It's a bomb! A plane! No, it's an earthquake! Really?!

By now everyone has their own glossy version of where they were when they felt the 5.9 quake that shook the East Coast yesterday afternoon  The scene that unfolded in Capitol Hill, as people poured out of buildings, was the epitome of what would unfold before our eyes in a potentially disastrous situation.

Uff! That was close!  We Washingtonians got the scare of our lives being so close to the 9/11 Anniversary.   
But people in California scoffed at our reactions.  Their attitudes infuriated many here.  Because Southern Californians live with it everyday doesn't make it less fearful for some of us who don't live with it EVERYDAY, until now.  But hey, now we can say to those sultry Californians with un-prudish pride to shove their rugged attitudes up where the sun doesn't shine, because it turns out that we Washingtonians are sitting on a sparky tectonic plate, that for all we know has just begun to shift.  And of course, we can't dismiss New Yorkers' reactions, having experienced 9/11 so deeply those wounds are still fresh.
 
When I got home Emilu was sleeping soundly in my mother in-law's lap.  The only casualty I found was this wooden toy broken in two pieces.  It was sitting on the top shelf of her nursery wall.

 
And then it hit me:  How lucky we were yesterday.  We are home safe.