The Sewing Mom

I just viewed a fantastic trailer for The Mist by Stephen King and it shook me up! I can’t say I’ve ever experienced anything that frightening and hope I never do. It did bring back a time though when we experienced a large earthquake and had to contend with all the frantic feelings, an evacuation, and the aftermath.

It was in the late 1980’s and I was working for the same company as my mom in Southern California. It was a huge aerospace firm and she worked on one end of the plant and I was on the other. The company ran shuttle buses all day long to get people from one part of the plant to the other it was so large. It was a manufacturing plant but had hundreds of offices and cubicles inside as well. I had a cubicle. I remember one morning sitting at my desk, working, when everything began to shake. This wasn’t the first time I’d felt a quake, but what was different was that there was a rumbling sound and the shaking didn’t seem to be stopping. We all jumped under our desks, adrenaline flowing, and as soon as the shaking did finally stop, we were ordered to evacuate the building. Hundreds of employees all marched out into the parking lots. We stood outside for a couple of hours not really knowing what was going on or how long it would be before we could go back inside.

This wouldn’t have been bad except that I had no idea how my mom was doing, or if she was okay. Her office was in an outbuilding, detached from the main building. Mind you, this was before everybody had cell phones. I had no way to contact her and it was making me very nervous. Everyone was outside just sort of making fun of what was going on and yet I was getting more uneasy not knowing if my mom was okay. Maybe for everyone else, joking about it was a way to stay calm.  It was a very uncomfortable feeling. I remember being glad that at least I was outdoors, and it was very nice out so that helped to keep me calm. I’m not sure how well I would’ve done if I was trapped inside of the building, not sure if I would’ve remained calm or not.

After about two hours we were all told the building was being closed for the day until it could be inspected for structural damage. I managed to find my car and drove around to the other side looking for my mom. I recall being so relieved to see her smiling face. She got in the car and we drove home. We had the radio on in the car and discovered that our offices were located very near the epicenter of the quake which explained why we had felt it and heard it the way we did. It was strange that the further we drove away from work, the calmer the people were. Of course, they hadn’t felt the quake as strongly as we had so they weren’t affected by it the way we were.

It was a unique experience, one I can’t say I’d want to repeat.

Oh my was about the only thing I could say during the last two hours.  I was with twelve 3rd graders who were all trying out for the 3rd grade Destination Imagination team.  I was just so surprised at how little imagination they were showing, a lack of creative thinking.  DI is all about imagination and thinking outside the box, so I was getting nervous that we were going to either have a really bad team or no team at all. 

These kids would do exactly what I told them, no more.  I kept telling them to use their imaginations, be creative, don’t do only what I tell you to do, add to it.  Nothing.  I was thinking this wasn’t going to work.  Finally, I gave them a few props, a piece of tin foil, a piece of wax paper, a small paper bag and some cotton balls.  I told them they had 5 minutes to create some sort of time keeping contraption.  I also told them that it really shouldn’t be a watch, they needed to try to be imaginative, create something the other groups wouldn’t think of.   It worked, each of the four groups came up with something completely different.  I was so relieved.

Out of the twelve we chose 7 (the maximum allowed) for a team.  It will be interesting to see how they all work together in the coming months.  I’m glad I’m not their team manager!

Since we’ve changed insurance and relocated, I’ve been searching for a new dentist. This is not easy because I have an enormous fear of the dentist. I need a dentist that will take my fears into consideration. One thing I require is that I see only the dentist, not the dental hygienists that work for him. I know they’re trained and very capable, but it helps me deal with my fear when I’m only dealing with one person sticking they’re hands in my mouth, not multiple people. I can make exceptions for taking of x-rays and that sort of thing, but I do need the dentist to do my teeth cleanings and anything else that may need to be done. This eliminates and of the dental clinics that seem to be so prevalent in the Dallas area.

Now, if my daughter-in-law is looking for a dentist I think I may have found one for her. She lives in Southern California and could probably use a dentist to give her that Beverly Hills teeth appearance, you know, the sparkly whites we all want but that the Hollywood stars can afford! Actually, this is a dentist I would like to find, someone that uses painless drills and digital x-rays (I wonder if that would help with my gag reflex) which has to be an improvement over sticking those things in your mouth that poke your cheeks. This is the kind of dentist that could give me a complete smile makeover. Well, I’d settle for one that is compassionate about my fear.

A fellow blogger had her site hacked into, not once, but twice. I consider my site to be very personal, almost a daily diary of my life. I would feel very violated if this were to happen, not to mention the sense of loss if I couldn’t get all my posts and comments back. Fatiah has posted excellent instructions on how to back up your site and I highly suggest everyone take a look and do a back up. Even though I have my system set up to do an automated weekly backup, I felt better doing a backup myself and watching it happen.