The 6th Sense

On a quiet evening at Cal Poly Pomona in 2000 Deece, Marissa, and Tony took a walk through the rose garden and up to the second floor patio area of the CLA building. Not too long after they arrived, Deece felt a strong urge to leave. She pleaded with her friends to take the elevator instead of the stairs, although in hindsight she realized the stairs would have been the better choice. Just after the elevator began to descend, Deece panicked. She frantically tried to escape and yelled for her friends to get her out of the elevator. After what felt like minutes, but were in fact only seconds, the doors parted and the friends stepped out of the elevator. After walking two steps Deece stopped abruptly and asked, "did you feel that?" "What?" Her friends asked. And the ground began to shake beneath them.

Deece, an island girl who could brave super-typhoons, had always been afraid of earthquakes. Her knees buckled as the friends walked back to their dorm. "You're like a dog", Tony told her. "Dogs can sense earthquakes before they happen." Deece had never heard of this...it couldn't be true. She thought back to the incredibly scary earthquake that happened a few months before that had all the girls on her wing cowering in their doorways. She could picture Sandy's face as she called Deece into her doorway, Deece only shook her head in fear and stayed put; she wasn't going to risk running down a third-floor hallway in a cement building. When that earthquake happened Deece didn't sense a thing. In fact, when it began she was under the impression that her rum and coke had finally gone to her head.

Cal Poly felt several more tremors in the weeks following the elevator incident. Deece sensed every one of them. She would wake up in fright in the middle of the night and call to Marissa, "did you feel that?!" Sometimes Marissa would answer, "no". Then the room would shake. Sometimes Marissa wouldn't be there...and Deece would grab on to the rails of her raised bed as the room would begin to shake.

...

In 2005 we felt a stong earthquake. I was very pregnant with Katelyn when it happened. I held on to my belly and in lightening speed I ran from the second floor of our house out the front door and into our yard, calling for James the whole way. Once I was outside I started calling for my mom and sister who soon made their way out into the yard. I had no inclination of this earthquake.

For about a week now I have been paranoid. Each night while I would lay on our bed and nurse Jacob to sleep, every time James's arm would touch the bed and send vibrations my way I would panic and ask, "did you feel that?" "It was just my arm", James would reply. On several occasions I felt the bed move and would hold my panic inside and simply look up to see if it was only James bumping into the bed. About two or three days ago I held back from telling James that I felt like we were going to have a big earthquake soon. He would have thought I was crazy, right? I was crazy, right? I mean, I've only ever sensed earthquakes right before they happen and I don't even sense all of them.

Today I was scared. I looked at Sheila across the lunch table as the room began to shake. In my heart I said a prayer for my children and the rumbling got stronger. We closed our take-out boxes and headed out of the building. My knees remained weak for a few hours afterward. I am still not settled. Pray that God will keep us safe.

Details of today's earthquake can be found here and here.

Wednesday What Is It?

This week it's really just a matter of who sees it first. So....what is it?

Here's how to play.

Wednesday What Is It? Results

The results of last week's Wednesday What Is It?

Pumpkin!

5 points to DAtalig!
2 points each to Bev, Steve and Miwa, Bigsoxfan, Bruce, and CNMI Blogger.

Boni, I'm sorry.

Chocolate bare feet

I don't really care for Ina Garten and her bare feet. I was watching an episode of Barefoot Contessa recently where she was cooking for kids. She made broccoli and bow tie pasta. She said she was pairing fun little bow tie pasta with broccoli to get the kids to eat the broccoli. I don't think she is around many kids - broccoli is the one vegetable that most parents will tell you their kids love to eat. And if there is something on a kid's plate that he/she won't eat...adding bow tie pasta isn't going to help. My daughter picks out every tiny piece of translucent onion that appears in her fried rice - broccoli is much easier to find.

Try squeezing some ketchup on the plate, kids love almost anything dipped in ketchup.

Or chocolate sauce.

A sign of the times....

You know things aren't going so well when your two year old daughter proclaims, "I cut your budget!"

