Earthquake - a confession

A new person started in my office not too long ago. Today she and I got lunch together. She just moved here from a place that doesn't have earthquakes. They have hurricanes, but they don't have earthquakes. Hurricanes don't scare her, but earthquakes do.

She asked me if I'd ever felt an earthquake. Of course I have. I've lived in California all my life.

The biggest earthquake I've ever been in was 5.9 (or 6.1 depending on who you ask). I didn't feel it.

It was my 17th birthday, October 1, 1987.

I was in my bathroom. I was running late, of course.


It was my birthday so I made sure that I looked extra special in my blue eye shadow and jet black eye liner. I also had to make sure that I had enough mousse and gel to get the sides of my hair feathered and poofy at just the right height. I was drying my hair; hair dryer in one hand, giant can of aquanet in the other.

I heard the front door of the house open and my friend call my name. She was picking me up to drive me to school. A combination of her startling me and me running late caused me to drop my aquanet and hair dryer. I bent down to pick them up and CRASH! I hit my forehead on the doorknob to the bathroom. (Picture Sylvester the Cat with little Tweetie Pies flying in circles around his head after getting hit with a frying pan.)

I shook it off, grabbed my stuff and got into my friend's car. When we were about a block away from the school the earthquake hit. Maybe I felt it, I don't know. I certainly didn't recognize it as an earthquake. Maybe I thought we took a turn too quickly. Maybe I thought the steering in my friend's Celica wasn't working properly. Point is, I had no idea we had just experienced an earthquake.

A few minutes after I got to my first class the fire alarm sounded. We all marched out to the fields and hung out. I had no idea why. I asked someone. They told me it was because the fire department had to check the buildings. I asked why. I kept getting puzzling looks. I guess they all assumed I had felt the earthquake. Finally someone told me we had just had an earthquake, a big one. It all made sense.

About this time I noticed my head was a bit poundy feeling. I touched my head and it felt a little puffy. I grabbed my covergirl compact and looked at my forehead. I had a big welt on it; a big welt in the shape of a doorknob. I got a giant doorknob shaped goose egg on my forehead from when I hit my head on the door.

Confession - I was so embarassed about how I had gotten the bump on my forehead that for the rest of the day I told everyone I fell when the earthquake hit.

There's No Majesty in Cute - A Dream

The other night The Boy was having a hard time sleeping. He and I hung out on the couch after everyone had gone to bed. We ended up falling asleep on the couch for the night.

Scratch that.

He ended up sleeping there for the night. I ended up only kind of sleeping there for the night.

I know I slept, though, because I remember having a few dreams, however I only remember what one of them was about. I don't remember who was in the dream or where we were, only what happened.

We got a pet cheetah, but everyone was angry because we got a baby cheetah cub and not a full grown cheetah. Although the baby cheetah cub was very cute and less dangerous it was not what we wanted. We wanted an adult cheetah. Adult cheetahs, although not as cute, are more majestic than baby cheetah cubs.