The Day After Halloween Song

The idea for this song struck me on Nov. 1st, as I walked by a Halloween Store. Even with the whole store marked down, that shit was still overpriced! Anyway, that's why this song is so short, I just wanted to punch it out on Nov 1st (and before it got too late in the night) so that it was still relevent).

My thoughts on earthquakes:
Anyone living within a hundred mile radius of San Francisco can tell you that "The Big One" is always a hot topic of conversation. It never goes out of style. Everyone always has there two cents to give, particullarly after a minor quake hits (like this one about a month ago). Then the nightly news always does a scare piece on whether or not we're prepaired for such a disaster. Or they interview an '89 survivor.

But on top of the anecdotal musings, and the periodic post-quake scares, an aura of 'it-could-happen-any-second' caution is ever present. In class, I will often avoid sitting under precarious light fixtures. I spend lots of time in an old theater that most certainly won't hold up in a hefty quake and often find myself looking up at its high ceilings and thinking "could it happen right now?" To add to my paranoia, a friend recently informed me that some experts believe that the Bart (Bay Area Rapid Transport) tunnel that goes under the bay to connect SF to Oakland won't last through the big one. As we zoomed along under water he mused on the way we would die, should the quake wish to strike then. "Well, we would either die from the intense pressure change as water enters the tunnel, or if that doesn't get us, we'll drown, or maybe the train and tunnel will collapes into itself and we'll be crushed to death." Thanks, Will.

But even more morbid than Will's tunnel disaster scenarios, is this notion the rests in the back of my mind: "I hope I don't miss it."

Let me explain.

Let's say I move, to NYC, as I hope to soon, and then a year or two later the big one happens. For the rest of my life I will go through the world telling people I am from SF and they will ask all about the quake and I will nothing to say. I know, that's horrible! I should be praying that the day the big one strikes me and everyone I love is on a jumbo jet to Hawaii! But it's almost as if living in the bay my whole life has made 'the big one' an integral and inevitable part of my existence. A life experience I'm sure to have. College, Marraige, Children, Earthquake. It hasn't happened yet, but it still defines me.

And until it does happen, all we can do is wait, avoid light fixtures, and chit-chat casualy about the quake, because someday it won't be a casual topic at all.

-abby