Shake, Rattle and Roll

All I can say is what a week! I didn’t think that at my age, I would still be experiencing many “firsts”. At this point, I pretty much have had the mantra of “been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.”

Growing up in the Northeast, I am used to enjoying the beauty that the four seasons brings us each year. With each season comes potential weather issues such as blizzards, occasional tornado warnings, heat waves, etc. Well, this past Tuesday I was able to add tremor from earthquake to that list. I honestly never thought I’d feel an earthquake as long as I kept my feet on northeastern soil. I figured that was a “west coast” issue and one that I wouldn’t have to experience as long as I kept this body on this coast.

I was at work on the 32nd floor of a high-rise in Midtown Manhattan when all of a sudden I felt my chair and my feet moving up and down. For a moment I thought it was just me and I jumped up. I felt dizzy and thought I was sick or something. I sat down again and still felt it and very quickly sought out some other people who said they felt it too. At first, no one knew what to do. I grabbed my sneakers, my purse and cell phone and headed to the reception area. The Fire Marshall for the building made an announcement that they were “investigating the cause”. In the meantime, our cell phones were erupting with texts and social media sites were already telling us about the earthquake. We evacuated our office and were then sent home for the day which was another challenge in itself because my bus broke down on the way. At last, I made it home and just hugged my family for a while, just being grateful that it wasn’t something m ore serious.

I must say I was really annoyed by a few “friends” on facebook who were really putting us down over the quake. I know many people have made a big joke over this (and find it ironic that the majority of them were no where near NYC on 9/11), but to those of us who live and work in the NY area, especially with the 9/11 anniversary just weeks away, any hint of an emergency just fuels us to GET OUT! So, I make no apologies for evacuating at the first hint of a tremor and, if that’s amusing to you, well let’s see how well you fare if you were literally sitting in a high rise with the floor moving underneath YOU! Thanks to the many of you who sent me sincere texts and facebook comments concerned about my safety…I truly love you and value you!