March 28: Maunday Thursday, Sort of Cosy, Fire

It was pretty nice to get back to my room, after I left old Spencer, because everybody was down at the game, and the heat was on in our room, for a change.  It felt sort of cosy.  I took off my coat and my tie and unbuttoned my shirt collar, and then I put on this hat that I'd bought in New York that morning.  It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks.  I saw it in the window of this sports store when we got out of the subway, just after I noticed I'd lost all the goddam foils.  It only cost me a buck.  The way I wore it, I swung the old peak way around to the back--very corny, I'll admit, but I liked it that way.  I looked good in it that way.  Then I got this book I was reading and sat down in my chair.  There were two chairs in every room.  I had one and my roommate, Ward Stradlater, had one.  The arms were in sad shape, because everybody was always sitting on them, but they were pretty comfortable chairs.

Sort of cosy.  That's how Holden feels.  None of the bad crap has happened to him yet.  His roommate has a date with Jane, the girl Holden loves, but Holden doesn't know about it.  Holden is being kicked out of Pencey Prep, but he's still safe in his dorm room for the moment.  He hasn't started drinking.  He hasn't had his encounter with the prostitute.  His life hasn't started to completely unravel.  Yet.  He's "sort of cosy" in his warm dorm room, wearing his new hunting hat.

That's what I am right now.  I'm feeling safe and warm in my office at the university.  It's mid-morning, and usually I'm working at the medical office at this time of day.  However, about two hours into my shift, the building's fire alarms started going off.  Generally, I ignore the fire alarms.  They go off frequently (for tests or because some kid has pulled the alarm and run like hell).  I continued registering my patient.  The alarms kept flashing.  Then, over the PA system, a voice said, "Please evacuate the building.  Please evacuate the building."

What ensued was about ten minutes of chaos and panic.  I called the nurses in the back of the facility and told them they needed to get out.  I called my boss over at the hospital and told her there was a fire.  Then I packed up all my belongings--my computers, my books, my teaching stuff--and ran like hell.

People were milling around the entrance to the medical center, and I could hear the sirens in the distance, when I got outside.  I stood there with my coworkers and said, "Perhaps everyone should move away from the building?"

One coworker looked at me and said, "Do you want to go have breakfast?"

We went to Hardees and ate.  It was quite lovely.  When we got back to the medical center, the chaos had subsided.  We found the nurses, and they told us that the building was shut down until at least noon.

So here I am in my nice, cosy, university office.  Safe.  Warm.  That's a blessing.  (I'm not wearing a red hunting hat.)  Everybody got out of the building safely.  No injuries.  That's a blessing.  It's Maunday Thursday, and I'm going to a Seder meal tonight.  That's a blessing.

Saint Marty is ready for a little calm after this big storm.

I think I look like Paul Newman