New Jersey 2

My time in New Jersey has been quite an experience - not all of which has been positive.  The first hotel I checked into turned out to have bed bugs.  That's right...bed bugs.  I have never encountered these things before this trip, nor do I ever want to encounter them again!  I won't even go into the entire story on that front; instead I'll tell you about this evening.  I came back to my hotel room after working my 12-hour shift.  I settled into my room, got ready to begin working on homework and decided to have some popcorn.  I put my little popcorn package into the microwave for 2 minutes and decided it needed just a few seconds more to ensure all the kernels had popped.  Well....less than a minute later, I opened the microwave door and realized my popcorn had burnt...not badly...but it was burnt.  Just then, the smoke alartm went off in my room, and I mean it went off!  I immediately called the front desk and let them know what had happened.  I asked them how to please reset the smoke alarm, but the gentleman who answered told me it wans't something that could be reset.  He said that I should grab a pillow and fan the alarm to make it quit.  I tried what he suggested, however after about 20 minutes, the thing was still "screaming" loudly at me, so I departed my room - computer in hand.  I decided I'd wait it out in the hotel lobby.  As I sat in the lobby doing some work, I see the fire department pull up to the front door.  The doors fly open and about 15 firemen in full uniform, along with 4 police escort cars, come running in the door.  I thought...oh no.  As soon as the firemen entered, they were greeted by hotel staff, and I immediately made my way over to them.  I explained that this was my fault - recounted my story and the call made to the front desk.  They asked me who answered me at the desk, to which I could not provide an answer - just a man.  I apologized and said again that I had tried to avoid something of this magnitude happening, but obviously it didn't work.  I sat back down in the lobby and continued to work, all the while my co-workers and co-horts were coming in and out of the hotel lobby - making jokes and having a ball with the chaos of it all.  I'd love to have gotten a picture of the scene, but I felt it was bad enough that I caused the commotion...didn't want to appear rude and take further advantage of the situation.  In closing, I learned today that my work here will most likely end this coming Sunday.  I have had a great time with the work and the people, but I am exhausted and ready to move to my next location.