Shake Rattle and Roll

It all happened so fast and yet felt as if it went on forever. The jolt awoke me instantly, and the first thing that popped into my head was what they teach you in elementary school – get under a doorframe and stay still. Once I woke up, I immediately knew what was going on and quickly turned to Mike. Before I knew it, I was on top of him, shaking him and yelling at him to get up and get under the doorframe. But he just looked at me, yelled at me to get down and pulled me into him. After about 15 seconds it was over, and I was just laying on top of Mike and he was cradling my head and rubbing my back. I was trying to take deep breaths but it was so hard to steady myself and I felt as if my heart was going to jump out of my chest.

After we laid there for a couple of minutes, he suggested we turn on the TV to see if there was anything on the news. Because it was still so early, there wasn’t any coverage so we flipped the TV back off. After about 15 minutes of darkness and silence, neither one of us could fall back asleep so we decided to turn the TV back on to divert us. And all I can say is thank God for Nick Cannon and Wild N Out on MTV. There was a non-stop marathon on at 3:30 in the morning and it proved to be a great distraction to the fear we were feeling. After about an hour, the news came on and was providing Breaking News and we quickly learned that the quake hit about 20 miles away from us and was the biggest earthquake since the Loma Prieta in 1989. Because we were so shaken up, there was no way we were falling back asleep and before we knew it, it was 8:00 am and the rest of the Bay Area was waking up to learn of what had happened. Our phones started going off and we found out that all of our family and friends were ok. But it still didn’t take away the unsettling feelings that we were having.

I have to say that I haven’t ever felt more fear in my entire life and those 15 seconds of shaking were the most terrifying of my life. I know that we were very lucky and it could have been a lot worse, and the worse could happen at any moment. As I lay there in the next 15 minutes after it hit, it quickly put things into perspective and all I could do was pray. I prayed thanking God that we were ok, I prayed to Him to calm my heart, I prayed to Him hoping that no one had been really hurt. It really hit home to me how precious this life we have is, and the things that we put so much time and energy worrying about aren’t really that big in the grand scheme of things. It’s about cherishing the time we have with our loved ones and appreciating each and every day we have here on this Earth, because it can all be taken away so quickly.

Thankfully no one lost their life in this quake, but I am begging that people take this as a wake up call to be more prepared in the future. We are guilty of not being prepared, so I know that I will be going out this week to create an Earthquake Kit for our house so next time it happens we will be prepared. Be on the lookout for that post later in the week.

For those of you that were in the Bay Area this Saturday night, I would love to hear your experience and your thoughts! Who knew California could be so exciting?!