We just had our second earthquake in as many days (actually, according to the US Geological Survey, there have been about 15 earthquakes in the last two days in this area!)! This time it was 4.1 and I definitely felt it… But more about that in moment.
So we’re all tight right? Like tight enough that I can tell you an embarrassing story?
Several years ago I participated in the AIDS Lifecycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles (I didn’t ride, I volunteered with the traffice crew (with my Mom!)). We were a day or two from Los Angeles, somewhere in Podunk. I was sitting in a porta-potty when it starts to rock back and forth. My first thought was that someone was messing around with me. Then I heard someone in another porta-potty down the line from me yell, “OMG, an earthquake!” I had no clue as I had never experienced an earthquake before!
That’s when I started to freak out. The only thing I remember is thinking, “Dear god, don’t let me die in a porta potty!”
Flash forward to today: (Those of you quick enough will have guessed where I’m going with this!) I was sitting on the toilet when I felt the building twist and turn!
My first thought this time was, “Should I cut this short?”
My second thought was, “Oh my god, please don’t let me die on this toilet!”
May 19, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Avoid the bathroom, friend.
May 19, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I also have an AIDS ride porta potty story! I did the Minneapolis/Chicago ride back in 2002 and we were camping in a water retention basin (smart, right?) next to a high school in WATERtown, WI. Middle of the night, huge storm hits. Hmmm, where does the water go? Into the retention basin, duh. As the water rises, over go the porta johns, two of them near my tent, with people in them!!! I’m still thankful to this day I wasn’t in one of them.
I think you might want to make your bathroom trips quick right now!
May 19, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Marian in SA
May 19, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Ah – you crack me up!!!!
May 19, 2009 at 10:49 pm
OMG, ME TOO!! I just got back from Starbucks and had to pee like a racehorse. They’re doing construction upstairs, so I didn’t think anything of it at first, until the door on the broken stall slammed. Oddly, I didn’t think about dying on the potty, but I did think, “I hope I don’t get any backspash.” I know, TMI.
May 20, 2009 at 1:44 am
That’s enough to put you off ‘going’ forever! Bet your visits will be short and sweet for the next few days lol!
Better get those plans sorted out eh? Just in case….
May 20, 2009 at 2:48 am
I think those were Elvis’ final thoughts, too.
May 20, 2009 at 3:28 am
Pauvre toi!! It stresses me out just thinking about it!!
May 20, 2009 at 4:06 am
That is a disconcerting place to be when something like an earthquake occurs!
This is advice about earthquakes that I read on a blog: Crouch down beneath something secure and cover your arms with your head!
Here is the entire entry.
http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/archives/2008/07/this_is_build_s.php
Not that I have ever had the opportunity presented to me, but I think I would be too afraid to live on the West coast!
May 20, 2009 at 5:13 am
I’m glad I don’t live in California – those earthquakes would really freak me out! A helicopter flew VERY low over our house yesterday, woke me up from a small nap, and I had to go run outside to see what in the world was going on. I haven’t found out why it was so low, but it was JUST over the treetops, everything was shaking!
May 20, 2009 at 5:18 am
Here’s just a few survival hints for you.
If you’d like…I’ll send you a big old gift box of Wisconsin Cheese. It’ll bind you up for weeks!
Or…if you take laxatives you could be in and out of the potty, faster than a speeding bullet!
You definitely don’t want to die on the crapper and be compared to the King of Rock-n-Roll in the headlines.
Poor Frank….what to do?
May 20, 2009 at 5:47 am
Thanks for that laugh.
May 20, 2009 at 10:14 am
Glad you survived.
You are probably pretty safe in the bathroom unless you have lots of tchotchkes above the toilet that can fall on your head.
May 21, 2009 at 10:56 am
LOL, too funny!
Earthquakes scare the heck out of me. I lived in Kobe, Japan before that big one hit Kobe. There were a couple of horrible pre-quakes (tremors) in the year or so before that big one. Everyone used to say ah, there is going to be an earthquake but it’ll be in Tokyo!!! They sounded like freight trains passing beneath our bed. I’d be sitting straight up in bed out of a deep sleep when that sound came.
I hope neither you nor I will ever experience a ‘real’ earthquake.
May 22, 2009 at 3:48 am
“Should I cut this short?”
I snorted!
May 22, 2009 at 7:07 am
OMG! I nearly spit my coffee out reading this! That was so funny! I needed to laugh! Thank you Frank!
Hugs!