1989 and 1994 earthquakes (tons of aftershocks in 94, too!)

Ok, sorry to bounce around, but there you go. My memory "ain't" perfect... ee hee. So why not, the earthquakes in LA.

First of all, prior to the 1989 earthquake, I was in the Cadet Org and I was in the yard practicing front flips. There was a mat on the ground where we were doing the flips. There were two of us.

Then Ronnie Miscavige came to see his son, who was in the Cadet Org. Ronnie was dressed in full dress whites. He saw what we were doing and came over and did a cool front flip and then immediately he walked into the building and did not see what I did. I decided I wanted to try that! And so I did. I did the flip ok, but I landed on my tippy toes and forgot to catch myself. So my rear hit my ankle and I heard it break. Didnt hurt too much, but freaked me out.

Because I was a minor, my mom had to take me to the hospital. I don't know if she was mad or joking, but she told me I interrupted her dinner. Anyways, I got a cast on.

And I broke it like 3 more times while in the cast - I heard it and so did others. I would slip on the crutches and catch myself on my foot and it would break again. That was frustrating!

Anyways, after 3 weeks, I got sick of the cast and decided to take it off myself. And I did, though it was not easy! (they say don't put it in water - ok I did, didnt help one bit).

Walking after that was so fricken' painful!!!

The way our berthing was set up, it was mothers with their kids. My mom had a lower bunk, while mine was third level. So I used her bed for a while until I got the cast off. Then went back to my bed, third level.

But I wasn't fully healed on my foot. And the earthquake of 89 came - that was a BIG one. Shook everything!! I did not know what to do. I jumped off my third bunk, man did that hurt! And we ran outside (we later found out that is very dangerous to do). I thought I broke it again, but we did not get it checked out. I remember being outside with my mom and the aftershocks kept coming. I couldn't put my foot down because it was so painful and the ground shaking did not help. So I was standing on one foot for a while.

Anyways, after that, the building inspectors came and said that the building we were staying in sunk 4 feet and was too dangerous to live in. So then they sent out some mission to find new berthing, which is where they found the Anthony Building (Normany and Fountain Ave). The building was made out of twigs and was a piece of crap (they still own it). I heard that the person who purchased it (researched it) got majorly busted and RPFed for it. Sad.

Jan 94 earthquake:

I was in CCI in charge of staff welfare (good luck with that!). The earthquake hit at about 3AM, while everyone was asleep. It was scarier than the first one, cause this one was during the dark. The other was nearly daylight when it hit. Anyways, some of the walls fell in the building we lived in (on Wilcox Ave). We all got under doorways, etc, then evacuated the building. It was pitch black outside. We couldn't see a thing! All the lights in the city were out too. Only light was from some large explosion miles away.

And so I was supposed to be in charge of getting everyone calmed down. OK. Whatever. I got people to give each other locationals (must have looked crazy to the locals! There was a post office across the street from our berthing and we were all in their parking lot, including "WOGS").

Then it looked like we had two broken ankles and one girl needed a tetanus shot. So I went to the hospital with these guys. Only sprains and one shot and all done.

And so I went to CC. By this time, the sun was just coming up. I looked up at the roof and you could see a HUGE slab of concrete (was one of the chimneys) ready to fall through the building. It was just about to tip over. They got a crane out there to get it off the roof (8 floors up) and put it in the alley. That cost $25,000.00 to do.

At that time, I had a supervisor under me (the crazy one who wrote that letter to the Dir I & R). He came up to me and told me that all of the pc folders had tipped over, public, staff, all, in archives and the whole place was just a huge pile of papers! He was laughing about it, which really pissed me off. All the OT folders too.

And so I spent about a week down there putting everything back together, along with the person who was to become my future husband. (who, I may add, is a sweet guy and I have no ill will towards him).

One more story here, sorry to rewind in time, but these are fun to tell (hope they are interesting read too...)

Back in the RPF days (approx 1990), we were working on building a concrete shed for the transformer to go in for the HGB building (the one one Hollywood Blvd). I was 16 at the time and concrete pours were new to me.

I remember that we had put up all of the forms and tied all of the rebar and then trucks started coming, pouring the concrete. It took a while to fill the thing up. And just as the last drops were poured, our bus pulled up and we all had to go. Everyone else had already left onto the bus and I was by myself, with a couple of contractors. I told them I was done and leaving and they told me that the concrete had to be leveled. I argued that I had to leave. I had to be on that bus, or I would have to walk 3 miles back in a black boiler suit with concrete all over it (that would have looked pretty strange!). He told me I had to do it. We argued for a few more minutes and then out of nowhere, the ground started shaking!! Alot. Enough to level the concrete.

And so I checked it and sure as sh*t it was level! He laughed and told me to get out of there! I jumped out of my boots and made it onto the bus.

So if the ground inside the transformer is not level guys, Comm Ev the San Andreas Fault. Peace out.

1997 - 1999

Ok jumping back to returning from Portland. I was a C/S. My official post was Staff C/S, but I also C/Sed Purif (in SH size org, we always had a full Purif), Div 6 (Which actually had posted auditors in it) and Student C/S (which had co-auditing AND pro auditors going up the Bridge.

