Shake, Rattle and Roll...again!

Hello ladies and gents. I was going to write a post about something altogether different, but after tonight's events (which I will explain), it lead me to writing about what you see as the title.

Okay, I live in California, a.k.a. "Quake Country". Well tonight we had a small earthquake, and it was a nice little jolt. The USGS (United States Geological Survey) measured the quake at 5.0, which later was downgraded to 4.5. Now, me being a resident of California all my life, one would think I would be used to this kind of natural disaster. I'm afraid not. One must understand that earthquakes are not like other natural disasters. With earthquakes, you can't predict them. They just come and wreak havoc on everything and everybody.

After the big earthquake we had here in '94, I was never able to function the same again. LOL. When that one hit, it was on Martin Luther King's birthday that year, and it struck at 4:30 in the morning. Thank God almost everybody had the day off. Had it hit a couple of hours later, lots of people would have been dead. Anyway, I was 13 at the time and my mother's boyfriend and his children were in town and stayed overnight. We stayed in a 3 story apartment building (we being on the 2nd floor-- talk about scary as hell). So the quake hits, I jump up looking like a lost cause. My little sister was knocked out the entire time and the apartment is shaking like a pair of dice in a crap game. I mean, this earthquake shook hella hard.

I was so terrified of that one, it took me until graduating from high school and practically moving to Louisiana to sleep in the dark-- that's how afraid I was. Damn shame, I know. LOL. But if you will, imagine you are in a sleep so good that you wouldn't want to wake up. Then next thing you know you are in a building that is shaking so hard, you are afraid that it's on the brink of collapse. Would you or would you not be afraid to sleep in the dark for as long as you live? I was to the point where I was scared and stressed out. So much so to where every morning for the next following the quake I would wake up at 4:3o watching the news, then finally falling asleep around 9, waking up around noonish, and staying up the rest of the evening until my eyes couldn't stay awake. This routine would repeat itself all over again. Hell, I even got sick as a dog because my poor psyche and body was all outta whack. Poor little 'ole me was in a frazzle.

For those of you who are not familiar with California, nor live here: Cali is a great place to visit, but don't get too, too comfortable. Like I stated before, I've been a resident of this state all my life, and a natural disaster like an earthquake is just something I will never ever get used to.