Downfall of the M&M's

I just had the scare of my life. (Well, maybe not really but it did make my heart stop for a split second.)

I left my desk for a minute to run to the restroom and as I came back down the hallway to return to my desk I reached for the handle. I push open the lobby door and all of a sudden I freeze in fear. My eyes got big, my heart was doing double time, and my senses were on alert. As I stood in the doorway frozen with fear, I heard this terrible high pitched "ping-ping-ping" noise coming from the lobby.

(Let me give you a little insider history on the quirks of the lobby. We have roughly 24 ft. ceilings and there is a metal beam that runs from the floor to the ceiling and sits behind my desk a ways. No idea what purpose it serves. At times, that pole will rattle and vibrate when the AC comes on and it makes a very strange noise. And sometimes it rattles without the AC being on. Very weird.)

So, as I stood paralyzed in the doorway listening to this sound, I was frozen to the spot thinking that the pole had finally met it's match and was ready to come down. Either that or an air conditioner unit on the roof was ready to fall through the ceiling. As I stood there tuning into the sound I quickly realized what it was and felt oh-so-sheepish. After listening to the sound for a few seconds I realized it was the sound of M&M's being poured into the company M&M jar in the HR office. In my defense, all I can say is that it was a BIG bag of M&M's and the "ping-ping-ping" sound seemed endless.

I take heart in the fact that I wasn't the only one who got a little concerned over the mystery noise. Somebody else in the hallway heard it and wore a confused look that matched my own.