My First Quake

From the first day I moved to Mexico I knew there was one fear that sooner or later I would have to face.  It was not ‘if’, but truly when.  I knew that at some point, I would have to take part in my first earthquake.  Living in Mexico City there is no way around it.

Tonya’s closest friend left in 85 in the aftermath of the massive quake that shook the city.  It is said to have been the most destructive one in the western hemisphere in the 20^th century.  That was almost 30 years ago, and it was time for another to shake the city.

We had errands to run today.  We were meeting a friend in, and then getting groceries and then other assorted domestic duties.  After breakfast and taking care of things at home, we hopped in the car and informed Raul that we were on our way to meet him in Roma.  He showed up with his girlfriend and we had a brief visit over coffee and talked about some future plans.  After Raul and his girlfriend go their way, we walk back to our car talking over the week’s menu, and what we have to get at the grocery store.   This is always a big thing for us…because Tonya likes to try out new recipes and they always bring about great anticipation.  Having said that, her Asian salad she was planning tonight did not register too high on my thrill list.  It doesn’t matter, the time to sit and dine and talk is always something we look forward to.

We get back in late afternoon and lunch was long forgotten (but not by my stomach).  After walking the dogs and unpacking everything, it is time for coffee and internet browsing.  This too, is a daily routine.  Time to catch up via the internet and to read a bit.

I have been working on a music project and it is taking quite some time.  When Tonya starts to prep for dinner, I retreat to another room, start up the other computer and prepare to stare at the screen until my eyes and hurt and my hearing goes numb from editing and mixing.  This thing up my sleeve is quite a big deal to me, and so I am always ready to get in and get to work.

7pm is tequila time.  When I am not involved in my project, I like to stand in the kitchen and talk with Tonya while she works.  We both have become very attached to this evening routine.  It is nice to sample and discover new tequilas, and just talk about whatever we felt like after doing whatever was done during the day.  It is also a great time to hype the night’s planned viewing too.  After a year and a half, we have both come to prefer white tequilas too.  However, since I am in the middle of my project, we pour our glasses, clank them together and have a mutual sip.  She gets back to work and I go to the other end of the house.

Tonight, I had been really involved, because I had left quite a bit of tequila in my glass.  She calls out to tell me that things were winding down, and we would be ready to eat shortly.  I stand up, shut everything down and walk into the dining room, swigging down what is left of my tequila.  There was no lunch, so I was more than ready to eat.  I walk into the ‘TV room’ to check on the time of the Republican debates tonight.  As I step over Sunny, who conveniently sprawled out over prime floor space, I feel a bit woozy.    I reach for the TV and feel the room moving.  I think to myself that tonight, the tequila got the best of me, and went straight to work on my empty stomach.  I stand up to stop the room from moving, but in my stillness I realize it is not the tequila, it is the whole house.

This is it!  This is what I have feared the whole time I have been here and now it’s paying me a visit even before my dinner.  I stand still, legs apart and I look around.  I wonder why the dogs aren’t doing anything.  Aren’t they supposed to be hypersensitive to this stuff? I always thought that they would be my early warning system.  Obviously Sunny could care less, because I had to step over him and still am standing over him.  I look to the door and eye up my getaway.  I yell out to Tonya, who is in the kitchen, “Hey!  Do you feel that…”

‘It’s big.  This is not good!” she yells back, “It’s strong”

 I look around to make sure everything is OK and to see what is and isn’t moving.  Then I think about filming it.  I turn to look across the room at my desk, where my camera is.  Instead of running out of the house, I get to the desk and grab my camera.  I hastily switch it to movie mode, put it on the coffee table and let it roll.  Tonya comes into the TV room with eyes as huge as eggs, of course, I am sure I look quite stellar too.

The shaking stopped enough to walk, and Tonya comes into the room where I am standing, “Dude, did you feel that!” she says quite excited.  Yes, I did.  How could I not?  Now that the floor has stopped moving my insides start.  I suppose it is the rush of adrenaline, fear and the equilibrium, but the magic cocktail of chemicals suddenly shoots through my system and I feel incredibly nauseous.  It leaves as quickly as it hits.  We both stand in disbelief and shoot back and forth the obvious statements of what just happened. 

