quakers

To be honest, I had been muddling about for a topic for today's post.

However, in the middle of a longish afternoon at work yesterday (mostly thanks to my stuffy, sinus-ridden head), I had a flash of brilliance. Well, more like a quake of brilliance. Wait, was I quaking with brilliance?

Wondering if indeed I had become a Quaker, I soon realized that I was simply experiencing my first earthquake.

Yes, that's right, I'm an East Coaster and yesterday I lived through the Great DC Earthquake of 2011.

It was rather anti-climatic, nothing like the movies where pictures tumble, bookshelves snap, and buildings crumble. In fact, my first thought upon feeling the quaking and hearing the metal stands in my bookshelf rattle was "Gee, our mailguy has a heavy cart of mail today."

When the shaking continued for another few seconds, I thought "Oh, perhaps it's construction."

And then the shaking got harder, and I decided that this might be what an earthquake felt like. Of course, I then realized that I don't really know what to do during an earthquake. So naturally, I thought "Well, earthquakes make buildings fall over. So I should probably leave the building."

Many of my fellow East Coast co-workers had the same thought, so we stepped outside to enjoy the sunshine for a few minutes. That is, until one of the big bosses arrived with a strange stare: "Why are you all out here?" So we adjourned our brief sunshine escapade.

I returned to my office to discover that my little office companions hadn't even moved.

So much for a shattering earthquake story. It was more like 12 seconds of one of those "Jiggle off your fat!" chairs.