[Foreign object in muddy water] Earthquakes and being sleep deprived.

[Haniza Schlosser]

What a sad story on the Japan earthquake and tsunami, eh? I'm so glad that the friends I know who live in Japan are safe and sound but my heart just tears up hearing all those lives lost.

Yesterday, I told Kevin, we have to get earthquake ready. Thank goodness, we don't have to worry about tsunami coz even though Santa Cruz is only an hour's away but there's a big mountain range between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Everyone is wondering if the "Big One" is coming soon for Californians. The last big one was when I was last here as a student in the early 90's, and that was in South California. Anyway, that's our next big project.

At the moment, we're pretty much sleep deprived, at least I am for sure. Kurt wakes up every 2-3 hours asking for milk. Sometimes he falls asleep right away, but sometimes, he needs me to hold him and that's tough coz I don't have a deep sleep if I have to hold him. So, someone asked me, why we named him Kurt Iskandar.

The name came when we were pregnant with Brigitta. We got a list of boys/girls names then. Kurt means "Brave Advisor", it comes from advising the king the truth even though if it's not what he wants to hear. I actually was playing around with boys names that starts with a K..and I think I saw Sound of Music where I liked the name Kurt. Plus, one of Kevin's fav author is Kurt Vonnegut. It's also very german. :) Iskandar means Defender of Men...and the western version is Alexander which is a name in Kevin's family. Kevin's first son is also named Alexander and it's also Kevin's dad's middle name.

Now, this is the weird part. My uncle (mom's side) married a lovely swiss lady named At. Ruth. At Ruth has a brother whom we all know as Unc Bobby. When I visited them last year, I told Unc Bobby that I was pregnant and he asked me if I knew the gender and what names we were thinking of. When we told him about our ideas, he looked at me as if I shot him, he said, "do you know my real name is?" I said, "you mean it's not Bobby?". He said, "no, that's my nickname. My real name is Kurt!" he paused, " Do you remember what my wife's name is?" I said, "nope" embarrassed, he said, "it's Brigitte!". Kevin and I said, "NO WAY!".

So, in a way, the name Kurt and Brigitta (or Brigitte) is also part of my family. Oh and my nephew's name is Addam Iskandar...so Iskandar being a middle name is also part of my family.

Okay..I better go off to sleep. Hope to write soon. Let's pray that Japan's reactors will be shut down and that any meltdowns if any be minimal.

Be safe and take care of your loved ones,

-Haniza-

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Posted By Haniza Schlosser to Foreign object in muddy water at 3/14/2011 10:29:00 PM