Earthquakes, spiders, and independence

You may recall that last October I was disappointed to miss my first earthquake - well, no longer! This morning I awoke at 5:30 to find my bed moving. As with many minor quakes, once I figured out what was going on, it was over. I wondered if maybe I'd dreamt it, but I could hear lots of dogs barking in the city so I figured it'd really happened (checking the USGS website later confirmed it as well).

I feel kind of bad mentioning it, in view of the recent earthquake in Indonesia. But, feeling your first earthquake is an experience. It's made me ponder the earth we live on - albeit, briefly ponder - no new depths of thought were actually reached ;-). I thought of writing a poem though...

Another adventure awaiting me this morning was a very large spider on a curtain in my 'living room.' After clearing everything away in preparation for battle, I gathered my broom and a sturdy shoe. I paused to take a moment to draw up courage and to make sure my reactions would be quick. But, I soon discovered that it wasn't easy to knock that spider down - in fact I broke the handle of my broom (don't ask). Halfway through I began to feel bad about killing it, it was just chilling out, after all - and it turned out that it was missing 2 legs. But, I continued on and in the end the spider was no more.

So, that was part of my morning. I spent time this afternoon exploring new parts of the city, and knew roughly where I was almost the whole time. Yay ;-). Side note for those of you who don't know: I am rather severely directionally challenged - but I am actually starting to get a grip on directions now - maybe someone's been praying for me ;-)

Tonight is Noche Mexicana, when they do the Grito (shout of independence) at 11:00. Tomorrow is Independence Day. So, may I be the first to wish you an early happy Mexican Independence Day!