Drill, Baby Drill!

Remember back in school when you had mandatory fire drills?

I've been out of public education now for a few years (13, ahem) and haven't been through a fire drill in awhile. It hadn't really occurred to me that I was missing anything though. I mean, Manual was kinda ghetto - we had bomb threat drills in addition to your standard fire drills. And for about a 2 month period, we had fire drills every Friday because it was good times for folks to pull out a 2-foot long sheet of paper towels and then light it on fire. Yeah, we knew how to have a good time back in the '90s. Go Bolts!

So imagine my surprise today while type type typing away on my computer at my hotel, there was a fire alarm. Apparently these days, it isn't just a bell that sounds to alert your teaches to get you out of the building without losing track of students who decide to ditch class for the rest of the day. No, the Sheraton West Des Moines has a fancy system, complete with a speaker to announce the type of drill you are having.

Type type type... Loud, blaring alarm noises... Announcement to please leave the building calmly due a reported "incident" - do not take the elevators, please.

I'm always one to follow directions, so I left my hotel room with all necessary materials for my next meeting. I walked past some dude blatantly ignoring direction and waiting for the elevator to come get him. I found the fire exit stairs and got down 8 levels pretty quickly, all the while comforting the poor lady who was cleaning rooms on my floor.

Turns out, it was completely a false alarm. But it also turns out, I learned a lot in high school that can be applied to real life. It was a win-win situation.