C/Sing job was pretty easy and smooth for me. I did have to do the Golden Age of Tech line up. I got my TR's pass pretty quickly, but Metering, oh my god. What a mess!!!! 8 months trying to get a stupid video pass. That SUCKED. Always flunking and flunking. I felt like an idiot. I could not figure out why it was so hard to call reads properly and get a pass. Hansuli Stahli (he was the RTC Rep) used to come by and listen to me and he told me several times he loved my TR's. But I could never pass the dang thing!

Oh - there was another brief Portland visit in here again: A staff member from Delphi (the female with last name Nosko) got into a fight with her husband and went drinking and drove her car on a bridge and flipped her car and it slid right over her, killing her instantly. I had to go up there and audit the husband and calm things down. I think she had just been at CCI for auditing, not sure. Maybe he had just been at CC. Can't remember for sure. But I was only there for a couple of days. We had to audit the dad and two kids.

I remember her daughter was there too - at that time, she was in CMO CW. She did not seem very upset about her mother dying so dramatically. It was weird, like those spaced out eyes, you know.

Back in LA here:

Anyways, one day I was told there would be a meeting the next morning at 10AM in the conference room and I had to be there. We had found out on a grapevine that they needed to man up the Universe Corps/New World Corps so I assumed that I was going to need to do some case data sheets.

And as sure as a clock ticks consistently, that morning my husband at the time went into doubt about being married. Ok, I was sick of it. I told him we could get a divorce. That was fine. I hated feeling like I just couldn't live up to what he wanted.

Anyways, down to this meeting. I brought a bunch of case data sheets, thinking that some people would be being transferred or something. Anyways, we went down there and the CO CMO PAC was there (I forget her name) and she told us in a nutshell that I was going to be leaving for a special project and so was Matthew Veenker. Both of us were OT. At that time, I was OT IV and he was mid OT V. He was the Deputy LC or the LC. I can't remember. This shocked all of us. We were totally not expecting that!

Since I did not know what the future held, my husband of the time came to visit me to find out about the meeting. I told him I would be going. I asked if we could just stay married just to keep our belongings together long enough until I figured out what was happening and where I was going. He agreed (shows you how serious marriages are in the Sea Org...)

And so we were shipped over to the HGB to start training. They put me back onto metering and were planning to send me to Flag for training. So I goofed off for a while, trying to get through that stupid video again. No luck with that. Meanwhile, we were writing RTC daily about our transfer being off policy, etc. It went nowhere and we were basically informed that this was ok with our own org and that would be what would be done, period. Congratulations, etc.

Anyways, so then we got approved for Flag and arrived there. Ok cool. Senior C/S Int did my TIP and told me I did not need to redo my TR4 video. So I passed Upper indoc the next day. Then passed metering 2 days later (they wanted to have me do a few drills first before they would let me video).

I then went onto the Certainty Course for Class IV. Senior C/S Int came through the check out the courseroom. They had just called break and I got up to leave. Senior C/S Int stopped me and asked me what I was doing in the Academy. (He had just TIPed me - my individual study program two days before or so) I told him that I was doing my certainty course. He had a funny look on his face. I told him that I passed my metering and TRs already and this was my next course. He looked at me like he could not believe it.

(You gotta understand: My Flag training was extremely smooth until the very end. I NEVER had trouble getting through courses there.)

So that course took me 3 weeks. Then I went onto my internship. So then I got my checkouts and they put me in the chair. I remember that they wanted me to video. So they told me to go knock on this door and get a video going on the session. So I did that. Then after the session, I picked it up and brought it down to the sup.

They always wanted the auditors to watch their videos. I did not like to do that. They wanted me to sign that the TRs and Metering were all good. Sure they were fine. So I signed and left it to be watched by the sup.

And I wanted to go back in session and video again. So I knocked on that door to get another one going, and she asked me if I had already done correction on my last one, and I said I didnt know if it was ok or not. She said I needed to find out before going back in session or re videoing. And so I ran down to the Internship again and found out that my video went to RTC! My first session video went up like that!! That was unheard of.

Well, it came down a flunk because of one read being called the wrong size. But everything else perfect. So I drilled a bit and did another video and that one passed. I finished my Class IV Internship in 3 weeks. I was done. It was a 4 week checksheet. That was unheard of.

Then I did Cl V Certainty, which only took a couple of days. Then I went to my internship. I remember videoing and I knew it would pass. The Qual guys and the execs got the idea that I could pass quickly and when I said I had a good one, it really was a good one. So I said that and somehow that video got lost. They searched everywhere for it for hours. I didnt think it was any big deal. Big whoop. I could just make another one. Their collective jaws dropped on that. I did another one and it passed. I did not have any trouble passing session videos there.

And right about that time, the big bosses decided I should do Class VI, instead of the Class V Grad line up. And so I went over onto Class VI.

Meanwhile my husband of the time decided that maybe I was worth keeping and wanted to stay married. And I foolishly agreed. (I loved him but we had too many ups and downs).

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