*cough* Yet another exciting day at work

I was working merrily away yesterday--okay, so not quite merrily because, honestly, who works merrily at his day job?--in my board room-slash-office when Adena came bursting in. I'd had the door shut because I didn't want Timothy finding out the hard way that we were in an upstairs office, and Adena whipped it open and shut again.

"I'm going to keep this door shut very tightly, Saralynn," she told me. "There are noxious smells in the hallway." And she bustled out again, pulling the door shut tightly behind her.

"Oh," I said to the closed door. "Okay." And then I smelled a little bit of something yucky. I couldn't identify the smell, but I agreed with Adena that it just smelled "noxious." But I shrugged it off, opened the windows, and went back to work.

Less than five minutes later, Pastor Nore came in, closing the door carefully behind him, and announced that all the staff were going home because the place smelled so bad. I laughed and teased him that he was trying to get out of work. I thought he was just joking. I could hardly smell anything in my office at the end of the hall, with the door shut and the windows open. Pastor Nore said that they'd called Jonathan (our Big Boss) and that Jonathan was on his way. This puzzled me, but oh well. So Pastor Nore left the room and shut the door behind him, and I picked up Timothy, who was fussing.

I'd just put my work aside to watch a music video on the computer to calm my fussy baby when I heard Adena calling my name from outside and downstairs.

"Saralynn! Put a hankie over Timothy's nose and come down right now! Can you hear me?"

"Yes! We're coming!" I yelled back, alarmed. Then Jonathan was at the door, taking Timothy from my arms. I peered out into the hallway, which was filled with billowing blue smoke. The nasty smell was almost overpowering as I followed Jonathan down the steep stairway and outside into the sunshine and fresh air.

Timothy and I didn't go back in. Even after Jonathan OKed our re-entry after a half hour (just to gather our things so we could go home), my baby and I were told to wait downstairs. ("It could get in your milk, Saralynn," Adena told me. Who am I to argue?)

As it turns out, the workers in the adjoining factory--which is actually still under construction--had been using an old forklift to do some work. And it was this forklift that was putting out such terrible exhaust, which came through the open window adjoining our buildings and caused us to evacuate. Jonathan promised us they wouldn't use that forklift anymore, and he apologized profusely that we'd had to flee.

What can I say? Life here is never boring.