My second (?) earthquake, and I didn't even feel it. Yup, again!
A good friend I was out with called me this morning, and asked, "Did you know we had an earthquake last night?"
Me: "Yeah, I know! I found out when I got home, but...?"
Supposedly you could feel it. We were downtown when it happened, but didn't feel a thing. The timing puts it not too long after we finished dinner. You could have fooled me, and the rest of us too!
To the Cali crew, it was magnitude 4.5, and the epicentre was about 40 km (about 25 miles) away from where I was at the time. Do you normally feel this?
Rockin' night, I guess. ;) Not so rockin' Saturday. Today I should finish reading Lolita since I slacked a bit all of last week (I didn't have class), and get on top of some assignments. I'd like to try and finish my four remaining reading responses in advance, and get to work on my final seminar, which I give in about four weeks. It's snowing outside, so it's a good day to curl up by the fireplace with a book.
I don't think I've ever been quite as grateful for my life and safety in recent or not-so-recent memory as I am today. We were given the go-ahead to leave work at lunchtime today, as there were concerns about driving safety and they didn't want us to have to be on the roads when rush hour hit, in case it was still like how it was then. So, when I left (and then got on the road) was right about the time that, on the radio, they were saying it would probably be easier to tell us all what roads were still open and accident free.
The scariest moment I've ever had driving: approaching an intersection in a complete whiteout. And I really, truly mean a complete whiteout. I'm going to guess it was the full force of the 80 km/hr winds right then. This wasn't out somewhere in the middle of nowhere -- this was a very busy intersection in the middle of the city. You couldn't see the cars in front of you, and you knew the cars behind you couldn't see you either, even with brake lights and hazards on. You couldn't see which lane was where, and you couldn't pull over the side of the road because you couldn't see that either, and, even if you could get over there, it likely that someone could have hit you, because they wouldn't be able to see you. It was a pure wall of white -- above, in front, behind, and on both sides -- not dissimilar to flying through heavy clouds when you can't see anything outside the window of the plane.
What do you do in that situation? I don't know. I just chose to go slowly and pray.
I encountered several more areas like that during my drive, and when I was about what would have been five minutes away from being home, hit a closed intersection where there had been a few-car pileup. I'd chosen that particular route thinking there wouldn't be as much traffic, and it so far hadn't been one of the roads with accidents that I'd heard reported on the radio. So, we were all turned around, and very luckily, about half an hour later, I pulled up to my house.
I didn't live here during the Ice Storm -- I was still safe and snug in Thunder Bay, watching it all on TV, agape. So, I can't compare it to any experience anyone had driving then. It was a flash freeze today, going from freezing rain overnight that left everything coated in about an inch of ice this morning, to warmer temperatures when I'd left for work (around 0 or +1°C), and by noon? It was -27°C with the windchill, and wind there was aplenty. It was what they called a flash freeze, that went along with, at times, having no visibility.
As a result? Accidents all over the city, road closures, and the saddest of everything: at least five people dead on the highways, four on the Ontario side and one in Quebec (or at least that's what I've most recently read), and a hundred or more injured, from a 30-car pileup on one highway, and a 60-to-80 car pileup on another.
So, to my friends in the area and to anywhere else affected by this crazy winter weather, I hope you are all safe. Things seem to have calmed down outside since early this afternoon, although it is still cooooooold.
"I shine a little more lately" (or, "And I offer no sympathy for that...")
There's a song I can't stop listening to this week: "In the Rough," by Anna Nalick. I haven't really been into any new female artists in quite some time, except maybe Jem, but Anna Nalick won me over with "Breathe (2 A.M.)" (and hey, if you read that issue of Rolling Stone, she won over Tommy Lee too, heh) -- I also really like "Consider This," and I currently have "In the Rough" on my iPod, on repeat. :) As a female I should probably be much more supportive of female artists... but? Some of them can just grate, depending on the degree of "fluffiness" of their songs, their voice, what style of music they're performing, etc. Sometimes people, guys especially, can fall under the misconception that I'm a girlie music person. This is probably because I do like Sarah McLachlan, Holly McNarland, Dar Williams and a few others, and because by all appearances and some behaviours I am the girliest girl ever (except yes, I can and DO use power tools, and more than know my way around a computer, thanks) and I suppose it would just fit...but, uh, no. Give me Breaking Benjamin, Shinedown, or Disturbed any day. Music with edge, music with energy, music I can sing along to at the top of my lungs that releases all the pent up energy inside of me, and that gives me that great feeling of just being free.
Anyway, this is probably the same reason why I don't enjoy music by John Mayer and sound-alikes. Waaaaaay too mellow/whiny/even girlie for me. Why Georgia? Hell if I know, but please get off of my radio. You're a great guitar player, but sooooo not my style.
And, with that, I thusly conclude today's music appreciation and rants.
So here it is, February 1st, and I'm so excited! The second last month of the Master's degree. :) I finished a reading response last night so that means five more, and two seminars. I should say that I am enjoying what I'm studying this term, I'm only counting down because the idea of that second set of initials beside my name (if I so choose to use them) is, for me, a really cool thing. As I said to a friend a few weeks back, "Up next: taking over the world, or at least travelling it." ;)
I have been in a really creative frame of mind since Sunday night, and I think the events at school lately have helped to open that flow of inspiration. It is, truly, what I love doing, and always has been as far back as memory takes me. So far I've had ideas for both a short story and another novel, and I've scribbled out some paragraphs here and there that belong to each. Thank you, dear universe, for all that works to allow these ideas and words to come forth, and for all that has brought me here.
If there's going to be one keyword for this month, I think that word is "balance." It's something I am gradually coming back to. The time that has freed up over the last couple of weeks has been nice, to be able to see friends and to get back to the true inner core of self, the things I love doing. Writing is the biggest of the big, there, so I think I'm finally ready to focus, and to fill up the pages and computer hard drives with the thoughts and ideas that I'm learning how to articulate in words again.
