Cheeseheads

On Tuesday the fire alarm went off. Of the 4 floors in our building, only one floor evacuated and it was...... the CPA firm. No big deal, we are really slow right now.

The first floor houses the infamous, "large portion serving" , ornate, crowded, and overpriced Cheesecake Factory. A fire in the restaurant set off the alarms and sprinklers; but, NO ONE evacuated. Yep, they just sat there like life was the bees knees and everything was hunky dory. Their food was a bit soggy; but, they knew the value of a dollar in these troubled times.

Given that floors 2 and 4 also didn't evacuate, it was all the CPAs standing outside for 10-15 minutes, tapping our feet as we lost 10-15 minutes of precious billing time.

Today, I ran a quick errand and came back only to be highly annoyed that yet again the back elevator wasn't working. As I walked around front I noticed several Cheesecake factory workers walking by. Then sitting on an outside bench were 3 of my coworkers sipping Starbucks "iced" drinks.

L: "well hello there ladies"
Coworkers: "Hi Miss Laura"
L: "Arghh, the fetching elevator isn't working again" [yes I used the"f" word]
Co's: "Neither is the front one, most of Pearl Street is without power"

Sidenote, their drinks were gratis since Starbucks couldn't provide hot drinks. [Visions of a nationwide power outage like sugar plums were dancing in my head. Ahh, to get back at Starbucks just for a few minutes would be so fun]

So we took the stairs to our floor. It was very strange b/c the network, computers, phones, adding machines, postage meter and fax were all inoperable but some offices had overhead lights and the entire kitchen and appliances were working [go figure]. So for 2 hours we tried to work with pencil and paper. AT this point in my career I can't even add 12 + 14 without an adding machine. You just don't realize how much you rely on electricity until you are without it.

But the best thing was that the entire Cheesecake Factory was empty. ALL had evacuated so I guess wet food and burning to death are okay but eating in the dark is a no go.

Okay, now back to work.