On Shaky Ground

I'm sure by now you've heard that an earthquake rippled its way up the East Coast yesterday, starting in Virginia with effects felt as far north as Montreal. As you are probably aware, it's not often that we deal with earthquakes in this part of the country. Unlike some of my friends who grew up in California, I've never even thought about an earthquake drill, much less participated in one.

Yesterday afternoon I was typing away on my computer like the diligent worker bee that I am when I thought I noticed my desk moving. My very first thought? "Wow. My blood sugar must be really low right now."

Last summer Boston caught a shock wave (I know so little about earthquakes I'm not even positive I'm using the correct verbiage) that came down from an earthquake in Canada. I happened to be sitting at my desk during that one as well, watched my desk wiggle for the tiniest moment. I shook my head, looked it up online to confirm I wasn't going crazy, and then went back to work. Yesterday, while I was still busy thinking about how I hadn't eaten enough at lunch, the murmurs around my desk started quietly. "Does anyone else feel that?" asked a girl a few feet away from me. "Yeah, I do," said the guy next to her. "You're not going crazy." Soon, everyone in our work area was standing in their cubicles or coming out of their offices, looking at each other in slight bewilderment. The whole thing felt like it lasted a good three minutes, though in reality it was probably more like 45 seconds. Still. An earthquake! In Boston!

I'm grateful no one was injured and if nothing else it brought a little excitement into another ordinary Tuesday. I'm also particularly thankful that when we first felt the tremors my immediate thought was not a terrorist attack. In some small, tiny way, this feels like a victory of sorts. They are not winning. I suppose it was a stereotypical female reaction to think it was my problem, my low blood sugar, versus the ground below us moving, but then again, you haven't seen me when I'm really, really hungry.

At this stage in the game I'm beginning to feel a bit like a veteran in all this, for this is my third earthquake in 31 years. I slept through my first one, while out in San Francisco in 1998, there was the one last summer, and now this one. For a non California-dwelling girl I like to think that's a pretty good record. But let's just keep these East Coast earthquakes small, okay planet Earth? You give us enough trouble in the winter with your crazy Nor'easters anyway.