Temblor

So, Monday bled into Tuesday and I lazed around the house, vaguely claiming to do a host of things. I wrote three letters and made four phone calls, so that must count for someone going into the telecommunications sector.

But then, just as House Hunter International Ira was about to decide which French countryside home to buy, the couch shook. And so did the table. And the lamps. And the whole window pane. Everything seemed to shudder and ripple but I froze. I know that when the world shakes, you're supposed to go stand in a doorframe. But, I was lying down and I was freaked out, and it was over before I could've even processed it was happening.

It happened so fast that I thought in my delirious state of doing next to nothing, I had just imagined the tiniest of earthquakes.

But no, it totally happened. I survived my first earthquake. Okay, it was only a tremor, but it was SO COOL. The tectonic plates shifted under my couch-laying, television-watching body, giving me something to blog about today.

But seriously, earthquakes are quite metaphorical. I may have mentioned that in one of my classes here, my professor Lidia boasted of having survived five large earthquakes. She discussed at lengths the merits of an earthquake, some of which I will now delineate:

1. The earth is alive, and we should treat it that way.
Lidia spends her weekends feeding street cats and cleaning rivers. She's Miss Save-the-Earth, with a special focus on plants and animals, two large categories that occupy this world most often overlooked by humans. When the earth moves, it stops being some inanimate object we live on.

2. Tectonic shifts are humbling to humans.
You're there and there's nothing you can do but wait and pray and believe that the roof will stay up and you will stay alive. But, I've heard stories where the earth splits in two and swallows people up. So, you've got to be ready for anyt

3. What would you save?
When Lidia last experienced a major earthquake, it was 3 a.m., she had six students staying in her house, and five puppies in crates in the living room. She rescued all five puppies, and then remembered she also had students, who were all likely scared out of their minds. She probably does not regret that at all, because puppies are more vulnerable to crashing objects than 22-year-olds. As she stood outside, puppies in her arms, one student came running out of the house and latched himself to a tree. They watched the ground emit colorful gases for four minutes as they shook. Then, she realized everyone else was inside, so she handed this poor German student all the puppies and ran back inside to check on the other kids. She then made the 5 students tea, calmed them down, and then remembered the poor German standing outside with the puppies. They all lived happily every after.

Lidia says everyone should live through at least one earthquake. Can I count this? Not in her book, but it'll go down in my personal history.