Wind in the Wires

Here is what happens when you wake up 30 teenagers at 4 am, tell them to go to school and put them in a cafeteria together. It's called Lisgar's United Way Pancake Breakfast.

4am wake-up, though not wonderful, is not a new concept to me. As a rower (cue Bailey yelling ("brrrap") we do this waking up at 4 thing three-four times a week during the month of May when we are on the water training and competing. But since it is now November, and not May, my poor body was not sure why, oh why, I was waking up at 4am.

When I finally rolled out of bed and down the stairs, and dressed myself in my "pyjamas"* it was 4:30. I just barely grabbed breakfast before I ran out to the door to my ride -- from Jake. Who was blasting Aqua. I love getting rides from my friends with G2s. We pulled up, parked, and went down into the caf. Where there wasn't much for us to do.

Well, I decided we should get right to work on the balloon arch. After some Erica vs Jake/the world drama, the arch came together quite nicely. Let me tell you, it looked completely professional, and it was just a few high school girls tying balloons to a ribbon.

We were almost done... when the piercing, screeching sound of the fire alarm sounded in the school. Everyone stopped what they were doing and walked over to City Hall to escape the building and let the firemen check to make sure everything was ok. No, we didn't call them -- they automatically get a call when a fire alarm at a school goes off. That's how you can tell if the admin planned a drill -- the firemen don't show up. If they do, you know someone is getting suspended. Or the school is on fire.

All was righted quickly enough, and the main school alarm was turned off, so we were let back inside. Only, the cafeteria alarm, separate from the other school alarms, wouldn't turn off. The poor firemen wandered around for half an hour, Ms Gledhill in tow, looking for the shut off switch. We were about to go nuts from the noise by the time they go it off -- after guests had started arriving.

Another side effect of the fire alarm (thank you to the griddles in the kitchen where someting was burning) was that we were incredibly behind on cooking everything. There was a forty minute line just to get the food, but then when the thing ended, we had loads left over. So I got to eat lots of pancakes. Mmmm.

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It was my birthday yesterday! Birthdays are a huge deal at my house, and always have been. Everyone goes all out. My sister made me crepes for breakfast as well as biscotti, which were part of my present. My mom made me a wonderful birthday dinner (give me a tub of tomato and feta salad and I will die happy) and, as is our way, spoiled me with presents. Right now I'm listening to my new Patrick Wolf (thank you Kevin Lu!) with my new speakers (Mom: There were these ones and another set. The other set were better quality, but these ones have their own travel case. Evey: Ohh! It zips up!) while clicking with my new mouse. And wearing a new Tshirt. How lucky, lucky am I.


*It was also pyjama day. I wore sweat pants over pyjama pants and wore them sagged down so I looked like a teenage boy, and let me tell you, you actually can't walk like that.