OK, so I didn't even know DC had earthquakes.
I was leaving a doctor's appointment when it hit. So when the old elevator in the old building I was in started shaking and swaying I was pretty sure that the elevator had finally snapped a cable. Because the lights indicating the floors and up and down don't work and sometimes the door is kind of persnickety.
Lights are one thing. Swaying on whatever charming old materials they use to pull elevators up and down is entirely another.
Naturally, I started to scream.
Because if I'm going to plummet to my death, my friends, I am not going quietly.
I was still screaming when the doors shimmied open on the ground floor of the building, and people were hurrying out. Feeling slightly foolish but mostly very relieved I stopped shrieking and very casually said to the man I bumped into while sprinting out of aforementioned elevator, "What's going on?"
Earthquake. Holy crap!
It was kind of crazy walking back to my office, because the sidewalks were just teeming with people. Everyone was outside, or on their way.
After 73 million attempts I got through to Betty, who was fine, as was Jordan. She said our house shook like nobody's business. And then I got Nick, who was also fine, and also standing in front of his building. He said that his office furniture jumped up and down and the koi in that nice pond that I wanted to stick my feet into had been sloshing violently up and down in the water.
They probably had little koi heart attacks, poor things.
So anyway, we are fine. But holy crap. Seriously.
Yikes! I had just sat down to watch my guilty-stay-at-home-mom pleasure, The Talk. (only a few minutes while waiting for Jane to get tired, really!) I was concerned as soon as CBS interrupted Sharon O. with a special news bulletin. I immediately called my sis who just moved to Hartford, CT, but she didn't feel anything. So glad to hear everyone's ok!
ReplyDeleteI thought someone was pushing a very heavy cart of office things next to my door. Until it kept going, and I thought I was going to be seasick (who knew, swaying!). Holy crap indeed!!!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you will not go quietly into that good night! Also, I think elevator might be the last place I'd choose to experience an earthquake.
ReplyDeleteI'm so relieved and glad all of you are okay (you, too, Moosie). I didn't know earthquakes were possible in DC, either.
ReplyDeleteWhew! So glad you are okay! Like Alex above, seriously the last place I'd want to be in an earthquake is in an old elevator. Scary!!
ReplyDeleteGlad you're all ok! Wow. My daughter in Providence, RI said they didn't feel it but her friend's dad in Warwick did....
ReplyDeleteElevators and earthquakes. NOT a good combo. I would have shrieked like a banshee too!
I just sat down and read the headlines and then JUMPED to your blog! My heart was racing koi style!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Southern California. We got so used to them that I look back now and think "How Stupid!" Scary Stuff!
Make no apologies for screaming Lisa!
Ya, whats with all the earthquakes at the moment, happening all over the world in all kinds of previously unearthquakey places. Christchurch is still suffering aftershocks nearly 12 months down the track from the Sept 2010 quake. There is strange things afoot on the planet right now, I try hard not to think too much about it to be honest.
ReplyDeleteduuuuudddde- in mah office on the 51st floor up here in ye olde philadelphia, it totes felt airplane turbulence. just. like. that. veerrrry disconcerting when seated at a desk in a cube...and i'm, what, 300 miles away? i can. not. imagine how frightened you must have been! i hope you at least got to go home early; most big buildings were evacuated voultarily, but my office? second tallest building? nah, let's stay and finish out the day.
ReplyDeleteso glad y'all are alright!!! hugs!
Glad you're safe...
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was some freaky shit today. Glad you're OK. I totally agree with the whole not going quietly thing. Gonna be a lot of twitchy people at the office tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteGlad everyone is OK. I can't imagine how scary that must be! I'll take the threat of hurricanes down here in S. Florida ANY.DAY. over an earthquake. At least hurricanes you can plan for!
ReplyDeleteHug Jordan and Nick and Betty extra tight!
You win the award for creepiest place to be when the quake hit! Glad the cables held and you are ok!
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear you are okay! Earthquakes are not much fun to be a part of.
ReplyDeleteHaving lived just about everywhere I have to tell you my scary earthquake moment came at about three in the morning just after the Big One hit in California. It traveled up the fault line, all the way across the coast of Alaska. My family was stationed out at Adak and our house shook like a Mother-Father (trying to be careful with the language here).
I have never been so scared in my entire life as I was when I was thrown from my little twin bed, listening to the pre-fab house the Navy put us in shake and groan, scream and shriek on top of my parents yelling at us to get to the doorways! Cover your heads!
At least I didn't have a small child at the time, because that would have left me breathless.
Here's to extra love and good snuggles to you all!
Everyone's already said this, but I'm so glad you're all okay!
ReplyDeleteI experienced a couple earthquakes when I lived in California, and I never got over that half-excited, half-terrified-because-OMG-the-earth-itself-is-moving kind of feeling. It was weird.
Hey, that screaming is okay. Maybe it was your life force insisting on being heard!
I had a friend who was in the middle of an OB/GYN exam. Now THAT had to be awkward.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're okay. An elevator is the absolute last place I'd ever want to be in such a situation. It's my nightmare, actually.