Noises from hall

I guess I'm on edge.

(That Tennessee church shooting - even though it was only briefly in the news - affected me more than I thought it did).

I went to set up tomorrow's lab, on the grounds of "If I can't bring myself to read class material right now, at least I can fetch and carry the stuff for the lab" (this is the soil analysis lab, so there is a lot of equipment to get out. I have not yet got out the digital balances; those have a way of "walking" away, sometimes even from locked lab rooms, nor have I got out the more hazardous chemicals).

I was walking out of the prep room and heard what my brain first interpreted as an anguished woman's squeal from the hallway.

I froze in the doorway, with the sedimentation cylinders in my hands. I must have looked like a deer in car headlights. I waited, straining to listen, to see what came next (Yes: I was listening for gunfire, the lizard part of my brain reacted). I was prepared to kick the doorstop out of the way, let the door slam (and lock itself) turn out the lights, and hide the best a 5' 7", nearly-200-pound woman can in a store-room with no closets and no large cabinets.

After a few moments of no sounds, I crept back out and listened more.

Apparently it was someone just greeting a friend in a very "extra" way, but...yipes.

And yes, I hate that that is where my brain goes now, but you never know....an ITFF friend is dealing with a student who was being angry, loud, and verbally abusive in a pretty extreme way to her subordinates and she's having to report this student....

I set up the rest of the lab. Will be heading home in a few minutes but wow, did I get less done today than I hoped. (I still have to get all the stuff together to feed the college-aged ministry group....)

I sincerely hope we can get a few weeks with no alarums and excursions; I think my adrenal gland is about burned out by now.