Fire Alarm Fiasco, and other stuff

I can't complain about my past week at all, well I'm sure I could if I wanted to, but I don't care to think about the negatives right now, so I will refrain from doing so. I ended up getting a 93 on my Government test :) (Go Me!) Last night, I successfully finished my American History paper over the Battle of Gettysburg, citations and all. It only took one evening and a few hours the next afternoon to knock that bad boy out! It is times like those that I am glad that I have a knack for writing, otherwise it may have taken much longer. I do believe that I will let Mrs. Strickland look it over tomorrow to make sure that I don't have any glaring grammatical errors. Last Thursday, my Botany class made it out to the Blakley homestead to collect leaves, although I wasn't sure that we would make it that far.

Interesting story, actually. Before I begin this story there are a few facts that should be known to make it easier to understand:
1) About three/four years ago, the school installed a new fire alarm/security system. At least once a year it goes off unintentionally, and it causes quite the fuss. The alarm makes a very obnoxious noise, and also has a strobe light attached to it. Repairmen are there at least twice a year to work on the system, at which time the alarms go off frequently and we are all told that they are testing the system, not be worried, and to stay put and NOT evacuate the building. We also never use this alarm system when we have a fire drill.
2) When I was an eighth grader, there was a bomb threat. It happened in the middle of band, and we thought that it was a fire drill. Because of that, no one took their coats and it was in the middle of November. Long story short, we were out there for almost two hours and everyone was freezing. (There were many other tidbits, but they don't pertain to my particular story.)

So I got to school on that particular Thursday, a wonderful day, really. A crisp, late September morning that was really quite wonderful. I was about to go on a plant collecting trip that I had been looking forward to since school began, and I also got to bring my lunch. (Yes, I was very excited about that for some odd reason.) Of course, it was Thursday, so I was able to sleep in, and I was very well rested. Great day! I got to school, and went into the Band room. We didn't have to go field march because the Softball girls were at their Regional tournament, and there are enough of them that make it hard to field march when they aren't there. So, we got to spend the morning working on memorization. A pleasant change of pace. We were in the midst of one of our songs, when suddenly, we heard the alarm going off. It was the alarm that no one trusted, so naturally, Ms. Lohmann told us to keep playing. A few short moments later, Mrs. Callicoat came dashing in there, telling us that we needed to evacuate. Ms. Lohmann ever so calmly cut us off, and told us to evacuate in an orderly fashion. I had flashbacks to the aforementioned bomb threat, so I took my jacket. When we got out there, no one knew why we were out there. The events were similar to the day of the bomb threat. The first thing I thought was that if is was a bomb threat, then we weren't going to be able to go collect. But, as it turns out, there actually was a fire. Mr. Norton, who was teaching 7th grade science across the hall, was apparently performing an experiment. Something to do with the burning of Magnesium, I heard. The science rooms are in the new wing of the school, and the rooms have a wonderful air ventilation system, as we were told after it was built. I believe that the ventilation system is also linked up to a smoke alarm system. They have some nice little orange plastic covers for these vents that are to be used specifically for situations when experiments are being performed, so it won't set the alarm off. Mr. Norton, must have forgotten about those, because after we were let back inside, he was standing on a chair putting those on, as we entered his room. That broke the monotony of the daily grind.

Finally, a few more updates: As of Friday (10/1), it was official that YAB is coming to Bison, and they will be able to stay for our Marian celebration! I am excited, and very much looking forward to that weekend, which will be in two weeks!
Yesterday, my Quiz Bowl compadres and myself went to the Skeltur tournament. All in all, it was a successful day! We came out with a 4-3 record, (we lost to Drummond, Kremlin, and Garber) and a 3rd place plaque, which I accepted ever so gleefully. I am almost positive that I made the All-Tournament Team, but I won't be sure until a few weeks from now, so here's hoping! Through the course of the day I answered 46 questions, which is quite a lot, no doubt.
A few random facts that I knew:
Lucille Ball's middle name was Desiree, and Vivian Vance was a costar on two sitcoms she starred in, both bearing her name. (I Love Lucy is one of my all-time favorite TV Shows)

The structure of the ankle bone is somewhat akin to a hard boiled egg, with the shell on.
(A lucky guess on that one, actually)

Miep Hies was the person ultimately responsible for finding Anne Frank's diary from the secret annex, she gave the diary to Anne's father, Otto, who got it published, and Miep also received a Nobel peace prize in the late 90's, I believe. (I have a mild obsession with the WWII era, particularly with Anne Frank's story...I own a copy of the diary, and some other random books regarding the topic, which talk about Miep in some detail)

There were many others, as could be expected, but those were some of my favorites...anyway, the past week was good, and hopefully this week will be just as good, if not better!