Upcoming Power Outages -- For all of Tokyo

Am at work...and just listened to the building announcement that tonight, between 6-7 pm, there will most likely be a blackout of power in all of Tokyo. From what I understand, the power companies are preparing for what they expect to be the failure of the nuclear reactor that is responsible for supplying Tokyo with lots of power. In anticipation of this, they will be conserving energy during this 'peak' period. Everyone is being asked to conserve energy as well.

Wow. I think I just realized I am on an Electronic Island. That might lose power. What would Kitty Landers do? Wish I had my leatherman but that got lost a long time ago just after 9/11 and I carelessly had it in my purse. It was confiscated by a smug airport security official at JFK -- and I eventually replaced it with a Swiss Army Knife -- but that is at home in Venice. I think of Bear Grylls and Les Stroud. More Les Stroud. Chris and I have watched both Man Vs. Nature shows and we agree that Les is the real McCoy. Bear Grylls tends to amp it up for the camera. Plus -- Les has the better name :) What would Les Stroud do?

Hmmm. I was telling all my acting students to avoid watching too much news, as all those images will inevitably lead to stress. But it's hard to avoid it -- especially if there are blackouts. I remember the blackout in New York a year or so AFTER 9/11. At the time, Chris and I ran to the stone garden on 51st street between 2nd and 3rd, along with some other random folks who had poured out of their office buildings. We were convinced (everyone seemed to be) that a bomb or imminent terror plot was soon to unfold -- as how else could the whole grid of New York from Albany southward have simply failed? Still don't think that chestnut was fully explained...but I remember it starting to get dark, and it being hot, and people lighting candles. Flashlights and AM radio. We listened to Art Bell (Coast to Coast) and all the conspiracy theories and talked about all the things we could do without electricity. Eventually (years later) that conversation became an idea for an eventual Kitty Landers episode...when there is a blackout and Kitty must figure out what to do...

Another announcement over the loudspeaker. I am struggling with the announcer's extremely polite forms of grammar. Getting about 70% of it. It will be followed by an English version, but we all just laughed about how poor the last English version was. Kind of like that scene in Lost in Translation when the director gives Bill Murray very specific direction about being sad and nostalgic, thinking about men in his life (like his father and grandfather) that he wants to honor and remember...and then when Bill Murray asks what the director says the translator says something like: "be louder."

Have not been to the supermarket yet, but my co-worker told me that all the prepared foods are GONE, and the only things left on the shelves are dry goods, etc. My plan is to leave tonight and hit my bulk supermarket which I discovered (or should I say Wakako told me about). There was a tremor during my second class -- both Wakako and I felt it but my students were immersed in a scene -- and did not.

The funny thing is, I have been mentally planning for this. Just the other day while walking to work, I thought: "If there was an earthquake right now, I'd want to make sure I had all my chargers. My computer charger and my phone charger and my i-touch charger and my batteries for my camera." OK -- that alone is kind of ridiculous. Can Steve Jobs please get on this already? Or did he already do that with the i-phone?

When I was a freshman at UVA, I once woke up in the middle of the night, CONVINCED there had been an earthquake the night before. This was the year after I came back from Japan, and clearly the memory was still in there, triggered by some mystery synapse during REM sleep. I jumped out of my bed in the middle of the night and screamed, shaking my roommate Becky until she woke up. "What IS it?" Becky asked. Becky was an Engineering student and wanted to be an astronaut. She studied constantly and took tests that involved the kind of physics and math problems that I was happy to escape for the likes of sonnets and essays on cultural anthropology. Becky liked her sleep. "We just had a MAJOR earthquake!" I shouted at her, pacing back and forth in our small dormitory room (Metcalf). "Oh my God, go back to sleep, you're dreaming!" she said, pulling the pillow over her head.

I did go back to sleep but I was convinced there had been an earthquake in Charlottesville, VA. The next morning I walked up to the geology lab on O-hill and asked to talk to someone in charge -- about the seismic activity of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The guy who helped me was most likely a grad student, on the shorter side, with curly hair and thick glasses. He happily pulled up a chair and tapped into whatever instruments they had in the lab -- confirming Becky's suspicion that the earthquake had in fact been a dream. I accepted this scientific data as proof, but was stumped. It had seemed SO real. I mean -- I thought my bed was shaking. I told him as much and he asked me out to dinner. I thought of that moment in Silence of the Lambs when Jodie Foster politely deflects the advances of the nerdy Moth specialist: "Ever go out for cheeseburgers and beers? Or the amusing house wine?" Jodie Foster smiles, tucking the hair behind her ear in a pseudo flirtatious reply (perfect West Virginia twang): "Are you hitting on me Doctor?"

But...I accepted his invitation as I was new to college, and nerd or not, he had a car -- and would ostensibly pay for my dinner. Which he did.

Like it or not...earthquakes seem to follow me. Or, I seem to follow them. As my Dad said today over the phone: "I told your sister that from now on the world should be on high alert every time you travel somewhere. THIS JUST IN! REGINA TAUFEN HAS BOARDED A PLANE BOUND FOR..."

And this just in...huge explosion at Fukushima Nuclear plant 2 hours ago. Um...about that boat?!