It started out a simple night. I planned to do work which I should be doing now since I lost time. Of course like all my great plans, that did not happen.

I had a meeting then dinner with my 308 group till around 8 or 9, then went back to my dorm. Aaron called and wanted me to come with him to engineering for liberation of computer monitors (which we completely forgot to do!!). I went with him, Nick and Barbara. Upon approaching the back of the engineering building and looking at a discarded laser, we were harassed by a cop. A man who probably thought that three guys with long hair and a girl, acting suspiciously behind a building, must be smoking something. He asked us questions about why we were there, good thing we didn't say anything about desiring a "laser" to attach to our sharks. So he checked our IDs, questioned us some more, and told us to scram. One of the others will tell a better account of the police encounter than I can.

So we went off and disappeared to the sac for a moment before returning. We initially tried to go into the regular engineering building, but all doors we tried were locked. We walked over and into light engineering. It began with a look through the lecture hall for unopened bottles of water and other scavenger items. After that, a trip into the basement, and to the tunnel. There is an interesting tunnel connecting light engineering and regular engineering. Not even of the steam tunnel variety, just a tunnel. Quite handy. So up we went to the engineering building. A leisurely walk up the stairs to the roof exit. The door makes a horrendous screeching noise when opened, so it was only opened enough for us to squeeze through. The last person came through.

While I was looking the other way, I heard it shut.

What now? Everyone was in a frenzy. Aaron called people who were on campus to see who could come by, but everyone available was at the barbecue. My first action was to look for another exit. So I creeped slowly across the roof to the far side as not to disturb anyone whose lab I might be walking on. It was a hatch with no handle and no help to us.

After traveling back across the roof, I saw a ladder peeking over the edge of the roof, in the opposite direction past the door. I followed the ladder and went down to a lower section of the roof, and then another ladder to an even lower section of the roof, and another ladder... But the bottom level had no ladder to the ground and was way to high to fall from. I contemplated jumping to a tree, but they looked rather flimsy. Then Jeremy called and said, "This is what you get for not coming to the party..." Hah! Thats pretty much how I was feeling at that moment. Go to barbecue and see friends/socialize, or get some work done and face certain doom by flinging myself off a building. One seems slightly more appealing than the other.

Thankfully, Aaron convinced me to not throw myself at the tree at that moment. It was way too thin to trust and a very high fall. So we went back up one level, to floor 2.5 (it's above a lecture hall). While looking around the roof, there are the usual scares of lights going by from cars that I believe are cop cars coming to help us off the roof and to the police station. I search the edge of the roof for ladders that we can't see hidden by the dark. Everyone is waiting a way back on the far section of the roof from where I am because of a light we thought was someone in their office. Then I find a somewhat sturdy looking tree that calls out to me. So I call Aaron to inform him. "I found the perfect tree, Im going for it". And then hang up the phone before he could talk to me and tell me "no". Looking back, this was not a good idea. Not at all. In fact, its a rather stupid idea to try grabbing onto a tree, in the dark, from a couple stories up on top of a building, with no one around to know if an ambulance should be called.

Common sense never stopped me before.

I stood up from my crouched position, and leaned forward. And keep leaning until finding a branch. A rather flexible branch, so I lean further to find one a bit stronger. Point of no return, I couldn't lean back if I wanted to. I lift myself and swing my legs to grab the tree with them. Now's the time to scream "MOMMY!" and hang onto the tree like a chihauha on someone's leg. But I start my descent anyway. Evergreen trees are pointy and hurty. At about the halfway down point, I ran out of branches to put my feet on. Then I hugged the tree even tighter, and slowly slid down. I would have said ouch, had I actually felt anything. There were a few more branches near the bottom, one was strong enough for me to climb down onto, and hang from it with my feet a few inches from the ground. I let myself drop the last few inches. I was dripping with cold sweat and pulse was racing. I SURVIVED!!

I followed our path from before, through light engineering, to the basement, tunnel, engineering absement, stairs, roof and greet my friends who were quite happy to see me, well, me or the open door. Either way, there was much joy being spread.

In a genius move, we decided to see... Another Roof!

We then went into the heavy engineering building, through the front entrance, down the stairs, into the basement and to a room with much potential for the future site of the forum in order to show Nick. We could only stay there for a moment, until we heard the sound of water running for a brief second in the machine room near the nice new room. This meant there was someone there who would most likely get upset with us being there, so we bolted up to the top floor and found the access to the roof.

It is about 5:15, so I will be signing off for the night and continuing the adventure tomorrow!
Good night to all and I appreciate everyone showing up more than I can possibly express in words. Warm feelings all around.