I should have taken the lower road....at least I'd be sipping on Peet's

If Mary Poppins were my nanny today and she pulled out her tape measure to see how I measure up, it might read along the lines of, "Deece - generally mild mannered, far from perfect but not averse to changing, ridiculously gullible, prefers not to rock the boat, so easy going she reads like a book." And I would agree. I am transparent - I do not know how to be cunning (nor would I want to be).

I had a problem with some tea and I reached out for help. I didn't know what I needed, but I had a problem with tea and I needed help. I was presented with a fix - I was offered coffee. OK, maybe coffee would do the trick - I was grateful for the offer. I was given Peet's coffee. Wow! Peet's coffee, that would certainly be nice! But I knew that Peet's coffee was special and highly prized. So instead I asked for instant coffee. Peet's was still available and open for my taking - but I didn't want to stir the pot, so I took the instant coffee with great appreciation. But I spiced it up. I added some of my own Irish Cream to open it up to more flavor. It still wasn't Peet's, but it was sufficient - it turned out to be better than I thought.

My problem was getting better and I started to like instant coffee. Great, everything is hunky dory, right? That's what I thought, except now there is a cry of foul play and a claim that I manipulated my way to getting coffee when I should have just dealt with my tea. Um, excuse me? If I was asking for coffee, don't you think I'd be sipping Peet's right now instead of flavoring up my instant?

I think people easily misconstrue who I am. I am not a jerk.

A while ago someone posted about having a conversation with another blogger about how some people are overreacting to (or becoming unnecessarily hurt by) the then-recent Saipan-based blog de-linkings. I was one who had been de-linked. Soon after I was delinked, I decided that I would clean up my blogroll as well. So I did - by removing links to blogs that didn't have me linked. It didn't mean anything, I still read all the blogs through my Goggle Reader - I just needed to clean up and I thought that was a good way to do so. So naturally, I think that I was one of the people in the previously mentioned blogger conversation. Now maybe I'm not as special as I think and maybe I wasn't mentioned at all in that conversation. But if I'm right and I was spoken of, they were way off-base. I removed those who removed me because I needed to clean up my blogroll and I didn't get online for a while thereafter because my computer was all screwed up - not because I was upset.

Do people really think I'm that complicated? I'm not. I try to live by the golden rule. I don't want people to lie to me so I don't lie to people. I wasn't burt by the de-linking and I DIDN'T MANIPULATE MY WAY INTO GETTING INSTANT COFFEE!! Why in the world would I manipulate my way into getting instant freaking coffee. If I were a manipulative jerk, I would have taken the damn Peet's when it was offered!

Wednesday What Is It?

What is it?

Here's how to play.

Wednesday What Is It Results

The results of last last week's Wednesday What Is It?

A Whisk!

5 points to Mona!
2 points each to Borego, CNMI Blogger, Bigsoxfan, Hope, Bruce, and Marianas Eye.
I also accepted egg beater.

I have been derelict in my duties of being your Wednesday What Is It? hostess. I apologize. I meant to get online last week but I was taking care of my two sick children (while I was sick too). If I can only get online once in a week, I'll try to make it a Wednesday.

I heard it through the grapevine....

"You kids are so cute I want to slap your dad!" ~Deece

~~~

Katelyn: "Come on Lion. I'll put you to sleep."
Me: "His name is Braveheart Lion."
Katelyn: "Greatheart Lion."
Me: "Braaavveheart Lion."
Katelyn: "Braaaaay Fart Lion."

I should have left it at Greatheart.

~~~

"We need candles for the lecture CDs." ~Katelyn Rebecca

Translation: We need candles for the electricity.
Meaning: We need the candles on hand in case the electricity goes out and we are stuck in the dark for another night time blackout.

~~~

Picture three brown women sitting down for dinner around a warm pot of coconut milk and fish soup while a light tropical breeze blows in through the window from the south.

Woman #1: Who wants the head?
Woman #2: Go ahead.
Woman #3: Hahaha.

~~~

Jacob: *cries*
Gramma: "Jacob Seth, don't be upset."