“The whole kitchen floor was moving.  It was rolling.  There was one tile in front of me that was bending and it looked like it was going to pop!”  Tonya says as she makes a waving motion with her hands.  We laugh about her predicament in the kitchen for a moment and then I realize that Raul is downtown, the worst part of the city to be in when the earth shakes.  I try dialing several times but the coverage is down-obviously because everyone is trying to do the same.  I look at the dogs and they are still lying there disinterested, except for Winston who is a bit perturbed, but it could be from all our excitement.

(I managed to get the final seconds below)

Well, it is time to eat, so we sit at the table and turn on the radio to hear some news.  We talk the brief moment through and through, and laugh about our reactions.  We also wonder why there is no one talking about it on the radio.  Obviously, it is not as bad as the last ‘big one’, and with no chatter going out over the airwaves, we deduct that there is no major damage.  As for the dinner, it rates low on the enjoyment scale.  It is easily overshadowed by the thrill of what just happened.  The phone rings.  Tonya answers it and starts chatting away in excitement.  It is the landlady, she is calling to see if we felt it and to see if anything happened.  Later, Tonya would talk with her again, and she told her version of the events;

She had been lying in her bed reading.  According to second hand reports, it was a suspenseful book, because Leonor said she was on edge. “As I was reading, I had the strange feeling that someone had gotten on the bed with me” she tells Tonya.  “I sit up and look around, and I didn’t see anyone…but I felt something.”

“Maybe it was a ghost?” Tonya asks.

Leonor shoots back with a stoic tone, “I am not afraid of ghosts.  I am afraid of someone getting into my bed with me!”  Anyway, Leonor reaffirms to Tonya that her house is without ghosts.  She continues on and says, ‘Then I realize that no one is in my bed, but my whole bed is moving.  The whole floor is moving.  It is an earthquake!”  She sprung out of bed and prepared to make her way out.  She too, told of how her floor was like an ocean of waves all around her.

As the buzz is wearing off, I realize I can text Raul, so I do.  A few seconds later my phone makes its dinging sound and Raul writes back that all is OK, but that he ran out of his building ‘quasi-nude’.  I decide to try and call him again, and he picks up almost immediately. “Dude!  Did you guys feel that?” he says thrilled.

“Yeah dude!  You OK?  Your place OK?”  I answer back.

“Dude, it was crazy.  I could hear a grinding sound, like rocks grinding together…”

“No way!”  I relay my info back to Tonya who is sitting by listening to see what is happening.

Raul continues with his side of the story, “It was weird man. I feel kind of strange and hear this grinding sound.  The whole room is moving.  I looked at my floors, and they were twisting and turning…I thought some of the planks were going to pop out.  I have never seen that happen before…” he explains the effect on his wood floors. “I dropped my tools and bolted down the stairs.  Dude, everyone fled the building and was standing in the streets.  I got a call from my girlfriend, she was checking to see if I was OK.  As I was standing in the street talking to her, I suddenly felt really sick…” he says laughing.

“No way dude!  I did too!” I shoot back.  Tonya shakes her head and says that everyone kind of gets that after a quake.

“It’s weird, no?  Anyway, everything is cool here dude.  Thanks for calling and checking on me though”

“You said you were ‘quasi-nude’, what were you doing, taking a shower?”

Raul laughs, “No dude.  I was actually working on a lamp.  I was alone and taking it easy, and just doing it in my underwear”.  Good, now the story is clear.  He would not have been the only guy standing in the streets in his underpants at this very moment.  I am glad to hear he’s OK, and that in his area there was no real damage. 

I look up some earthquake site on the net.  It has a new entry which just came in regarding the stats of the quake.  It was a 6.7 and it was on the western side of Mexico in Guerrero.  Odd, because the last major quake in 85 was from out in the Pacific, but caused so much damage here.  I read aloud all I can to Tonya, who is sitting smoking in anxiety across the room.

I am glad to know it was not bad. It shook the city, it made the news, and there were only 2 reported casualties in the countryside, one from a falling rock.  I was thrilled and scared but happy it was not a catastrophe.  I immediately felt somewhat relieved knowing that this fear which has hung over my shoulder for so long had finally decided to manifest itself, and we made it through OK.  Tonight also made me thankful that we live in the part of the city that we do, and not in the danger zone.  Now, I make my way over to the TV and turn on the debate.  We’ve lost 20 minutes and I can’t wait to see what they’ll say tonight!