And while I was finishing up my time in the kitchen this morning, the fire alarm in our building went off as it often does.  It’s loud and in between the siren, a computerized voice comes on saying in robotic fashion: “May I have your attention.  A fire has been reported in the building.”  It’s quite intimidating until you realize how often this happens.  Of course usually I have Audrey so I run down five flights of stairs- even if it’s the middle of the night.

Today in the midst of my kitchen cleaning, crying, music – I decided to just ignore it for once.  I actually went down the hall to take out the two trash bags I’d filled, but I came back in.  It went on for a long time and it made me even more angry.

I think it was a day before you died Dan…the alarm went off in the middle of the night.  Audrey was sleeping so soundly and didn’t even hear it so I hated to wake her- but I calmly lifted her and told her we had to go down the stairs.  As we were walking down, she was so confused- half-asleep still- and she just saw someone else walking ahead of us and started to call out, “Appa!  Appa!”  I chuckled a little bit- “No, that’s not appa.” I think she was remembering the last time the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night and you carried her down.  I wanted to tell you about this fire drill, but I never got to- along with so many other things- videos and photos I took that first week you were gone I couldn’t wait to show you- Audrey dancing with a little wooden horse at the library music concert, Audrey dressed up for July 4th in a little parade at the nursing home down the street- I wanted to show you these things.