SHAKEY-TOWN

How time flies.

It was 17 years ago today I awoke around 4:27 am in Los Angeles.

I'm not sure why I woke up, I wasn't due at work til 8 am.

I looked at my table clock and vividly recall it reading 4:27 am. I took a glance out the window [at the time it faced Sony Studios down the street].

I then laid back down and rolled over.

The shaking started four minutes later at 4:31 am.



Some memories stay with you forever...like they happened yesterday.

The apartment was turned upside down that night.

As the violent shaking started I just kept repeating, "Oh my god, oh my god...!"

I jumped up and put pants on as the shaking increased. I then stepped in the door frame of my closet [not sure why, it wasn't a tornado!!]

I heard my roommate, Andre, call out my name from his room.

As the shaking began to decrease, I put some shoes on and went into the living room and saw Andre coming out of his room. Everything had fallen out of the cabinets and refrigerator. The power was out too and it was pitch dark. We could hear screaming coming from the three storing building and people running down the hallway.

We gathered our wits and ran down three flights of stairs too!

Everyone had gathered on the dark street along with other tenants from other buildings. We could see blue sparks in the sky from the downed transformers.

Then there was an after shock! It was right out of a movie as people started to scream in the streets.

Eventually the cold got to us and many of us went back in to the building and went back to sleep.

The following day I managed to get to work along with two other people. The boss' of course did not. There was no power either.

We mainly just held the fort and played poker all day -- and got paid for it, woohooo!

By that evening power had returned to the apartment and I saw the damage in the city on the TV: a freeway had collapsed literally down the street from work!!

I wasn't able to get a hold of my family until the following evening.

In the end, it is part of living in LA I guess.

I'm out.