We went to Pittsburgh and encountered the Eye of Sauron - Pittsburgh style

Lots of people we know are traveling to all manner of destinations. They come back and show us photos of camels or rain forests or strange looking sandwiches. Well. We went to Pittsburgh for the weekend. 

The hotel was nestled inside a brand new casino. Our room had a very disco vibe and not the good kind of disco vibe. There was a strobe light on the ceiling. Except it wasn't a strobe light, it was some sort of safety-first contraption. You. could. not. shut. it. off.  Every 45 seconds, a flare of surprisingly bright light would emit from the thing. It lit up the whole room. Was it a fire detector? A spy camera? A science experiment to see if they could break you from sleep deprivation?

Tom took matters into his own hands:

Tom dealing with the strobe safety contraption

Yeah, Tom stuck one of his round nipple band-aids on the laser beam origination point. He uses these round bandaids when he goes running for rub protection, so yeah, his nipple bandaids. Turns out they have multiple functions.

I thought about this when we went down town and caught a glimpse of this bit of architecture:

We are your overlords.

WTF is this place? Turns out, it's just a rando office building but you could have fooled me. There are glass turrets on the top of this temple to the Gods of Big Shoulder Pads. Or like a cause dedicated to stealing all the money from the Go Fund Me for grandma's hip replacement. 

After we saw this it all clicked. That ceiling "safety" contraption in our hotel room -- and in every room across the city I strongly suspect, are hardwired into the top floors of this monolith. Right?!

Someone should really look into this. I mean, first off, do most people return from Pittsburgh who go there? Were we lucky to escape?

I feel like we may have been saved by a nipple bandaid.