the obligatory earthquake post

Yes Dad, Mom, Ricky, Bev and other concerned friends, we are in fact a-okay.

We said when we moved out here that we secretly (or not so secretly) wanted to experience an earthquake sometime during our lives here in CA, and now as of yesterday, we have!

I'm not sure I can accurately describe the experience. I was sitting in lecture, trying to stay tuned in to the professor but with a little more than 2.5 hours of class down and 15 minutes left in class I had already somewhat checked out for the day...my mind had drifted to the delicious Chick-fil-a feast I would be enjoying for dinner. Then my third floor lecture room began to shake. It was something like being on a boat that was rocking back and forth being tossed by waves from a great storm....or similar to if you were sitting in a small car and bullies came up and started leaning and pushing your car around with you locked inside being jostled about. The room shook pretty hard, it was surreal. The room continued to shake but to a lesser degree, really it was bizarre. Then the floor just had a few spasms of tremors and then it was finished.

During the minute or so the earthquake shook us some people in my classroom panicked and wanted everyone under the desk, but i was too intrigued to hide. Some guys in Mikey's class provided him some comic relief as his two neighbors both went to get under the desk only to find out both would not be able to fit and began to laugh heartily. This was the moment/experience we had been "waiting" for in our California existence...

...we were released from class and went home, hoping for no aftershocks and ready to look up where it had happened (about 25 miles away) and how big it was (about a 5.8).

I don't think I would want to experience one much larger than this. This was big enough to be felt and to be a little unsettled for the time being but small enough to not do serious harm or damage here. It is weird to have the one thing that has always been stable (the ground I walk on) be the thing that was shaking and moving everything resting upon it. Where do you go for stability? no where Where can you hide to get away from the movement? you cannot. Unlike other natural "disasters" or phenomenas rather earthquakes have no warnings. There is no path that one can look at and see it is coming, no time for evacuation; one minute your world is still and stable and the next minute your world is shaking.

Truly and interesting experience.

Now a therapeutic thought: Many of the Californians around here did a relatively good job of invalidating my experience. If there is something I have learned from working with my clients, it is being able to listen, hear them and validate what their experience has been. Our experience is our own, based off of what has happened in our past and what we know; they are unique to as all. I was greeted by the locals with statements like "What's the big deal?" "Talk to me when it's at least a 6.1" "I cannot believe people are actually talking about this earthquake" "People need to just relax and realize this was nothing". It was as though I was silly for seeing, feeling and thinking as I did about what had just happened. Some were gracious about it and I can see where the others are coming from. People do use the term "surviving an earthquake" and that is a phrase that is understandable when the earthquakes are large and destructive. Yesterday, we in no way "survived" an earthquake, it was too small to be something needing to be survived; we did in fact experience one. I am thankful to have had other "transplants" here to talk about this with to get some validation.

...so next time it rains here and people think it is flooding (by flooding they mean something a little harder than a drizzle) I need to remember that this is their experience.

...but next time it hails and they say "IT'S SNOWING"....i might have to listen and somewhat invalidate their experience.