I’m super sensitive to earthquakes – my mom calls me a Human Earthquake Detector.

Today’s earthquake – a few of us were playing Skip-bo at the dining room table and I started to feel like I was on a boat.  For a second I thought it was just a short spell of vertigo (yeah – I have those often).  Then I heard it.  Yes, heard it.  I’ve been known to hear them before I feel them.  Weird.  I know.  Anyway, EmaLee was opening the door for Liz and Jorge and I said, before I thought about it, “Um, we’re having an earthquake.”  Em just kinda looked at me for a second and then Berna said, “Yeah, we are.”  And then it seemed to stop.  I could still hear it though so I knew it wasn’t over.  I told everyone that it was still going and was going to get worse.  EmaLee grabbed BrinLee and said to grab Erek so I grabbed him and we headed outside.  The neighbors down the street came out and we all just kinda stood there until it stopped.  It seemed to go on forever.

The last one, before this one, that I remember feeling was at my last job.  I was sitting in my office and Kyle was sitting across my desk from me and we were talking about something.  He was talking and I totally interupted him and said, “We’re having an earthquake.”  I had felt a small rolling one coming from the southeast and heard it go on past us but knew there was more coming right behind it.  He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “What?  No way.”  Then the second piece of it hit.  He believed me after that.

I remember one when I had just moved back from college.  I was living with my parents and woke up in the middle of the night for no real apparent reason.  And then I heard it.  I got up and got in my doorway and then the house really started moving.  My dad was awake and called out, “Anyone else feeling this?”  I said that I had and was standing in my doorway and him and my mom started laughing.  “I knew you’d be up,” he said.

The first memory I have of earthquakes was shortly after we moved here from Utah.  I was on the top bunk in the downstairs bedroom and woke up, again for no apparent reason.  I remember looking at my alarm clock and seeing that it said 9:54pm.  I rolled over to go back to sleep and as I was rolling I was almost pitched off the bed.  I had to grab a hold of the blankets to keep from falling off.  Thank goodness for hospital corners.

I suppose it could be a blessing.  It could be a curse.  Whatever the case, I’m still not a fan of earthquakes.