Earthquake '11

Five days ago, in the middle of the night, I was startled awake. Here is the thought process that followed:

What is that noise? A car? And why is my bed shaking? Wait, why IS my bed shaking? Where are my glasses at? I need to get outside ASAP and figure out what the heck is going on. That's serious shaking. Oh my God the substation exploded! Santos [the guard], did the substation explode? What is happening? Okay he doesn't know either. Why couldn't it explode during day when I'm thinking clearly? Let's look over by the... okay. No smoke, no flames, and my porch light is on. Nice one, TJ. It's not the substation.

An earthquake, of course! TJ, you moron! You should know that. You're from Seattle. Oh good, there is Victor. Yes Victor, it was earthqua--. Yes Victor, I'm sure because--. No Victor, not like Japa--. No, I don't think there will be a tsun--. No, it was very small. Santos, I know everything was shaking, that's what an earthquake is. Just calm down.

Wait! If Santos is freaking out, then the kids must be terrified. I'VE GOT TO HELP THEM! Okay, just a few more steps. Here's the dormitory. They've got to be panicked. They've got to be freaking out. They've got to be

Sleeping?

Every.

Single.

One of them?

Nobody even rolled over? How can that be? I'm not dreaming, am I? This isn't gonna be like that dream movie and any moment now Leonardo DiCaprio is going to show up and a train is gonna tear through the yard, is it? No, I don't see Leo. I think it's real. Santos, do you see Leonardo DiCaprio? No? Good. And what time is it? 10:50. Wait, 10:50!?! I've been asleep for all of 10 minutes? Man, if this keeps up it's going to be a looong night...

And that's where my thought trail ends because I collapsed back to sleep after that. In looking online for earthquake info, I saw that it wasn't reported anywhere automatically meaning it was less than a 4.0. Also, for those of you wondering, it did no damage. Except for one abandoned house in our barrio that, if you ask me, was gonna fall over the next time a breeze hit, everything made it through just fine.

The next morning at breakfast I asked the kids if they felt the earthquake the night before. Since none of them did, they assumed I was playing a game on them. It was only after Santos confirmed it that they realized I was telling the truth and that there really was an earthquake. Santos told the story so many times the next day that by the evening when he came to work I heard all about how the trees were swaying back and forth and the wall almost crumbled down and the old broken down bus we have was rattling so loudly it sounded like a lion was inside of it. And there was Santos, telling it all like he's just lucky to be alive.

It also took quite a bit a explaining to tell Santos that the earthquake was not caused by a giant beast that lives inside the earth. You laugh, but when I told him about what most American's think (that the earth is like big shifting puzzle pieces), he thought I was just plain crazy. And I kind of agree with him. I've never really like the theory on teutonic plates or whatever Nazis did to create earthquakes anyways. My theory on what caused the quake is way better.

Yep. Supermoon.