Ready, Aim... FIRE!

So this morning I was lying in bed trying to convince myself that I really did want to get up and go to work early although neither Dan nor I had any official obligaitons until after noon today, when I heard a strange noise. My hairdryer. Why was that strange? Because, as I said, I was lying in bed. Both cats were with me, and Dan was at the other end of the house. It was also strange because I heard it escalate through five speeds, although mine only has two: low and high. So I jump up out of bed to see what's going on, and there on the counter in my still-dark bathroom, the handle of my hairdryer is glowing. I dove toward the sink and ripped the plug from the wall (this is not an exaggeration, I was moving surprisingly fast!). I turned on the light to find bits of ash all over my counter, black residue around the plug, and a growing smell of electrical fire (OK, so I didn't need the light on to detect that last one).

I yelled for Dan, who came, looked at what had happened, said, "Huh. Well that's odd. Bummer." and casually went back to shaving in the guest bathroom. His nonchalance, coupled with my wild imagination, left me freaking out that we were going to leave for work and come home to ashes of a house because of a fire in the wall. So I called my dad and got the complete scoop on what causes electrical outlet fires and what we should do. We checked the outlet's current and the heater that was plugged in to the same outlet, which was still functioning normally. Once it was determined that our house was not, in fact, going to burn down while we were gone, we left for work and life went back to normal. Except that there's a burned-out hairdryer on the floor in my garage (I was too afraid to throw it in the trash until I was sure it was good and done burning), ashes blown all over my sink, and I'm mystified as to how it all happened at all.

And now I need to go buy a new hairdryer. And I'm really bummed. I really liked that one.