Did You Feel It???

At approximately 4:42am this morning, an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 rocked the Bay.

And I know this because I've been up on a coffee high unable to sleep and felt it myself. (damn those small cups at IHOP...makes you want to keep refilling...)

Because I wanted to make sure that what I felt was, indeed, an earthquake, I quickly went online. I checked out the USGS site and within a few minutes, there it was. As I scanned the info on the magnitude and epicenter, etc, I noticed a "Did You Feel It?" link. It basically asks your location by zip code, what you observed, was there any damage, and so on...after I clicked to submit my info, it lists other responses. There were 1,318! Holy smokes! These reports hailed from all over the Bay Area...and as I write this, it's now jumped to 2,293! Wowzers...that many people were up?

I'll tell you one thing. Last night, I had this inkling of a feeling that an earthquake would hit.

Although the earthquake itself was over within a second or two, it didn't stop my heart from beginning to race. I didn't even have time to react! You tend to HEAR an earthquake before it happens and when I heard it, my stomach tightened up really quick. Even though I continued to sit in my computer chair, my body tensed and I braced myself for more. A huge part of me dreaded its continuation, but thankfully, it didn't. I know that my eyes darted to shoes 'cuz if it called for it, I'd have them on in a flash. That stems from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake...I was really paranoid with all of the aftershocks that I kept my shoes at the foot of my bed. If I had to quickly get out of the house for whatever reason, at least I'd have some shoes on.

It's funny because when I first moved to Minnesota and experienced the tornado siren warnings, I always spouted that I'd rather go through an earthquake vs a tornado any day. I still stick to that. But I honestly think that whenever an earthquake hits, just like this morning, my heart will race as it did in 1989. In fact, the tightness in my stomach is still there! Even though it's over, there's a jumpiness that remains. It'll eventually go away...but still.

Then of course, y'know what we'll see in the news today...that is, if it makes it in at all? It'll be all over the "we're due for a big one!" story. Happens all the time...

If IT happens, it happens. I'd like to think that we are all better prepared in one way or another. Will it be scary? Probably. Will MnM freak out? Hopefully not...I'd like to think I'd keep my cool.

But geez...can it at least wait until AFTER the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows???