Shakin in our boots

After all the years of earthquake training in the Utah school system, years of practicing jumping under our desks and standing in door frames in preparation for the big one that's bound to hit someday, I had never experienced a real earthquake. Until today. Brian hadn't either. We'd both felt little tremblings and rumblings, but today we experienced a bonefide certifide quake. A 5.8 to be exact, with an epicenter a couple of hours south of us, and tremblings felt clear through New England. I must say, I'd be perfectly fine if we never "experienced" one again.

I was home on my computer, and my first thought: "WHAT is my upstairs neighbor doing?" But when the shaking got worse, and before long the whole apartment was shaking and shifting, my second thought: "Earthquake, or is DC getting bombed and I'm feeling it?" Either way, I was terrified. When things started falling off the walls and the shaking continued, my thoughts slowed down, and I had to work to not panic. That's when I guess the years of training kicked in. I headed for the pantry door frame, then quickly realized that getting squished by all of our canned corn and beans in the worse case scenario probably wasn't ideal, so I stumbled over the shifting floor to the bathroom door frame. Little did I know, an hour and a half north, Brian was huddled under his desk at work (image = priceless). The shaking felt like it lasted forever (I later heard a report saying up to two minutes). When it ended, I pow-wowed with our neighbors (I did manage to shakily throw on some clothes first, unlike one of my neighbors who was in her cute boy short undies and a t-shirt...I'm telling you...that's how scary the shaking was), stayed a bit at one of their apartments (she was babysitting 5 kids, and was a bit shaken up), and tried to call Brian and family. At first I thought I couldn't get my phone to work because my hands were shaking so bad...then I realized the lines were jammed. 4 hours later, they still are.

Quite the crazy and scary experience. I'd venture to say that between this, and the bear circling our tent last year, I've had my two most frightening experiences ever while living in good ole Virginia! But hey... I guess we've picked up a few more memories and stories to tell, eh? :)

All safe and sound here... and praying for no aftershocks. :) Oh...and Brian got off early, and I've finally stopped shaking so I suppose all is well! :)