Bomb Scare

About six weeks ago, I went to a conference in San Jose, California, to work at the registration booth and make sure the presentation laptop continued running. At the conference, they served these oysters. They also served unbelievable bruschetta (not pictured), which was eaten in huge quantities by myself and others.

The night before the oysters and bruschetta were served, there was a bomb scare at the hotel. A group of us from work were sitting around drinking, as we usually did on a Tuesday evening, when a horrible buzzing started from the hallway. Somebody said "fire alarm," and we all stood up and walked out. I was wearing my pajamas and no shoes. Two coworkers thought to bring their laptops, but most of us just walked straight out.

In the parking lot of the hotel, there were several long tables of refreshments available. I didn't have any, but there were lots of soda, water, and similar items available. Black-tie waiters were on hand to serve them. Unfortunately, there was no booze.

The hotel's manager told us in the parking lot that he had received a phone call an hour earlier, saying: "There's a bomb in the building, which will go off in two hours." So he called the police, waited an hour, then evacuated the hotel. The parking lot was ringed with police cars and fire trucks. Nobody had any more information than what the manager told us.

We stood around, most people drinking soda, some coworkers trying to get wireless signals from our base station back in the hotel (and failing), then proceeding with work email as needed. I didn't have any shoes on, so I tried not to walk around too much. It was warm, so I wasn't suffering. I wanted to call Mary, since I wasn't sure whether this was, like, national news. Another coworker had thought to bring his cell phone, and was on with his girlfriend the whole time.

We waited there for well over an hour. A few coworkers wandered off, wanting to get away from the hotel. I talked to some other visitors. In general, it was a very jovial bomb scare. We thought it was sort of funny that there was a bomb scare, though there was a little question as to whether it was real. I wished I had thought to bring my laptop out, but then decided my pragmatism in immediately leaving was good enough.

After a long, long time, they told us the hotel was clear, and let us back in. When we returned to our rooms, I called Mary and left a message. Apparently we were not on the news, and this was fairly normal (we were staying at a hotel near the airport). We had a little more to drink, then went to sleep.

Pictured: oysters.