an oven fire...and a trip down memory lane....

so, last week i had a fire in my oven. not just a wee little fire. a big fire. in my oven. i almost peed my pants. had my mom not been over, i probably would have peed my pants, and then called the fire department. see, a few nights earlier, i had made pizza. and it broke. like broke thru the oven rack. and made a bloody mess all over the bottom of the oven. i thought i had most of it picked up/burned off. i was making the kids lunch, and my mom had JUST gotten to my house to pick my kid sister madison up. the house was all smoky, i figured it was just remnants of the leftover pizza from the night before. i went to check on the kids lunch....and WHOOSH-huge fire. (hence, the whole fire needing oxygen deal) i panicked, and suddenly my house was filled with thick, black smoke. nice. i yelled. my mom yelled. the kids yelled. i shut the oven. (i was wishing it away). opened it back up, and it was still there. my mom batted at it with her hands. no luck. so she told me to get the kids outside. (greeeaat.) she whacked it out with the towel and all was well. but it was kinda freaky for about 5 minutes. but in all seriousness, if she hadnt been there, the fire department would have been lined up down my road for what was cited 'an oven fire' in the newspaper in the police blotter.....but....that got me thinking to college.....a particular incident...

i was living in the dorms at georgia state. was my freshman year. our dorm was called 'the village'-and werent really 'dorms', but were more like apartments. i had 3 roommates, and we all had our own rooms, a living room, a kitchen, etc....i think it was 7 stories....anway, we would have random fire drills. most often in the middle of the night. at like 3 am. and if you didnt go out of the building, and they caught you, youd get a fine. after the drills, theyd post a sign on the front of the building saying, 'this was just a drill.' or if it was a real alarm, it would say, 'the fire alarm was set off by room ---, caused by (and whatever reason)'. one night i was making my version of 'fried' chicken-which i tried to do by making a 'less' fattening version by not using as much oil. well, it didnt work so well. i was more or less sauteeing it, but it wasnt exactly working.....the next thing i knew, our kitchen was full of smoke, oil was flying everywhere, and lo and behold---the fire alarm went off. FOR THE WHOLE BUILDING. shit. im yelling for my roommates......and gah. so we hauled booty outside, trying to look innocent. however, no could do. the fire department knew it was my room that set it off. so when it was all over with, there sat the nice big sign on the entrance of the door that said, 'the fire alarm was set off by room 319(i think), by burnt chicken.' all night we had people coming by our room, harrassing us.....and when my other roommate came home from work that night.....and saw the sign....she laughed and said, 'what the hell happend'......one word.....TERA.


*sigh*