Woman, unborn child, and adorable dog NEARLY perish in condo fire

First things first, we are all fine. But tonight has been very exciting!

At approximately 12:07 I was awoken by our high-pitched alarm. It took me what felt like a few minutes to realize the alarm I heard was not someone breaking in, we don't have a security alarm but for whatever reason that wasn't registering, but the fire alarm. (I have a very strange fear of someone breaking into my condo whenever Bryan is out of town. This fear is so real I feel it necessary to lock the doors from the garage to the office, the office to the stairs, double lock the front door and finally my bedroom door. Basically, if it has a lock it gets locked. Before we took to shacking up I lived alone for years. On an occasion or two in my downtown apartment I was so unconcerned, or lets face it tipsy, about a break in that I accidentally left the keys in my front door. One time a Good Samaritan neighbor felt inclined to help me by opening my front door and dropping my keys inside while I slept. I heard the door open and screamed. Terrifying. My nice neighbor is lucky of 2 things 1. this is WA and not a big time NRA state 2. I wouldn't be keeping a gun anyways. None the less, my concern of a real break has been strongest at 2 points in my life. 1. As a child, at which time I made my sister Kelly sleep by the window in the room we shared assuming that if a kidnapper came through the window he would snatch the more  child. Sorry Kelly! 2. Now as a married adult living in a townhouse in the burbs)

So I went ahead and called 911 while running around my room trying to find something to wear outside. Typically, I have an assortment of clothes on my floor to choose from. Unfortunately I was very productive today and my room is quite tidy. This, apparently, is very inconvenient should you need to escape your home, for any number of reasons, in the middle of the night. From here on I plan to have a set of "escape clothes" prepared on a shelf that are readily accessible in the middle of the night. 

Let me tell you about my experience with 911. First of all the nice lady on the phone is now more than likely deaf. Once I found my escape clothes, I ran downstairs with Sofie in my arms. I tried going out the front door and I swear I saw a person lurking about! I shrieked in the poor lady's ear in terror. They are probably going to use my recorded call as a training video as I am sure I made very little sense to my poor emergency dispatcher. I distinctly remember telling her repeatedly that the fire alarm was going off, I didn't know where the fire was coming from, and that I was positive someone was attempting to lure me out of my home. To a rational and now deaf emergency dispatcher, I am sure that train of logic makes very little sense and her expert coaching and coercion that I should get out of the house that may be on fire will probably need to be studied by other dispatchers. Now, that all being said, I know my heroine is now at least partially deaf. I know this because although she was helpfully in getting me out of the house, she struggled figuring out where I live....

"What city?"

"Bothell"

"I'm sorry?"

"Bothell"

"Are you sure you live in Bothell, that street address isn't coming up in Bothell"

"Yes, right on the line between Bothell and Millcreek, but sadly yes, I live in Bothell"

"Bothell in Snohomish County?"

"YES! That Bothell!"

"Hmmmm, are you sure?"

So finally she got the fire department dispatched me, my unborn child, and sweet little dog out of our house and out into the cold rainy night. Most of my neighbors were also outdoors at this point. In fact, it seems they had been outdoors for sometime. Apparently they weren't paralyzed by a fear of a killer outside their front doors. Good for them! Upon coming to the final realization that I was not going to be attacked, I noticed that 2 doors down my sweet neighbors looked especially frantic and that their fire sprinkler system was going off. Apparently they were having a poker holiday party in their garage and a space heater had caused this most unfortunate circumstance.

So at this point I try to phone my dear sweet husband. I called him 3 times. Does he answer? No. So I text him that the alarm to our building is going off, but we are all fine. His response, "At Bar". Uhhhhh, thanks for the concern. Your family was, mere moments ago, in grave danger and upon learning that we nearly died but are okay you have made it abundantly apparent that we may be requiring an intervention or at the least a discussion of priorities. Kidding, but honestly, next time I nearly die I hope Bryan asks firsts, "are you sure you are okay?" before announcing he is boozing with his friends.

So now, after an exciting hour, I am back in my bed. And yes, I relocked all of my doors! Night night all!