Breaking News: Earthquake?

So, THAT happened.  And now that my blood pressure has come down to acceptable levels I can admit – that was SCARY.  I fully recognize that the earthquake was minor in the greater scheme of things, but still…

When the cieling, walls and floor started shaking this is what I considered were the possible causes:

My first thought was that a gorilla was running above my office.  As the tremor got stronger and the walls started moving, I thought, terrorist attack with the plane landing nearby. As improbable as those two options seem, that still seemed more probable than an earthquake.  There is a large amount of construction nearby since they’re building a new metro so the only other imaginable possibility was that something exploded in a major way.  I didn’t even contemplate the possibility of an earthquake until a coworker yelled, “Earthquake!”  By this point my flight response had kicked in and I was standing in the doorway of my office with my purse and phone in hand poised to sprint down the 3 flights of stairs. My plan was to cross the street to 7-11 because if the world was ending, my best bet for survival was near a 7-11 with all of it’s non-perishable beef jerky and water bottles.

Charlie called me as I was sprinting down the stairwell of the office building (the construction of which I have no faith in) and I informed him that I was exiting the building in the direction of 7-11.   He had felt it too! And he was okay!!  The streets and sidewalks started to fill up with people from inside the nearby office buildings and my thoughts went to Coco at home all alone and scared with picture frames falling off the wall.

You could see there was some drywall damage upon reentry to my office, and so I got permission to work the rest of the day from home. When I got home all was well, and it turned out the earthquakes biggest toll was on my adrenaline supply. Coco was fine.

And the house was fine.

So yeah, earthquakes can happen in DC. Good to know. If we’re going to endure earthquakes in addition to blizzards, I propose we move the nation’s capital to Malibu.