Yesterday, from Maine to South Carolina, folks felt the strongest recorded earthquake to hit the east coast in 67 years. People are talking about it, because of course, it’s so notable. We rarely experience earthquakes here. Schools were evacuated, buildings swayed and shook, floors rattled and moved.
I felt nothing.
And quite honestly, I feel a little gypped.
Somewhere between leaving the faculty and staff luncheon at my university in the gymnasium and walking back over to the theatre for the afternoon meeting I was to attend, I missed it.
Completely.
My friend and colleague Romas said to me when I made my way to the room, “Stephanie, did you feel that?”
“What?” I asked.
“The building shook. Didn’t you feel it? I think we just had an earthquake.”
“Yeah, right,” I said. He’s a good kidder, so I thought maybe he was pulling my leg.
I knew he wasn’t when other professors chimed in with their own reports.
“Yes…it was a little scary,” they said.
When my cellular wasn’t getting service, it caused me to pause, and I thought maybe, just maybe, we did have an earthquake. Romas wasn’t joking.
At that point, I was getting a little peeved. How could I have been on campus and not felt anything? I wanted to be able to say to people, “Oh my gosh! It was crazy…I was (here) when it happened.” It was one of those moments to remember. And I won’t be able to join in the discussions.
Because I don’t know where the hell I was. I can’t believe I missed it.
My kids were with my husband’s parents in Delaware. They all felt it. My husband was on the 4th floor of his office building in Rockville. He felt it and was evacuated. My mother and father were in their garage, things rattling off the walls in Arnold, neighbors running out of their houses. They felt it. My sister-in-law had her youngest child on the potty at Trader Joe’s. They felt it. My colleagues were in the Stevenson theatre waiting for a meeting to begin. They felt it. My friend Jenny was in Justice in the mall. She felt it, and everyone in the mall headed for the exits. Such great stories…
This blog post would have been so much different if I’d actually experienced it.
But I didn’t.
Therefore, I need your stories to fill in the gaps for me. Go ahead. Comment below. Make me feel worse about missing it than I already do.
Because, my friends, as a storyteller, it pains me that I have no story to tell. Let’s face it—there isn’t much of a story in not experiencing a record-setting earthquake.
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