the shake

just last week, a 7 year old called me up from north carolina to ask me if i'd ever experienced an earth quake. she had just finished reading a book on shakers, and her mom (pictured here) told her daughter that a good friend of hers lived in sf. looking for facts, they decided to get me on the phone.

i told her what i remembered of the last few quakes, and admitted we hadn't had one in a long time. since last night's quake is still fresh in my memory, i thought i'd describe it for her here:


i was cooking dinner, stirring sauce in a pan on the stove, and david was nearby on my left. i heard a rumbling that persisted, and for a moment i thought it was someone moving the garbage bins a story below our kitchen window. i said, "that's an earthquake" and the rumbling became shaking--back and forth. we have big bay windows in our home, and i knew we didn't want to be near them, but i didn't know what to do--this was the first quake we'd experienced in our new home. so i said, "i don't know what to do" and started walking out of the kitchen. thankfully, david is ever the calm one in situations such as these, and he grabbed me and held me close as we stood under the kitchen entrance while our home rocked back and forth. it lasted for about 15 seconds or so, which is a pretty long time. nothing fell off our counters, nothing broke, just some shaking, that's all. and the only one who was pretty freaked out was our kitty, who dashed from her perch on the sofa to hide in our bedroom.