So everyday at work, I give this 'talk' or 'orientation' about the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake 'that devastated not only Alaska (indeed economically, environmentally, and emotionally) but really a significant amount of the Western Seaboard.' [Thank you thank you, I do make these things up all by myself. I sometimes like to talk pretty]. Every. Single. Day.
Anywho. I inevitably get the question- 'Are there a lot of Earthquakes still?' I inevitably answer- 'Yes, of course. They literally happen all the time. But most are so small you'll never even notice.' I'm not lying. They do happen all the time. It plays out a little like sudden onset vertigo if you can even feel one... but for the most part you just don't notice.
Until last night.
I wake up at 3:30ish in the morning wondering why on earth it feels like I am suddenly on a boat. There I was, all tucked into bed and happily snoozing away and then I am inexplicably pitching and rolling. Oh that's right. Earthquakes. Alaska. Plate boundaries and movement. Gotcha, I'm on it.
Alas, there is not such an amazing end to this story. The house jerked a bit. The land shook a bit. I turned onto my belly and went back to sleep. I hit the 'post-earthquake snooze button' in my brain and returned to dream land. I actually even kind of forgot about it a little. Seriously. I only remembered an hour into iPad Accessibility Training and texted my parents to say 'hey- by the by- had an earthquake last night.' They then related the news to my dear brother. And from him (via text message) I received the following response of concern: 'is it just like i have imagined terror everywhere and people running around with towels on their heads.' Grammatical errors notwithstanding, I got a hearty chuckle out of that one.
I literally went back to bed.
I think he was a little disappointed in my earth quaking story. So for him I give you Moving and Grooving China Style.
The first earthquake I experienced was indeed in the Chengdu, China, back in the day. I probably did not blog about it. I know I did not tell my parents about it for fear that they would fly overseas and bodily remove me from my (at the time current) situation.
Standing in front of open windows, on the sixth floor of a shoddily-built Chinese apartment complex, the building started moving. This is, in essence, a HOLY SHIT I'M GOING TO DIE kind of moment. It is one thing to be in an earthquake. It is another thing to be in an earthquake in China (see afore-mentioned shoddily built apartment complex comment). Their infrastructure is not exactly equipped... well for anything, really... but certainly not for major disasters. And the fact that my building was literally swaying like a lovely bit of wheat in a windy field was less than comforting. Less than comforting enough to have my life pass before my bespectacled eyes. I called Pat afterward and yelled into the phone 'DID YOU FEEL THAT?!?!?!'
His response was, of course, 'Yeah. That was nothing.'
So there you have it. The good, the bad, the Alaskan, the Chinese, the responses of men in my life to my earthquake responses. Hopefully the second was a better story for the masses.
The Earth, she shakes.
Until next time... you should probably google quakes in China. It's only marginally depressing ;).
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