My husband and I were awoken by the smoke detector at 2am the other night. We both shot out of bed, ran into the kitchen, turned on the lights and saw…

absolutely nothing! Out of bed, at 2am for nothing! No smoke, no oven accidentally left on, no steam coming from the hot water heater. We even remembered to turn off the front porch light this time. So, still rather sleepy, we returned to bed. I felt like I had just run through the airport to catch a plane only to discover that I wasn’t actually in an airport (ok…maybe that analogy doesn’t quite work).

As soon as we got back into bed, my husband seemed to just fall asleep. I, on the other hand, had a bit more trouble returning to slumber-land.

As someone without a sense of smell, I’m quite paranoid about fire, or gas leaks, or explosions. And at that moment, my mind was playing out several different scenarios all of which involved my husband and I trapped in the bedroom.

We just moved into this house, so we’re not entirely comfortable in it yet. For example, when we were inspecting the possibility of fire we discovered what the mystery switch on one of walls controlled…the ceiling fan. Well, in bed that night, I started to play out what would happen if there were a fire in the kitchen and we were in the bedroom. We’d have no way out but through a window. The way our house is laid out, the only entrance/exits were in the living room and the kitchen—both of which are next to each other at the opposite end from all the bedrooms. I started to wonder how we’d get out the windows.

  • Do I know how to open the windows?
  • Do I know how to take off the screen?
  • Have I gained too much weight to fit through the window?

Great, now I need to go on a diet!