuh, it went off all right.

no one touched it, no one broke anything. it just went off...we speculate that the thunderstorm had somehow triggered it.

so we all ran around like headless chickens, trying to call all the numbers on the CISCO box, the locksmith, our friends who were firemen and whoever we knew lah.

i couldn't get thomas, nor his younger sis. the only person who picked up was his youngest sister.

"amy, i can't get your brother, or your sister, the fire alarm just went off, how do i shut it off?" said i.

she said, "you can't get my brother, or my sister, the fire alarm just went off and how do i shut it off?"

i said, "yes, how do you shut it off?"

she said "how did it go off?"

"i don't know! and that's not the point! how do you shut it off?" said an exasperated i.

"did you try to get my brother?" she said.

(i shall halt the conversation log here before you get as iffy as i got...)

after almost 20 minutes of running around and trying to make sense of thomas' smses, we got the alarm to shut up...withouth the locksmith stepping in. phew.

so dear reader, you think the drama is over, don't you?

but no...

as we all left and i was to lock up, the bloody unit door wouldn't lock. and i didn't have the key at for the lock at the bottom, so well...that sucked.

so the few of us went around looking for a cab, but all the cabs were "on call". so we decided to walk to amara to try to get one.

of course, them, being the salsa goons they are, decided to coerce me into going to union.

and so i head into the amara hotel toilet...and realized (GASP!) that i had a major female emergency.

i walked out in an awkward stance and told simon and crystal that i "had an emergency."

well, simon got it after i repeated it a second time.

so i joined the cab queue outside the hotel. 10 mins later, the queue still hasn't moved.

cab companies were engaged, even radio taxi was stalling.

so i got desperate and smsed my roomie...

me: hey girl, are you still out?

jac: home, crazy weather. where are you?

me: stuck at amara, having a female emergency, long cab queue, cab companies engaged. =(

jac: you wait i come and get you.

me: thanks! and uh...please bring newspaper or a plastic bag...

so once again, it's roomie j to the rescue.

i swear i would've broken down in the cab queue because i felt so miserable.

thanks to jac though, i got through that bit of the night without tears.

so thomas calls me after i get home and he says he was at a stand-up comedy club when the fire alarm fiasco went off.

the moment he described a certain "red box" to me over the phone, the whole club went silent.

apparently, the crowd was staring at him, and heard him say "the red box" rather loudly.

so he opted to sms me instead.

what an adventurous day for caliente-ites.

i think the adventure is enough to last me for a week. =P