I remember...

This was written on October 17, 2014, 25 years after this fateful day. Posted it on FB and was told I should preserve this memory so that's exactly what I'm doing. :) 


I remember being home alone while my mom picked up my brother. I remember walking down the hallway to the living room to see what time the World Series was supposed to start. I remember never turning on the World Series because at 5:04 pm, the whole Bay Area came to a screeching halt due to a 6.9 earthquake. I remember hearing the rumble before I felt the shaking. I remember standing in the doorway between our kitchen and living room, watching as the kitchen cupboards were thrown open by the sheer force of the quake and the good china was dumped into the sink. I remember how it seemed like a year before the shaking stopped. I remember hearing nothing but the rumbling. When the earth literally stopped shaking, I remember seeing our entertainment center only being held up by its glass doors, right where I had stood just 30 seconds before. I remember the numerous aftershocks, some almost as big as the quake itself. I remember my best friend running down my street with her dogs in tow and she and I sticking together until our parents got home. I remember the hutch in my room toppling over and all of my Sweet Valley High books being strewn everywhere. I remember camping out in our family room because we had no power and no school for two days. And I remember that when we finally went back to school, all we could talk about was the earthquake. I remember seeing the TV and the newspapers and thinking how San Francisco looked like a war zone. And I remember that when they finally resumed the World Series, which would result in a 4-0 rout of the San Francisco Giants by my Oakland A's, it seemed to bring a sense of normalcy to an area that so desperately needed it at the time. I will never forget October 17, 1989, and I'm pretty OK with that because if I remember, it means I survived the quake when other people did not. So thanks for the rumbling warning, Mother Nature, because who knows what would have happened if I had been standing where that entertainment center had fallen...

Dear Guardian Angel...

I wrote this on November 5th, a week after I was in a massive car accident. I still feel this way, six weeks later...



Dear Guardian Angel:

You know who you are. You're the one who saved my life a week ago. You're the one who saw the other car. You're the one who knew how hard the hit would be. You're the one who angled my car so that I would only graze the car in front of me. You're the one who closed my eyes so that the broken glass from my shattered back windshield wouldn't end up in my eyes. My bra, yes, but not my eyes. You're the one who pulled my foot off the brake so my car would move instead of getting smashed between two cars. You're the one who broke my seat so that I spent most of the ride across two lanes of traffic on my back. You're the one who broke my seat, shoving me backwards instead of into my steering wheel, which may have resulted in a broken arm or forearm, something NOT good for a massage therapist. You're the one who kept my sense of humor and sarcasm intact during the whole ordeal. You're the one who figured I was strong enough (physically and mentally) to handle the aftermath of such a serious accident. And you're the one who resides on my left arm, in black and white ink, unscathed other than a little muscle weakness, ready to save me again...

And today, a week later, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being awake to react so quickly. Thank you for making it so much better than it could have been. Thank you for waking me up to the more important things in life. And thank you for saving a healer's life so that she can possibly heal again...

My permanent guardian angel. Tattoo done by Adam Rose at Fallen Owl Tattoo in Lakewood, CO.