Beware the hunting knife wielding cowboy and his puppy

So, um, today was a crazy day. Around 2pm today a few of my coworkers received a text message from the USF emergency alert system that there was an armed intruder on campus. The message said the campus was on lock down and to lock the doors and stay inside. We locked the office doors and turned the lights out to the lobby. To be honest, I wasn't too concerned because Ant gets texts at least once a month from USF about a suspicious character on campus. However, this was the first one that had actual instructions with the warnings. We all went to the USF website to get more updates.

A few minutes later we got another alert saying that the intruder was at the library and that police were en route. Guess where the library is on the USF campus? Right across from my OFFICE!!! Crazy right? Then, a few minutes later we got an update that ANOTHER guy was identified on a campus bus as having a weapon and a possible BOMB and that the bomb squad was en route!!! What?? And then, if things weren't crazy enough as it was we got yet another report of a suspicious person who was described, no joke, as a white male wearing a black tank top, a cowboy hat and carrying a black puppy in one hand and a large hunting knife in the other. You can't make that stuff up!!!!!! Of course, that message spurred an entire conversation of conjecture over where that man was going with his puppy in hand. One coworker thinks he was an off duty cop who wanted in on the excitement, forgot his gun and uniform at home, and didn't have time to drop his puppy off at the doggie daycare. My guess was he was a student from one of the dorms that smuggled his puppy onto campus and had taken a vow to protect his puppy (with his trusty hunting knife) from the swarms of investigating police at all costs. Luckily the campus got the all clear right before 5Pm so we were able to leave to go home on time (although there were still helicopters circling the campus). As far as I know no one got hurt, so that is a blessing.

In other news, I am loving taking classes at my new gym!! My next door neighbor has become my official gym buddy and we can't get enough of the group fitness. Tonight we took a kickboxing class that kicked my trash!! I was a sweaty hot mess afterwards and the little scandanavian woman that teaches it does seriously impossible things with her legs. The room all of the classes are in is surrounded by mirrors like a dance studio so I got to see myself losing my balance and kicking out my unusually large feet (I wear size 9 1/2 in running shoes). I swear I almost drop kicked a 65 year old woman working out next to me! Over the past few weeks I've taken a spin cycle class, several Zumba classes (latin dancing basically), strengthing training classes, a step class, pilates, and several dance party classes (where we jump around a lot and shake our booties. It's awesome.) It is really neat to see what a range of ages and sizes come to the gym, even among the personal trainers who you expect to be perfectly toned. Although I will say I was pretty intimidated by this one fitness instructor's body until I found out that she competes professionally in fitness/body building competitions. It made me feel a little more normal to know that she doesn't look that way naturally :)

So there you have it: a day of police, bomb squads, puppy wielding cowboys, and drop kicking the elderly. Hopefully tomorrow will not be quite as eventful.