Holy Crap

Last night, something not that unusual for the Bay Area happened: we had an earthquake. We live on a fault line, so that's really not that unexpected. Apparently, there are earthquakes practically every day; it's just rare (every few months or so) that one is big enough that you actually feel it.

So here's why last night's earthquake freaks me out:

A) It's the second one I've felt in a little more than a week.

B) It was pretty big.

Now, it wasn't huge. No one was injured, and there was no major property damage reported. But it lasted longer than any earthquake I've felt yet--a good 15 seconds, while most just last a second or two--and it was strong enough that it actually knocked a picture off my wall.

I know earthquakes aren't like hurricanes or blizzards. It's not like you can see them coming. It's not like there are signs that one is approaching. I know that more frequent small earthquakes does not necessarily mean that a big one is coming. But it still gave me pause. Because a big one is coming, eventually. We all know that. And I just hope to hell I'm either not here, or ready, when it does.

I had a friend who was the earthquake safety manager (or some such title--I don't quite remember) for her floor at work. She had a big checklist of necessary supplies that she had to make sure they had in case the big one hit. One of the supplies was giant-sized industrial strength garbage bags. When I asked her what those were for, she told me they were for wrapping up dead bodies so they wouldn't rot in the open and contaminate the air. Shit. I'm not even kidding about that.

Hey Carrie, want to send me that list of earthquake supplies? Might be time to stock up. And I can't tell you how much I'm kicking myself for never watching the earthquake safety video that was a permanent part of my first apartment in Oakland--it was the only video in the whole apartment and had been for years. And not a single one of us watched the damn thing.