Earthquakes on my Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. I became 26 years old.

My plans yesterday was to go to Kam Bowl's in Kalihi to have my usual birthday breakfast. Kam Bowl's make the best fried rice and scrambled eggs. I was gonna go there with my parents and my grandma.

At 7am yesterday, I was about to take a shower, when the building started to shake!

At first, I just thought the noise was coming from a car blasting it's bass really loud. But the building was shaking so hard, that I then knew it was an earthquake!

It was the 1st time in my life I experienced an earthquake!

Obviously, I was nervous! The earthquake lasted last less than a minute! The earthquake didn't destroy anything around me! After a few minutes, I just did what I was going to do anyways.

Few minutes after the earthquake, all the electricity went off!

Then I got a call from my parents. The breakfast at Kam Bowl's would be cancelled since the restaurants wouldn't be able to operate without electricity!

It was a good thing I had batteries for my radio. It was also a good thing I didn't throw away my old stereo. I didn't like my old stereo because the CD player didn't work anymore, it had no bass, and it only catches a few radio stations. However, the new stereo (which has better bass, can play CDs and catches all the radio stations) COULDN'T operate on batteries. The small old stereo did! It could still catch a few stations to follow the news!

Outside was so hot & humid, and the fans and air condition couldn't work! I just stayed home and read newspapers!

At least I had some food available!

Showers didn't have warm water. I'm not used to cold water, but it's better than not taking a bath at all!

I usually shave on Sunday nights, but I decided to shave in the afternoon, because I wasn't going to shave in the dark! (I use a razor that can be recharged, so it doesn't need to be plugged in when I use it!)

In the early evenings, I talked with my neighbors. When night fell, I was thinking about sleeping early since there's no light!

I was talking to some neighbors at around 7:20 p.m. when the light finally came on. Everyone was celebrating and life came back to normal!

This was a reminder that every good thing you have can be lost in a few minutes!

Lucky for us on Oahu, we got our electricity back and the buildings weren't destroyed! Those on the Big Island of Hawaii weren't so lucky! Roads and buildings were destroyed!

There's people worldwide who don't have electricity or running water available. There's people who lives been recently been ruined by natural disasters or wars! There's people who don't have easy access to food, water or health care! There's people who don't have any shelter!

I am one of the fortunate ones yesterday! While I didn't have my ideal birthday, I understand that things can be a lot worse! I hope that never happens!