No need to be alarmed

July 23, 2011

I walked about two miles to Stockland with Stephanie around 10 a.m. We were planning to walk both ways, but it was so hot and our groceries were heavy enough that we ended up paying $1.40 each to take the 2:24 bus back. After putting my groceries away, I went to the library and ran into the same lady I saw at the InfoHelp desk Thursday. She asked me if my computer was fixed, and when I said no, she gave me the e-mail address of her husband, who is an IT, and said that even though he’s from a different faculty, he’s familiar with Macs and could probably help me if I haven’t gotten it sorted out by Tuesday. 

I wish the U.S. had this kind of escalator.

After I went jogging, showered, and made myself spaghetti, Holly texted me and asked if I wanted to go out. I felt bad about saying no the night before since I knew she had stayed in because of it, so this time I agreed. Of course, she never bothered to tell me not to wear flip flops (which are apparently against dress code) even though it was already questionable whether I would get in using my student ID. She had agreed to pick up a guy named Lane on the way, but even though we were using her GPS we drove around aimlessly for at least an hour before we found it. At one point she actually drove the wrong way around a roundabout. Eventually we met up with another girl who rode her motorcycle there, so Lane ended up being the only one to consume any alcohol. 

On the way home, Lane was intoxicated enough that when he shouted into his phone that the cops were chasing us, we didn’t believe him--until we saw the lights and heard the siren. I forgot that in Australia police officers don’t need to have probable cause to pull over a vehicle, so I struggled to remain calm. Even though she hadn’t been drinking, Holly was nervous too because she’s only had her license a few weeks and hadn’t been stopped before. Only after she drove away having passed her breathalyzer test did Holly realize that by law she’s not allowed to have more than one non-family member in the car past 11 p.m. I told her that the cop was probably so impressed that her BAC was zero, he decided to let it go. 

We got back at about 1:30 a.m. and I fell asleep around 2:00, shortly after the sprinklers came on. Not much time could have passed because the sprinklers were still on when the fire alarm (which sounded more like a toy ambulance) went off and we all had to evacuate the building. I was so groggy I didn’t even put on shoes or a jacket. While we waited for the fire fighters to show up and tell us we could go back to sleep, we huddled together and tried unsuccessfully to avoid getting watered by the sprinklers. When the fire fighters finally showed up, they still had to go through all the rooms, so we must have been out there for at least 20 minutes. I have never been so happy to crawl into bed as I was after that.