Most alarming!!

Picture this... it's my first night in my new apartment. The previous night, I was at the Delta with my cat, Baxter, who couldn't sleep AT ALL because of all the new sounds, smells and I don't even want to consider what else... I'm excited to be in my new place, and I've only really had a chance to get a pull-out couch delivered (glad I thought ahead about that one!) and pick up some linens at the local Bay store.

After a busy day, I decided not to use the full pull-out option of my couch, I'd just take the back cushions off and sleep on the couch. Bax has now decided that he is very much ready to sleep - but due to his "you just took me away from everything I know you stupid human" anxieties, he wanted to sleep RIGHT beside me. I woke up about an hour later - needing some personal space, and realizing that the couch is on a slant, so you really roll into the crease of the couch... I didn't like sleeping on such a slant. So, up I got - cleared my cat off the couch, and set out to make the bed. Then, I felt I could FINALLY really sleep.

That's when the Golden Boy really showed his prominence in my life... Winnipeg is quite proud of this tall gold statue of a running man (think more Olympic, with a torch, rather than an early 90's dance move I still can't master)... So proud that at night, they want all to see it. I should look at it from Google Earth - I'm sure that from space, it's the glow of the Golden Boy at night that puts Winnipeg on the map!

I had not had time to buy curtains yet. And my living room has patio doors that face the magnificent Golden Boy... In my completely empty bedroom, there was less light... but no bed. It took me FOREVER to fall asleep - or so it felt.

In what felt like seconds, I was jolted from my sleep like I was a character on LOST and there was black smoke headed my way. The fire alarm went off. It is very loud - and VERY disorienting to a very new member of the building...and her cat, who already had enough anxiety issues. I jumped up, not even knowing what was going on yet... I was searching frantically for my slippers and for a long-sleeved t-shirt or sweater to help me deal with the cold night air - and then grabbed my cat's carrier and went to find The Bax. Let's remember, the ONLY thing in my apartment is a pull out couch. So, the search was quite easy, but getting my cat out from under this pull-out couch was next to impossible. I had already been running around, swearing A LOT, and now I'm having to coax my cat out of this "safe place" while this really loud bell is going off - and I am still trying to figure out just how "at risk" we are... "Trust me Bax! Just trust me!" That's what I remember yelling at him. Seems as though we'll have to work on his word recognition for "trust" - it seemed to have no meaning to him. So, with my adrenaline being more powerful than his anxieties, I pulled him out by the back of his neck and shoved him unceremoniously into his cat carrier and dashed out the door.

To find less than 20 people had also evacuated. Seems as though, not so random in this large apartment building.

My fear about living in Winnipeg is not related to the winter, the bugs or the thugs downtown... how am I going to survive "regular" fire alarms?

That seriously took 10 years off my life.