5.4

So we had this rather large Earthquake yesterday. 5.4
The feeling was unreal and the feelings after it have been even crazier. I'm now on "Earthquake Watch". The whole episode lasted only 10 seconds, but the mortality that Mother Nature presented is lasting a hell of a lot longer.

Here's what happened. No worries. I'm not going into this big dramatic drama! It was everything that happened after the quake that was interesting.

I felt this slight rumble that felt like a train was passing by the building. Then a big jolt and lots of rolling and shaking. Things started to fall off of my desk. I ducked under my desk and held on. The ceiling lights were swinging and I just closed my eyes.

After it was over, our CEO was running through the office telling everyone to get out. Now, I wasn't exactly sure why. I know, it would seem rather obvious why but I was just in a daze. I grabbed my purse, my fallen pictures of the kids and left. EVERYONE was on their cell phones, but no one was getting through to anyone. I guess that this is very common after a quake, so to my family and friends: if you can't reach us right away, don't panic! Anyways, I was trying to call Ryan. I couldn't get a call through, but I was able to text him. It didn't occur to me right away to check on the kids. Again, I know! This would seem obvious to anyone, right? But I was dazed! My body still felt like it was shaking and for some reason I was just standing outside waiting for the ground to go into convulsions or something. So after sometime outside, my co worker and I left to go pick up the lunch that we ordered right before the quake hit.

We went and got our tacos (it was the weekly "Taco Tuesday" in our area!). The joint was empty, which was odd, but I figure that since the quake hit at lunch time, everyone was busy dealing with it. We grabbed our food and walked back to the car. I saw this couple staring out towards the hills. What are they looking at? I looked and didn't see anything. But then this huge German Shepard dog comes racing towards the restaurant. "Get in the car! Get in the car!" My co worker looked at me funny and then I screamed, "There's a dooooooog!". This dog was running full speed and barking. It looked like he was chasing something but there wasn't anything running from it. We jumped in the car and watched the dog pass right by us and run right into the busy street. "Don't look! DON'T LOOK!". We looked at each other for a few seconds and then back to the street that the dog ran across. Thank God the dog wasn't hit. That would have been one image that I would have had a hard time getting out of my head. When we left, we didn't see the dog at all. I don't know where the heck it went and I was confused that I couldn't see it. Man, that dog was spooked. Everyone says that animals sense natural disasters, and that dog was sensing something.

That was the main thing that spooked me out for the rest of the day - The dog chasing nothing. I've never seen an animal so spooked and I felt like someone was trying to show me something or tell me something. I took that sign seriously.

It was hard trying to make it through the rest of the day. Any little rattle that I heard sent my heart racing. Someone that was walking past my cube wall bumped it and I almost pissed myself. Taking phone calls was impossible. I couldn't talk.

Ryan didn't feel the quake like I did. To him, it was just some shaking in his chair and he saw a few co workers getting under their desks. By the time he realized what was going on, it was over. He called later with the news that the trains have been shut down since they were inspecting the tracks. I would need to drive to Burbank to pick him up and get the kids from school. Fine with me! I left work to get the kids.

Aislynn and Tyler thought completely different things of the Quake. Aislynn was scared. In her own words: There was a monster banging on the windows. I got scared and went under the table! Tyler: That was AWESOME! Teacher said that the Earth moved!

Once home, I was able to check out our place which seemed untouched. We have stacks and stacks of boxes all over (we're moving on Thursday!). It didn't occur to me that they could have toppled over and flattened my dog. Thank Heavens that nothing happened. Nothing fell of any shelves.

It was the only thing that the news stations covered. The kinda cool thing was that they were showing footage of shows that were taping when the quake hit: People's Court, Big Brother, and a couple other ones. The People's Court was amusing. You could totally tell that the plaintiff and the defendant weren't from Earthquake Country. They just stood there as the whole room started shaking and while everyone else started running out of the studio.

So that's my "aftershock". I'm still on edge and I'm sure that I'll have another day of waiting for the shakes and the jolts. Anyone got a Valium?