Earthquake

I wanted to write this down because it happened. Not because it was significant in a way it effected our everyday lives but because it happened for the first (and hopefully only) time in 100 years. I wanted to write it down in our yearbook so you knew, my children’s future selves, that it happened and the earth shook right here in the mid to Midwest.

Tuesday August 23, 2011 at 1:58 in the afternoon a 5.8 earthquake struck in the Virginia/Washington DC area. Its tremors were felt up the entire eastern seaboard, across the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. I have heard as far as Michigan & Canada.

I was at work. I had just gone to the kitchen to get a bottle of water and throw a smart comment over my shoulder to one of the technicians. (Part of my unofficial job description is to keep the men I work with humble. Well, at least it hasn’t gotten me fired yet) I went back to my desk, kicked off my black strappy sandals that always seem like a good idea in the morning but rarely feel that way by lunchtime, sat down in my chair Indian style (because I am the consummate professional). I started dissecting pages of reports I had spread over my desk. All of a sudden my chair moved, like it was being shook (which, in fact, it was). My first thought was same service tech from kitchen had come up behind me and pushed my chair. I spun around to say something and found the space empty. I turned back around and looked at co-worker Connie, hoping she didn’t see me sitting at my desk jerking around. She was looking at me with big eyes and said “do you feel that too?” I looked outside at the wire that runs from the building to the lighted sign and saw it swaying like a jump rope. Both our next thought was that something had hit the building, a truck or something heavy. Then co-worker Bob came out of his inner office with a puzzled look and said “I was just on the phone with a lady in Massachusetts and she said “I got to go, there is an earthquake”. Within a few seconds I see an email from our Baltimore location saying they have just had an earthquake with an immediate response from my boss in Ohio saying “was it the same tremor we felt or an earthquake”. Then Aunt Stacie called from Boston, did we feel it too?

At this point I am starting to get that belly slip slide feeling I have not felt since 9/11, almost exactly 10 years ago. The feeling that something big is happening. Something unprecedented. Something that is way bigger than us. My first thought was “Are my kids OK? Is Annabelle scared. Did Nate fall when the ground shook?” I called home, no answer. I called Nana’s cell phone, after 5 very long rings she answers and I hear utter chaos in the background. Screaming, thumping, craziness. “What is going on” I say anxiously “Where are you?” She replies “McDonalds play place. What’s up with you?”

I felt my shoulders fall in relief. You were fine. You were more than fine, you were having a ball climbing and sliding and had no idea the earth moved under your feet.

So there you go childrens, your own little piece of history. When the only earthquake in our lifetime happened you were blissfully unaware. Thank goodness, the last thing Annabelle appreciates is having her world rocked.