So there I was in the office at 1:59 pm...

[akujunkan]

...and I'm like, "Oh, hey, earthquake," because the building was suddenly moving at 25 degree angles to the perpendicular, so I got up and walked to the nearest doorway and stood in it.

Meanwhile, everyone else in the office was screaming and running around and/or trying to keep stuff from falling off their desks. I told them, "What are you doing? Go find a doorway and stand in it." Which they did, until the quake stopped and the aftershocks stopped.

Then people were panicking because they couldn't get their phones to work, and the Boss Lady was like, "But how will we find out what happened? There's nothing on the Washington Post site." So I said, "Can I see your computer for a minute?" and then pulled up the U.S. Geological Survey website and there was a nice big red box right over us on the map of seismic activity in the past hour.

So we watched people evacuate from the Pentagon until we could be reasonably sure there wasn't going to be another big aftershock, and then we went outside (after I put the nix on the elevator).

We took birthday cake down to the channel and sat around outside for an hour. Boss Lady even thanked me for keeping my cool. I told her I'd been in a lot of earthquakes in Japan and then wowed everyone by guessing the magnitude within 0.5 degrees' accuracy.

Aside from slight to moderate damage to a bunch of federal buildings and some metro line in the suburbs, I think everything is okay. Here's hoping they don't discover we're on some heretofore unknown fault line.

That will be all.

Comments

[dark-waterlily.livejournal.com]

First you are fine, everything is fine, good to read that.
Second:
and then wowed everyone by guessing the magnitude within 0.5 degrees' accuracy.
They weren't the only ones... see my open mouth "O"

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Thank you:-) (And honestly, I guessed, based on the quakes I was in Japan--I was surprised I got that close too. (But shhh, don't tell!)

[reppu.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking, Japan prepared us well for earthquakes. No shocks for us! Good on you for not losing it, though I do wonder how you handled your very first earthquake. I stared at my toaster oven as it almost fell off of microwave, which almost fell off of my fridge. It was nearly magical, then I was like, oh shit, earthquake!

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

I'll say it did, and I'm thankful for it! I was only five years old for my first quake experience--ma mere rushed my sister and I into a convenience store (we'd been in a car) and I remember telling her some very bad kids had been in there because they'd thrown all the snacks, etc. onto the floor. And that's how I found out about earthquakes;-)

[metal-dog5.livejournal.com]

Heya :) good to see you posting (pls excuse random typos - doing this on my ph)
All that time in japan paid off ;). Will post better comment later - fingers crossed for it to happen today.... Remember hoe I said things were going to ease up workwise? Fates heard me & LOL'd. Hard.

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

Ha, I keep reading that earthquakes are rare in the east coast? XD