Mildly Perilous Alarm of Impending Ennui

I was sitting in my office today, eating my lunch, watching The Office on YouTube (speaking of which, what a great lunch time activity watching sitcoms from channels I don't get at home but available on YouTube has been -- particularly working in an office by myself. I hope the Google buyout doesn't mess that up), when an alarm went off.

My first instinct was to ignore it. I work in an old building that is quirky. There's asbestos in the ceiling, a huge chandelier in the entryway, and old radiators that pump heat all summer. Periodically over the last few months, there has been no water in the bathrooms.

My alarm-ignoring instinct comes from college and grad school. One of the dorms I was in at Bennington had smoke alarms that were set off by hot showers (actually, I think Colby may have had that too). It was no big deal for those 4 p.m. showers during June residencies. The 6 a.m. showers in January sucked.

But then I thought, wait, I'm in a 14-story building on the busiest street in San Francisco, just a few blocks from the TransAmerica pyramid (yeah, it's called a pyramid -- i guess it is one -- seems weird, though). 9/11, all that. Maybe I should at least peak out the door.

The alarm was coming from the elevator. I think people were stuck in the elevator. Or reminiscing about the old Aerosmith video. It made me think of the Weird Al song Stuck in a Closet with Vanna White. It was a bad song from about 20 years ago. I saw the last minute of Wheel of Fortune last night. Vanna White is old. But she still does whatever it is she does. She models, I guess.

Anyway, yeah, it was the elevator. After five minutes or so, the alarm stopped. While I did nothing to help, I did note that an official sounding woman was shouting directions to the people on the elevator. I then went back to my lunch and The Office.