My First California Earthquake

Today at 11:42 a.m. I was sitting behind the receptionist's desk at work. The receptionist was on her lunch break and I was scheduled to cover for another 15 minutes. I was staring absently out the front door, through the glass, at all the cars backed up on 9th street. Then, I saw the walls start to shake. I thought "is there a really big truck coming down the street?" A second later I thought, "no, no way, that is too long and too strong for a truck to do that, I think it's an earthquake." I felt the earth beneath me shake and considered for a moment getting under the desk, but it was already getting softer, so I figured I was fine just sitting where I was and enjoying my little ride. It all lasted about twenty seconds. Afterwards I felt like you do after you get off a roller coaster-granted, not so extreme- when you feel like you are still moving around on the ride.

I looked at the other room where the other case manager was meeting with a homeless man. They had both stood up and were talking excitedly. The homeless man was asking what our address was because he had never felt an earthquake before (they are harder to feel when you sleep outside all the time, I guess the building shaking is the biggest giveaway) and he wanted to remember where he was when he felt his first earthquake. Afterwards everyone kept asking if we were all okay. Robert called my desk phone to check on me (oops, I hadn't even considered calling anyone. Umm, I wanted to keep the phone lines open for emergencies. That's right, yeah, keeping the phone lines open) and I told him I was fine.

It really didn't even feel like much of a shaking. The people who walked in the front doors minutes later had no idea there even was an earthquake, and from the looks of it, neither did all the people who were stuck in traffic in front of our building. But it was still cool to feel the earth shaking like that, weird, almost unnatural. The earth just is suppose to do that.

Robert's Reaction: "It was an interesting experience. The building shook a little and then started swaying back and forth and all the window shades started banging against the window. The event seems rather fun thinking about it now but in the brief moment that it occurred I was a little scared."