adventures in amy-land

So I am briefly jumping ahead to the present and putting the housing and roommate stories aside for the day. As many of you may have heard about on last night or this morning’s news broadcast about the recent earthquake that hit in the greater Los Angeles area. I thought you all might like to hear a little interlude about my first earthquake experience, and my not-so-normal dog’s reaction (or lack thereof).  I spend the majority of my days by myself in an office in Newport Beach.  One of the reasons I moved to Orange County was to help my younger brother run his custom Audi/Video and Home Automation company (I will write more about this one later).  So yesterday morning I am sitting at my desk attempting to make sense of the mess of accounts that I was hired to fix and maintain, and I initially thought a big truck must have driven past the building (it got a good shake) then the walls started moving, I felt like some overgrown child had picked the building up, mistaking it for a Leggo toy and was tilting it back and forth. Literally everything was just wobbly, and it took a few seconds for me to realize “Holy Shit! This is an earthquake” Zues, my not-too-bright but unbelievably cute rottweiler, who usually sleeps on the floor next to my chair, groggily picked his head up, looked a little concerned, I put my hand on his head and he laid back down and rode it out. I hear most dogs freak out during earthquakes, not Zuesy Pants (the chosen nickname from Trav who I have mentioned in previous blogs)!

Anyway, after maybe 15 or 20 seconds passed things seemed to stop rocking. I found myself just kind of sitting there stunned and a little nauseous. I got up to go to the bathroom (I wasn’t real sure of standing while it was happening) and felt like I had sea legs, I was that wobbly, and unsure on my feet. Later I found out that several tremors followed and that’s probably what I was experiencing at the time. And as odd as it may sound, I was a little excited. Yes, excited about an earthquake! Granted I didn’t need to duck and cover and nothing fell off the walls here, but the walls are pretty bare. It was such a surreal experience, and all sense of time was literally suspended. In general we seem to assume the earth is firm and solid, walls are immovable (without a demolition ball), the sun comes up like clock work, etc… There are these certainties that we all don’t even normally think about.  An experience like this literally pulls that rug of certainties out from under you for a few seconds, leaving you stunned, speechless and speaking for myself, with a little adrenaline rush.  For a few seconds you recall that the earth is not a giant rock we all live on, it’s constantly shifting and moving, and in those fifteen seconds, I felt like I was a part of that. At risk of sounding like a hippie, I will say that I really felt in a concrete sense, the earth is alive. I know I sound like a hippie, I am from Colorado, so give me a break. Anyway, it took about two hours or so for me to recover. As it turns out, it wasn’t “major” in that no structural damage was reported, no one was hurt, but a few water mains broke, people reported seeing their office windows bow out (I have no windows in my little den), and it was the biggest earthquake they’ve had in about ten years (5.4), so as far as I’m concerned it was big. We often have earthquakes in Colorado, which may come as a surprise, but look at the Rocky Mountains, there are many fault lines in Colorado. I have been “in” earthquakes in Colorado, but never felt anything, when I lived in San Fransisco, there was a time when a flower vase started quaking on our glass table, I thought it was our upstairs neighbors doing something??? There was a Chinese family of indeterminable number living above us. As it turns out that also was an earthquake, but I never had the sense of major movement beneath my feet and all around me! Seriously, this was kind of a highlight as life experiences go. Yes, earthquakes are scary, as are floods or any natural “disaster”, but they’re also phenomenal and really amazing to be a part of.  I’m actually kind of stoked to have experienced one, I’m glad it wasn’t catastrophic and I realized that I should have some earthquake emergency kits set up at work, home and in my car, not to mention our company vehicles, just in case a serious one does ever hit. Still, I feel fortunate to have experienced one. I know it sounds crazy, but ???? for those of you that know me and have known me for a long time, this won’t come as a surprise. I’m a little quirky. So I just wanted to share that with you, and in closing I want to share a quote from one of my favorite authors, Salman Rushdie. It’s perfect for this kind of situation and one of my favorite quotes, so I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Five mysteries hold the keys to the unseen: the act of love, and the birth of a baby, and the contemplation of great art, and being in the presence of death or disaster, and hearing the human voice lifted in song. These are the occasions when the bolts of the universe fly open and we are given a glimpse of what is hidden.

–Salman Rushdie The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Thanks for reading and as always,

Make Good Memories!

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