London- 1, Stac/Kate/Pam- 0...Creepy noises win

Do you ever hear noises that literally make you stop in your tracks? Cause where could that possibly be coming from?

That happens to me all the time. It's like the world is playing a big joke on me or something.

So yesterday it happened a billion times. Casey and I were in the kitchen and the refrigerator started making funny noises. I'm talking noises that made it sound like there was a little elf in our freezer with an ice pick chipping at a big block of ice to make our ice cubes.

Then last night we were watching a show, and the car door on the show was open so it made that characteristic your-car-door-is-ajar-annoying-beep. I could've sworn it sounded like it was coming from downstairs. And that it was my phone (which was right beside me by the way, so it could not have possibly been my phone). Casey just looked at me and informed me that it was the tv.

Then the air conditioner outside (HVAC system? Is that what it's called? I'm trying to learn the homeowner-lingo so I fit in, but I'm probably way off) came on while we were lying in bed. It sounded like a lion was basically roaring in our ears, or like Patch was having a sleepover and snoring her precious little self to sleep. No, it was the air compressor (is that the right term? I'm just going to start saying different names that really might not have anything to even do with a house until I get it right). Totally normal.

The list could go on for miles. I know you all know exactly what I'm talking about. It's annoying-slash-creepy, and really makes the wheels in your head start turning, and then it's crazy cause other random noises start popping up and you hear them ALL.

My all time favorite was London, 2008, Katie, Stacie, and Pam in a hotel room. So we were sleeping like most people do at night, and all of a sudden this blaring noise wakes us (us being Katie and Pam because apparently Stacie gets out of bed for no one and nothing). I'd like to preface the story with the fact that European fire alarms are waayyyyyyyyy different than US ones. That has to be the only explanation for this story.

So Katie and I jump out of bed all wide-eyed but strangely still half-asleep, literally running around our 12'x12' room tossing things and lifting things and looking under furniture and in corners and in the hallway to find where this noise could possibly be coming from. Now this Europe trip has about 8 hours of video of our different adventures (including a bike ride in Finland where the videographer falls off her bike and the camera bounces a couple feet and the next thing you see is a bunch of bicycle wheels going by the camera screen sideways...the rest of the group...still ON their bikes), but nothing to document this night. What I wouldn't give to have a video of this experience. I was willing to pay this hotel my life savings and then some just to be able to watch us over and over again. Totally reasonable trade. They always say you should bargain before you settle when you're traveling. We think the hotel has a secret video camera in each room (Illegal? it was kind of a sketch hotel) and so they all watch this video whenever they get bored and need to laugh at Americans. We wouldn't even care that they had video in our room, wouldn't even press charges (Privacy, what?) cause we'd just be so ecstatic to have a copy and be able to laugh at us too.

Anyhow, I just want to list a couple of the (not-outlandish) suggestions that were thrown out as Katie and I were ransacking our own room to find the source of this noise. In the meantime, Stacie has now buried her head under her pillow and yelling "go back to sleeeeeeeeeeeep", and probably just laughing at us in her little dream world.

"It's coming from the hotel!" (Katie looks under the picture on the wall. Seriously, Kate? )
"Is it my camera? Katie does YOUR camera make that noise?" (We have the same camera, legit question. No?)
"Maybe it's my watch alarm" (Pam shuffles through her suitcase frantically to look for the watch...cause this is much more reasonable than looking at wall art.)
"It sounds like it's coming from the floor" (Pam looks at the ceiling, Katie looks under the bed, we both run to the hallway and pull the look-both-ways-rapidly)
"Stac get up! Where is it coming from? Should we go get Mom and Dad? There's no one at the front desk" (please note Red and Mike were on the 5th floor or something of this tiny little hotel...like 2-3 rooms per floor...and we were worried about them. And how could they possibly not hear this?)

So all this is going on, and the next morning, we ask mom and dad why they didn't come running downstairs, and they say they heard nothing. NOTHING. That blaring noise and they heard nothing (so I don't know why we looked at cameras, watches, wall art, etc. when the noise was that loud), but apparently no one else was at all concerned because Katie and I were the only occupants running around during the incident. We didn't even see anyone else in the hotel. Then as we check out we discover that noise was actually a fire alarm. The clerk said it so nonchalantly, and in our heads we're thinking, so a fire alarm doesn't concern anyone in the middle of the night? Should people not be vacating the hotel in this instance? No, it went off because someone was smoking in their room I believe. Is this also not something to be alerted about? I think we were in disbelief...the kind where your jaw drops and you just can't seem to close your mouth. Anyhow, that's beyond me. So the re-telling of this story does not do it any justice whatsoever, but everytime the three of us think of it, we can't stop laughing. Now that it's over anyways. The noises always seem so trivial when you look back. How does that happen? It's so not fair. The joke's on us I guess. And creepy noises win again.