There was a bit of a situation on campus Tuesday. Sitting in class, I received a text message via the UB Alert System (usually utilized for notifying us of snow days, vacation days, etc.). It read, and I quote, "The Police have evacuated Lockwood Library. Please stay away until further notice. 4:40pm."
Hmm.
Despite my burning curiosity, I kept away from the library after class and headed to Alumni for study hall. About an hour later, one of our advisors walked into study hall and told us we had five minutes to evacuate Alumni Arena and go home.
That's it. No reason, just leave.
Luckily, the entire campus was being evacuated at once (brilliant) so I was faced with a traffic jam reminiscent of an Armageddon-esque movie. If you've ever tried to find a parking spot at UB during the day, you know how many cars are here - now try escaping with every single one of them leaving at the same time with only one four-way stop sign to direct traffic.
Police cars and ambulances were scattered all around. I finally heard word that someone had apparently seen a guy walk into the library with a shotgun.
Not the kind of thing you really want to hear.
Fortunately I made it home safe and turned on the news to find that no harm was done and campus eventually was announced "safe."
The next day we learned that the situation was a false alarm. Whether someone thought they saw something that wasn't or the whole thing was made up we'll never know. At least we know things are safe and aside from the evacuation plan that pretty much created a campus-wide gridlock, security seemed on top of things.
So with that behind us we now have a Bracketbuster game to look forward to on Saturday afternoon. We play at St. Peter's in Jersey City. What do you think the chances are of seeing Snooki or The Situation in the stands?
Probably zero, but a kid can dream.
I've been thoroughly enjoying the Olympics lately. I'm so glad it's 2010 because before the Games even began I had set my DVR to record everything. Now all I have to do is flip through my recordings and pick out the events I want to watch - without commercial interruption. Minus pairs figure skating I think I've pretty much seen it all including the Kroeans' SNAFU in the 1500meter short track speed skating final that gave Apolo Ohno his record-tying silver medal and USA's silver/bronze double in the event that should have been swept by the Koreans.
If you missed it I strongly urge you to search it out on YouTube - it's quite the race.
Oh, and tune into Curling. Give it five or ten minutes and you'll be hooked. It's like extreme shuffleboard on ice...with a raucous crowd.
And even though the Jamaicans failed to qualify for the first time since Cool Runnings, I'll be watching the Bobsleds slide down the ice with my cowbell ready.
