Earthquake!!!

So, last night I'm sitting on the couch writing about my crappy childhood. I think I'm turning into a book. This isn't about that. I'm just laying the groundwork.

So I'm sitting there, and I hear this odd rumble. And then a bit of a shake. I thought it was going to be a roller of an earthquake, and I was prepared to just ride it out. But it went from little, turbulence-like shaking, to full on abusive earth punching rattling. Rattling. Gabe was in the bathroom freaking out yelling for me to get in the doorway.

After earthquakes, the thing to do is go outside. So I went, in my Christmas lobster flannel pjs, and met up with my neighbors who were all in the courtyard.

It's an eclectic bunch. Racially and ethnically diverse. White, black, Muslim, Latino, and Asian, all wide eyed and exchanging stories about what they were doing.

My upstairs neighbor, who I have blogged about due to his seemingly boring sexual exploits that tend to keep us up at night, was the first person I saw who said anything, and we were mostly laughing about it.

Our apartment manager was getting McDonalds with her kids. She was at a red light, and thought she'd been rear ended. I let her know it was an earthquake, and she cracked up.

A Muslim guy upstairs was freaking out, thinking it had to at least be a 7 on the Richter scale, and going on about how he read to expect a 10 should that happen.

One neighbor was in the shower.

Another neighbor was yelling at kids not to run.

We were all out there, just checking up on each other. Laughing. Making sure those that we knew were in poorer health were ok, despite the fact that some of those individuals are surrounded by family.

It was a lot of camaraderie. And laughter. Us watching out for each other. After telling a friend, she mentioned it's rare these days, which is sad. I'm happy to have some really nice neighbors. There are several that, if I moved, I'd want to take with me, just because I know I'll be surrounded by good people, and will occasionally have a pot of posole shoved at me with some tostada shells and limes. And really, that's the best kind of neighbor.

The earthquakes epicenter was just miles from my home. It was a 4.7. It FELT worse, but I didn't think it would be. The damage was pretty minimal. A few knocked over frames, a vase fallen on to carpet.

Eh. It was actually a pretty fun night, and I'd do it again.