I love a good earthquake. The one this morning was a PERFECT earthquake, a nice 4.2 centered right near our house. (Look at that "Location Quality = Excellent." Why yes, Oakland is excellent, thank you.)
I love it when the earthquake starts, and your brain spins for a second, feeling it, waiting. Is this it? Is this the big one? And when you don’t go flying across the room, when you just have to put your hand against the wall to steady yourself, you realize that this is just one you get to ride out and enjoy. And then after the two seconds you’ve spent figuring this all out, you only have about three seconds left to enjoy, but usually I get a whole lot of enjoyment out of that.
(Flashback – I remember living on Saipan and lying on the beach, and watching the sand actually ripple up to us and past, as the little temblors passed through.)
But today’s quake wasn’t that great, though, because I was in the only place I really don’t want to be for an earthquake (besides the obvious, under a great glass skylight on the top floor of an unreinforced ten-story brick building with a jet-fuel line buried underneath the foundation) — I was in the shower. And I was soaping. After I realized the great thump wasn’t the kittens flying off the refrigerator, and I figured out that it was an earthquake, in that that second before I knew it WASN’T the Big One, I pictured myself having to pick through rubble (light, easily repaired fluffy rubble) to get outside where I would be NAKED, me and the neighbor next door who also gets ready at 4:30 in the morning (our bathroom lights glow in friendship although we never speak), and we’d be all NAKED as everyone else ran out wearing robes. Yeah, no thanks. Plus, I had conditioner in my hair, and then it would have run into my eyes, and when it dried it would have been greasy and I would have had to suffer through a disaster with thick, greasy hair and it would have all been horrible.
So I’m glad it was only a 4.2. And oh, brother, the news is playing it up. I’m at work and we’re watching the LIVE BREAKING COVERAGE and seriously, at this moment, they’re walking thruogh a drugstore where some THINGS FELL ON THE GROUND. A few sticks of deodorant, OHMYGOD. There was some glass broken in Montclair! Oh, there was the funniest video shot in a convenience store where a delivery guys walks in, and walks almost all the way out and then pauses. THAT’S IT! They played it over and over and over, until I finally realized that some candy bars fall to the floor at the point where he pauses. CANDY BARS FALLING! RUN!!!
At least HE wasn’t in the shower.
This reminds me of the very bad storm that you suffered a while back.
Whenever I mention my imaginary friend, Rachael, my husband says “Is that the Rachael who had the lawn chair blown over in that very bad rain storm a while back?” and then I say “Yes, it was.” And after twenty-five more years with your own sweet baboo you will find conversations like this hideously funny too. g
Why are you making me laugh? It’s an earthquake!!
(Did I ever tell you how, when I was in San Francisco, I woke up freaking out because I thought there was an earthquake but it turned out to be a garbage truck rumbling past the apartment? You know I’m ditsy, don’t you?)
Hi Rachael, first of all, hooray Digit!
I woke up to the earthquake this morning and yelled, “Yosha, did you just fall out of bed?” But no flying guy, or candy bars either.
p.s. I often wonder about the shower thing too.
Mm, I kinda miss those little fun earthquakes. The ones that don’t really damage anything or hurt anyone, but just roll a little and let your friends and relatives in other parts of the world think you’re hardcore when you casually mention, “oh, right, we had an earthquake this morning, I almost forgot…”
We Californians tend to be a wee bit unimpressed by earthquakes unless there’s falling freeways.
What’s wrong with naked? Quite the conversation opener, I would think. ~_^
Having lived east of the midwest all my life, I’ve only experienced one earthquake. I was living in the bottom floor rear apartment of the most ramshackle house in Youngstown, OH. The house was so rickety that when it started (and it was just a bitty little tremor) I seriously thought it was the roof falling in.
Yes, I was in bed when it happened–I had mysteriously woken up just a minute before it started, and I just lay there enjoying it, hearing things fall off shelves.
I really have no healthy fear of earthquakes, as I’ve only experienced small ones. Hopefully that won’t come back to bite me in the a$$ one day when I neglect to dive under the desk in a big one.
I haven’t seen the news yet, but that’s so funny that they’re making a huge deal out of it. I guess when you live in an area with no weather to talk about, a small earth quake is the next best thing.
Oh man, that’s one thing I’ll miss about CA, the earthquakes. I’m so blase about them, it’s funny. I was almost jealous that I missed this one 🙂
And yeah, in SoCal if we got a few sprinkles, all of a sudden it’s “STORM WATCH 2007!!!!!1!!!” Gotta love the media.
