My California Initiation

In news that will surely have my parents pleading for my return to the east coast, I felt my first earthquake this morning. It was kind of fun. I was lying in bed, having just woken up but not feeling any rush to get up and start my day. I felt the bed shake, but not a lot, and as soon as I could think, "earthquake?", it stopped. I don't think anything else in my room rattled - I had my eyes closed - but it didn't seem like it. While it was a distinct movement, it wasn't anything that would have woken me up, had I still been asleep. I thought for a second that ghosts were shaking my mattress. Not that I think I have ghosts, I just thought that a far likelier possibility than an earthquake - go figure.

Update on log-lifting at the Stairs: A few weeks ago I commented on a guy lifting a log at the bottom of the Santa Monica stairs -- a makeshift barbell, if you will . What I thought was so bizarre about the whole thing was that he apparently transported the log back and forth with him -- Paul Bunyon meets Body by Jake video to go. Well, I stand corrected. I did the Stairs again on Saturday, and there nestled in a nook near the bottom of the steep set, was said log. For some reason, that is just so much more normal to me.