Is That an Earthquake, He Says

Have you ever been in an earthquake?

Me, and earthquakes, we go way back. To my infancy.

I was born in the San Fernando Valley, where we lived until I was a toddler. I was 3 days shy of being 2 months old when the "Sylmar Quake" hit.

Earthquakes have a lot of different effects on people. After that quake, my father doesn't sleep naked anymore.

Because when that 6.6 hit, he ran to get me out of my crib. And ran out into the street.

Naked.

Incidentally, he left my mother behind to get her own self out of the apartment complex, but she can scream louder than any earth rumbling, and has, and she wasn't injured in the quake at all.

When I was 2 1/2, we moved to Seattle, where my Dad got his Masters at UW and it rained, but we didn't fear tsunamis and figured Rainier was dormant. When I was 5, we moved to San Diego, where life is good, right? Away from the San Andreas fault, more blue skies than gray, I mean, what happens in San Diego besides that groovy, Southern California sunshine-y living?

I was 39 when the 7.2 hit San Diego, just north of the Baja California epicenter. Stronger than the Haiti quake. Two deaths reported, 25,000 misplaced because of structural damage.

My parents didn't move us up and down the Pacific Coast to avoid natural disasters. They were following higher degrees and satisfying careers.

I've been in San Diego ever since I was 5, and felt only tremors from the San Andreas now and then.

What happened on Easter Sunday was no tremor.

I was in the kitchen, two of my kids were in the living room, my daughter was in the backyard.

"Is that an earthquake?" said my husband. We have false earthquakes that are usually rationalized and explained away as sonic booms, or a jet from nearby Miramar (yes, the Top Gun Miramar, but now it's a Marine Air Corps base).

I dismissed my husband's question until the windows rattled. And kept rattling. And kept rattling. And still, after the seasoned-native-third generation-Californian arrogance of "That's hardly an earthquake" cynicism passed, kept rattling.

I ran to get my daughter who was outside climbing a fence, or a tree...or, something.

The dog accompanied me the whole way to get her and pull her down to safety from whatever tomboy thing she was doing. Once I had my family assembled and ready to get under the dining table, the quake subsided.

"Would you calm down?" my husband asked. Why is it, no matter what, a man has to tell a woman to calm down, even when she is composed and self-possessed? I had to round up my ducklings, I'm a Mom! And I was simply acting upon one thing I do know - earthquakes can start off as Matthew Broderick and soon be all Charles Bronson.

Secure your troops, assess the damage, move Grandma's fine china before the aftershocks start and send hubby to the store for 10 packages of bottled water, band-aids and rubbing alcohol, and also soup that doesn't expire until the year 2054.

Just in case.

That is what Californians do. Right after they update their Facebook status about the earth-rattling drama.

Earthquakes effect people differently. They are one of those things that make you realize you've forgotten what you thought you already knew. All those things you thought you knew? Well, you just had a loud, rumbling, Wrath of God type refresher course in them.

I have been so reminded this past month. There are a hundred blogs, stories and chapters inside my head, because you know who the best author is? Life. More random and surreal than any piece of visual or literary art.

I haven't been calm the whole time, but I am near it now.

A 7.0 killed hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti, a 7.2 won't even be front page news in San Diego tomorrow.

By nature, I hate cliches, despise overused terms and statements, and one of my least favorites is "It's not a question of IF but WHEN the BIG ONE strikes."

DO NOT say that to me. LIFE is the proverbial "BIG ONE." What snese does it make to wait for something bad to happen? Since you don't know when it will, keep your heart open, your spirit hopeful, and your precious things close. (And your insurance policies STACKED, just in case.)

I looked up the quake epicenter on the USGS website soon as it hit and realized so many little quakes happen all the time, and I don't even notice.

So many little disasters are averted, or never come to pass, and we continue in our lives, unaware - or too aware - of the potential danger.

One of those things I knew, that I forgot, and just learned all over again.