Fire Engines and popcorn
You know, when I moved to Upper East side, I thought this was the most non-happening place I could find in Manhattan. But after seeing police cars, ambulances and now fire engines outside my door, it just seems that peace is not something one can find in New York!
It reminds me of this time I went to San Francisco for my first job interview. I was at my hotel room feeling hungry, and found a popcorn bag in the drawer. So I put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and went to watch tv. After a while i smelled something burning and opened the microwave to see black smoke everywhere. I made the mistake of opening the hotel room door to let the smoke out. Bad move – that triggered all the alarms on the floor, and people started rushing down. After a few minutes of listening to the alarm, I thought maybe I should let them know it was me who did this. So I went down to see all the hotel guests standing in the doorway looking sleepy and angry, and I softly made my way to the front desk. I almost whispered to him that I might know why the alarms went off, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He told me to just wait in my room for the fire brigade. So I went back, and within a few minutes the firemen came to my room, opened the microwave, threw the popcorn in the trash, said something in the walkie-talkie, and left. That was the most embarrassing fire incident of my life! Oh well, lesson learned – dont make popcorn at home!