WILW - Earthquake Edition

Something different - and late - for WILW; but I am loving, and very grateful, for the fact that all of my friends and family are safe, and that no one on the East Coast suffered any losses from the earthquake.

I was taking a nap when the earthquake rumbled in yesterday, and at first, still groggy and sleep deprived from the fever that had kept me up the night before, thought that the workers next door had hit an underground line or done something to our house's foundation.

It didn't make much sense, but neither did the fact the ceiling fan was swaying; the crystals on the awaiting-a-makeover chandelier down the hall were pinging; and I could hear objects falling from the open shelves in Owen's room.

As I ran from my room it began to sink in that this was an earthquake and I tried to remember what to do - stand under a door frame, hide in a corner, curl up in the bath tub?

By the time I made it downstairs the house was once again still and I skidded into the kitchen to see my dad and Owen sitting calmly on the deck.

Me, panting slightly: "Dad, I think we just had an earthquake!"

"I thought the deck was swaying" he calmly replied. "These flowers were shaking" added Owen, equally unfazed. I suppose being inside during an earthquake, surrounded by the sound and visual evidence of household items moving, makes the impact greater.

Checking facebook quickly confirmed the event as friends up and down the East Coast posted. I checked in with Cearra, and texted Bob; turned the TV on to find news coverage on almost every channel. My breathing returned to normal and I straightened the picture frames. Quite an experience.

And then today, this:

"5.9? That's what us Californians use to stir our coffee with."

"Really all this excitement over a 5.8 quake??? Come on East Coast, we have those for breakfast out here!!!!"

"Hey East Coast, the entire West Coast is mocking you right now."

Wow. You're mocking us?

I realize that you West Coast folks have to possess a certain bravado about quakes to live in a place where each day could bring "the big one". If you've lived there for any amount of time you've most likely been through a quake, and yes, it probably registered higher on the Richter scale than our little old 5.9'er.

But here's the thing ... we don't really do earthquakes (despite the fact that we too perch above some pretty hefty fault lines) and yeah, it was scary. We don't have "duck and cover" drills in school, as evidenced by my choice to run around upstairs in my t-shirt and by the hundreds of city dwellers who ran outside. And really, I'm pretty sure that no one - not even you Mr. California - stays completely cool when the floors start to move.

I want you to remember this too: almost 10 years ago, we were rocked by something far worse than any earthquake you've ever seen. We huddled in conference rooms and classrooms and family rooms as smoke billowed from those twin towers that were so close to so many of us. We screamed as they fell. We desperately tried to reach loved ones and friends who worked in D.C., and we cried as that plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field right up the road. We scanned the sky and wondered what would be hit next - and how close it would be.

Of course Sept. 11 was devastating for all Americans, but we were right here. And as NBC News' Pentagon corespondent Jim Miklaszewski said yesterday, the rumbling was eerily similar to the impact on that day. "I, like many other people here, thought: 'Oh my God, we've been hit again.'"

So please don't mock us. Instead, join us in celebrating that "our" earthquake didn't cause destruction and death, and be gentle with those of us who can never forget the emotions of the other day that rocked the world.