Monday, April 5, 2021

Monday, April 5, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken on April 4, 2009, at Mattie's 7th birthday party held in the hospital's child life playroom. Next to Mattie is Brandon, Mattie's best buddy! Mattie and Brandon were diagnosed with cancer a month apart, despite their age difference, they were close friends. I will always be grateful to Brandon. Even when Brandon finished treatment, he would come monthly to the hospital to visit Mattie. That may not sound like a big deal, but it was, since Brandon lived over an hour away from the hospital. Mattie had a great time at his party. He spent the morning decorating the playroom, and a handful of friends from school came to share the day with Mattie. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 30,775,094
• Number of people who died from the virus: 555,381

I have had a cluster headache for a month now. How I am functioning is beyond me. The pain is excruciating and gets severe at multiple times during the day. Especially while sleeping. I find that my best sleep happens at 5am onward. Given that I get up at 6am each day in LA, I am not getting much sleep. Which compounds my pain. 

What I wasn't expecting was being jolted awake at 4:44am! I was awoken to the feeling of being shaken! Furniture was rattling all around me. I immediately grabbed my phone, which confirmed I experienced a 4 magnitude earthquake. Honestly it is very unsettling because what I feared was this could be the pre-shock, and a bigger one would happen! After the shaking, I went to check on my dad, who appeared to be sleeping. Yet when he came down for breakfast, he reported being awake. 

When I was in high school, I will never forget we had earthquake drills. I remember the first drill we had, and I honestly did not understand what was going on. Fire drills I understood, earthquake drills as a New Yorker, did not mean too much to me. But I learned the art of dropping, covering, and holding on philosophy. The natural instinct when facing a crisis is to run, but in an earthquake, sheltering in place is the safest thing you can do! 

Over the years I have experienced both types of earthquakes... shaking and rolling. Today was shaking! Given that I am not a person who likes movement, especially movement I can't control, earthquakes are scary!