Except she said it to almost the same rhythm as "123 a bumble bee..." and pronounced it more like, "Jake up set, don't be up set".

~~~

"Buzz Lightbeer. To infinity and beyond!" ~Ikaika, age 2 (or 3-ish)

Wednesday What Is It?

What is it?

Here's how to play.

Wednesday What Is It? Results

The results of last week's Wednesday What Is It?

A Vase!

OK, so maybe that was a little difficult.
Great guesses everyone!
Let's see what we can do for this week's WWII...

Florida, peas, and Big Macs

Dear 72741#302#@message.alltel.com or as I like to call you, Complete Stranger in Florida:

I think you have me confused with another Dawn Chrystal. I'm sorry she changed her number and now your feelings are hurt, but please stop sending me emails from your phone. You have me confused with someone else.

I only know two people in Florida - well, they may not be in Florida...but they're from Florida - 1) Melissa, whom I haven't seen since 8th grade, whose father we used to convince that Friday night was teen night at GIG so he'd drop us off there and we'd find our own way home and 2) Stephanie from Cal Poly who almost passed out after I pierced my nose and she pierced her belly button one day at Venice Beach and who stared at me with a gaping mouth as I ate sashimi that evening.

I have never seen Love and Basketball, nor have I changed my phone recently or added you to a "blocked" list. I'm sorry, but you've got the wrong person.

All the best,

Deece

~~~

I'm not sure where she picked this up, but lately Katelyn has been calling me "mama". And she says it like the Black Eyed Peas.



All day my head bumps with the sound of the Peas...

"Hey mama, this that ish that make you groove, mama
get on the floor and move your booty mama
we the blast mastas blastin' up the jamma
so shake your bambama, come on now mama
Hey mama, this that ish that make you groove, mama
get on the floor and move your booty mama
we the blast mastas blastin' up the jamma"

~~~

I was going to leave this as a comment for Boni, but what the heck, why not make it a main attraction.

In 2000, my friends and I pulled into a McDonald's in Alhambra to use a payphone because we were lost. The parking lot was empty. As a few of us exited Rob's silver new VW Beetle I saw a cop in the hedges that surrounded the parking lot. He motioned for us to leave; his gun was drawn. We hurried back into the car and Rob drove us quickly back onto the street. But as we turned the corner around the back of the building we saw two more officers back by the hedges, guns drawn. Wow, I'm glad we weren't craving Big Macs.

"We are friends, friends, friends, friends...."

It's always sad when a friendship turns sour. Even if it wasn't much of a friendship to begin with.

I was feeling pretty down on Tuesday - about more than just a recent dissolution of a friendship - so I called my dear friend Ace in Hawaii. We only talked for about five minutes, but it was nice. Sometimes that's just what you need. Ace and I have had our downs (our friendship was always up...with only a few downs, few but painful downs). I'm not sure when the last time I saw her was...maybe a year ago? I don't know. She moved to Hawaii just after my son was born - she never saw him, she didn't even call me to say goodbye. I miss her even more because of it.

Our lives are pretty different now - different from eachothers', but also different from our own back when. When I was 16 and Ace was 14, she went with me to get my tongue pierced - she got her first tattoo that day. Ace was at the gym with me when I mishandled a machine and put a hole through my wrist - she rode in the ambulance with me, it was pretty cool. We were always a little ridiculous...always on a mission to lose weight...when I'd come home on break from college, we'd go walking at the park and periodically stop to smoke a cigarette. I was always more Hip-Hop and she was always more Lillith Fair - finally, a few styles/artists we could agree on....jungle, mushroom jazz, Ben Harper.

I don't know much about her life anymore. She was supposed to call me Tuesday night, but that didn't happen...but it's ok. She's still my best friend Ace. And I love her.

Even though I lost a friendship, I have another one that's 10 years and counting.

Wednesday What Is It?

What is it?

Here's how to play.

I'm sorry it's late - again. I tried and tried to get online last night....and James tried too. But our computer said not tonight. Excuses, excuses....at least it's the truth.

Wednesday What Is It? Results

The results of last week's Wednesday What Is It?

Local Tangerines!

Also acceptable: local tangerine, tangerine
5 points to Borego!
2 points each to Mona, Lex, and Hope.
(psst...Hope, next time you have to choose one answer. :)