and then we had an earthquake!
my office is on the 11th floor so we felt plenty of shaking and swaying, though for some reason i was convinced it was because a semi truck had driven into the side of the building. which might explain why, when everyone else rushed to take shelter under doorways and desks, i rushed to the window.
i am sorry to say that i have no explanation for why my first theory was that a semi had driven into the side of our building, except that i didn't know they had earthquakes in virginia. though why i thought a semi driving into the side of the building with a secure perimeter was any more likely than an earthquake in virginia (i mean, they seem equally improbable) remains a mystery, but i propose that we just move on from this particular line of discussion.
(sidenote: this is, in fact, not the first time i have had a mix-up like this. when i was on my mission in japan there was a pretty big earthquake in the middle of the night one night. my companion woke up all scared and i told her that i was 100 percent positive it was just a semi driving by and there was no need to worry. i fell back to sleep instantly, she was up all night worrying and when we walked out onto the street the next morning and saw broken windows and damaged buildings everywhere, i realized my semi truck theory had been mistaken. and i felt sort of bad. but only sort of.)
since i didn't even register what had happened until after it was over, i pretty much skipped the panic part. which was good i guess, given my propensity to overreact to things.
so, we evacuated (luckily i had it together enough to grab my diet coke), sat outside reading people's hilarious twitter updates about the quake and its aftermath, went back inside when we got the all-clear and then went home.
the traffic was awful.
some of my co-workers had lots of broken dishes and cracked walls, but we escaped with a few crooked pictures (still hanging) and nothing else.
a little anti-climactic in the end, but i guess that is the best kind of earthquake.
and now i am off to bed, hopefully for a semi and quake free sleep.
2 comments:
I'd like to know the obsession with semis :) I read this whole post out loud to Evan, we laughed so hard, sometimes so I couldn't keep reading. Then he told me when he heard the Oklahoma City Bombing, he thought it was an oil drum rolling down the parking lot. :) So funny. Glad you are all okay.
You are sooo funny and what a funny story.
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