What Would Yoda Say?

I was reliving the almost nightmare of yesterday--when the fire alarm was pulled by a child in our condo--recalling the screeching, light-flashing siren going off indoors and other strategic areas of the building that made it impossible to ignore, although some folks did try.

Only after the police, fire department and paramedics arrived with the rest of us milling around, and with the screeching still going on, did a few folks wander out of their condos here and there.

And I thought I was weird! Because when it first went off I grabbed a few items and carted them off to the car. Then I went back for more, feeling very guilty like, what if the building exploded and I died because I was too busy trying to take my crap with me?

And what did I take? Birth Certificates? Passports? Divorce decrees? Checkbooks? Jewelry? No, not at all. I went for my camera, I-pod, a check made out to me, and then debated on the earplugs, eyemask and laptop. So, I'm not sure what this says about me.

I take great comfort in the fact that I actually left the building and didn't just ignore the sirens. Although neighbors who were already outside waiting for help to show up looked at me going back in like I really was one jedi short of an Order.

But what they didn't realize was that this time I didn't leave the family pet inside to fry (mainly because right now we don't actually have one) like I did when the backyard, a natural preserve, in our previous home caught fire one dry August.

I just didn't see any reason to upset my already high-strung parakeet, figuring the fire would be put out before reaching the deck and burning the house down, which it was; thanks to two teenage neighbors, one of their moms, and two of my hoses, but that's another story. Even thought the fire got so high at one point that people driving up the hill could see it a mile away.

But hey, at that time I stopped to take nothing with me, heeding the advice of the 911 dispatcher who said, "Get out NOW!"

But after yesterday, I wonder what Master Yoda would have to say regarding going in and retrieving things at the possible peril of life? Potentially leaving my children of divorce motherless (okay, okay, you can stop rolling your eyeballs around in your head now, it's really not pretty).

Maybe I could design a Facebook personality quiz around the question, What would you take with you in a fire emergency? and what that says about you.

Or not.