Life Goes On

I guess everyone in the Southland is shaken over the quake. But the funny thing is, the reaction to the quake was so essentially Californian.

It took me a good ten seconds before realizing it was an earthquake. And one of the newscasters said, we live in California, and earthquakes are something we expect, but when one strikes, the last thing we think of is EARTHQUAKE! Everything else runs through our heads, but NOT

"crap, i'm in an earthquake."

Well I was at class at ELAC. We slipped under our desks nervously. And as the floor was shaking, I was trying to stay serious, but I couldn't help but say to my friend, "I've never been in an earthquake while in class." It's sad and funny that we just don't take this stuff so seriously.

I immediately thought of the seen in "L.A. Story" when there was an earthquake while Steve Martin and his impersonal friends were out lunching. It shook crazy, but everyone just maintained their conversations and kept eating. In any other part of the country, they have natural disasters where you cannot come out laughing. But I think in California, we have a different nature, where if we come out safe, we just laugh in disbelief. We may be nervous, but seemingly, nothing is serious and everything is kind of like a joke. Even our natural disasters are funner! I'm completely being sarcastic; so I guess, Knock on Wood.

It was really dumb how a lot of the news stations played it out like everyone was running and screaming as though it were complete pandemonium. It totally was not. Some people might have gotten scared, but for the most part, people brushed it off and continued their lives. Perhaps people only seemed relaxed on their exterior, I'm sure everyone was nervous and had jelly legs. But I didn't see any fear in the general population. Gee, I ended up going to Ralph's after I got let out of class. And people were exiting with their shopping carts, entering with their double coupons as if nothing had happened. I guess the employees were kind of gathered around to chit chat, but otherwise, I was in the cereal aisle, and some old guy was just looking around for pepper or something.

I caught all the coverage. I was interested in seeing whether they would report it as a disaster or a quiver. Definitely, the local reporters hit the nail on the head. But the national coverage was a little extreme. Kind of felt like they reported it so serious so people in other states watching who are jealous of California, could finally say, "Ah! California isn't perfect!" Locals kind of toned it down. But really, a 5.4 feels like that? Wasn't that bad of a feeling. But I was scared the buildings wouldn't feel the same way, and then collapse on me. And geez, the epicenter was in Chino Hills, but people report it as L.A. Downtown L.A. is like half an hour from Chino Hills! Whatever.