Do you think they play up the small quakes so when the big one hits we won’t panic? LOL
Seriously I was asleep when it hit and went back to sleep when it was over. Watching the news you would think it was the end of the world.
love those small earthquakes. we get them ALL the time up here…sometimes the big WHOMP ones and then everything kind of shimmies for a bit afterwards, but my favs are the big rolling waves ones that go on and on and on..you just hold on! We have a fireplace in our bedroom with a chain mesh spark guard that sounds like a musical instrument and wakes me up with the nighttime quakes….ugh..conditioner head. nekkid…whatever..but ugh..conditioner head. Love to the Digi-man….maybe need to rename him to Phoenix or something!
Ah, yes, I miss the earthquakes (lived in Anaheim Hills, Ventura, and San Jose.) One of my parents’ favorite stories about me is when I was…oh, probably six, and getting ready to take a shower. We had a wee little earthquake, maybe a 3 or 4, and it scared the bejeezus out of me. I ran down the hall and into the living room, wearing nothing but a shower cap, eyes as big as saucers. Good times.
ha! I like the 4.2 range ones, too. They’re fun. Non-Californians look at me like I’m bonkers when I say that, and perhaps they are right in general, but not about the earthquakes.
I was watching the news this morning too and you are so right!
I sleep through all of them. And the ones during the day, at work–I *always* think they’re just a truck rumbling by. They are fun, though!
We sometimes get teeny-tiny quakes. I remember being half-asleep one morning and wondering who was rocking the bed. Verrrry gently. I must be honest, I’m quite thankful we don’t get bigger one’s in Brooklyn. The whole place would crumble.
Isn’t US media funny like that? There are actual important news stories happening around the globe but THIS IS HAPPENING TO US! THESE ARE OUR CANDYBARS ON THE FLOOR! OH MY GAWD!
What a nighmare that would have been! Can you imagine the interviews you would have had with gucky hair in a towel you borrowed from someone? And you just KNOW that would be the interview everyone picked up for the news. As for the deodorant and candy bars falling…I knock more stuff of the shelves when I walk through most stores with my giant-ass purse!
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I was wondering if I needed to throw the kiddo into the doorway, and then it stopped. Then I Lay awake thining about all the unprepared disasterdness of our household and how much it will suck when it’s a big one and they call me and make me come to work. All those freaking disaster trainings really take the fun out of disasters, you know?
Oh dear gods, I would be terrified. I’ll stick with my good old midwestern tornadoes that we have sirens and warnings for, thank you.
But I remember in 2nd grade we were supposed to have a HUGE earthquake that was going to be the end of us all. We had “earthquake drills” and I made a first aid kit with band-aids and kid’s aspirin and on the day of the supposed earth quake I spent the day hiding under the kitchen table. Of course, it never happened, but my parents saved the first aid kit.
Yeah, I’ll stick to the tornadoes. I’m glad you all are Ok.
LOL – yeah, the media has been doing that up here in PDX too, for things like the last few wind storms and something else I… can’t remember. ::snerk:: Seeing constant STORM COVERAGE LIVE was just a wee bit hilarious.
On the other hand, several months ago we had a 3 point something earthquake more or less right downtown and except for one channel, the stations mostly blipped programming for about 2 minutes, then left it to the evening news. Which was a relief.
Tornadoes? Now, the thought of *those* give me the absolute willies! At least earthquakes don’t have *seasons*, or come every year without fail!
People laugh at me, but I have extra pants and shoes in the back of my car (which serves as my earthquake kit). We’ll see who is pantsless after the big one – not me!
We had a 3.9 last week where I live. It got small note in the paper. Onshore earthquakes are rare in Eastern Canada. We had one offshore last year, too. Strange happenings on Planet Earth.
I never thought of the shower as the worst possible spot to be caught in an earthquake–but the conditioner part convinced me.
Canadian in me (who has experienced one tremor ever) believes being in an earthquake is the worst possible spot.
i’m not a big fan of earthquakes. when i lived in CA as a child i had nightmares.
the news coverage reminds me of when we have snow. we have snow every year, several times a year. we’re known for snow. and yet, it’s always the “BLIZZARD OF ‘O SOMETHING” and people are in the stores stocking up on bread and milk.
loved this post. no one but you could make me wish i lived near an earthquake. (i did get to feel a few one of my last years living in queens right along a fault line.)
I’m so glad I’m not the only person who panics about being the idiot in the shower when disaster strikes. And I still haven’t bought a damn robe.