Don't be alarmed...

I am finally feeling better and back to work today, so back to blogging as well. Friday night I went out for happy hour with my brother and some great friends. It was funny as my brother and I look nothing alike and my friends daughter went through the entire evening without realizing who exactly he was. We were about to leave and I called him 'bro' and she looks at me, looks at him, and says "He is your brother?" I just told her that we bought him from gypsies. Of course she is old enough to give me the look, and the eye-roll that my boys do when they know I am full of it.

On my way to this fun evening, I got a phone call. Most people in my phone have a ring tone associated with them, so when I get the standard noise, its someone I don't talk to often. This time it happened to be my landlord. I answer the phone and the conversation goes something like this:

LL: Hey.. are you at home right now?

Me: No.. on my way out for happy hour. I went straight from work so I haven't been home since 5am. Whats up?

LL: Well I don't want you to be alarmed. I was hoping you were at home.

Me: Don't be alarmed about what?


Now at this point all sorts of things are going through my mind. Did the place get robbed? Am I getting evicted? Did the Feds break down my door to seize my collection of copied movies? Did the water from the upstairs apartment leak into mine like it did on the other side of the building a couple months ago? Did my hippie neighboors get busted for growing pot in their apartment?

LL: Well you know how I have the property for sale right?

Me: Yeah...

LL: Well my brother is the realator. His name and number are on the sign. Someone called his number and said that they think the building might be on fire.

Me: On fire? That seems like something I should probably be alarmed about.

LL: Well I already called the fire dept. to check it out. I was trying the residents to have someone confirm what was going on. I will call you back as soon as I figure out whats going on.

Me: OK

So I hang up the phone. I am about 15 minutes from home at this point and I debated if I should call my friends and my brother and tell them I had to cancel and go home to see what was up. Then I decided it was a long week and I really wanted a beer. So I vetoed the going home idea. My LL called back at that point.

LL: Good news, the building is fine. It was a couple doors down aparently that had smoke coming out of it.

Me: /whew .. good news. Thanks for callhing me back.

LL: No problem. Were you on your way home?

Me: Nope. I am not there, my boys are with my ex, and I have no pets. So if the building is already on fire there is nothing I was going to be running in there to try and save anyway and thus no point in me rushing home. I am going to have a beer or three and relax. Glad everything is ok. Talk to you later.

LL: Umm.. ok. Goodbye.


I guess it was somewhat illogical to not head home when you find out your place is possibly on fire, but its an apartment, not my house. If the kids had been home I would have broken every law known to man to get there to make sure they were safe and out of the building, but that wasn't the case. Sure I have stuff I would rather not lose in my apartment, but nothing that couldn't be replaced and nothing worth risking my life for if it was actually on fire. Besides, a cold beer sounded REALLY good.