Earthquake

About half an hour ago I was standing in my kitchen, dialing the phone when I felt the house start to shake. It gives you a little idea of what it's like to live by the LA International Airport when I say that my first reaction was, "That is a BIG plane!" Sometimes when the planes go over, they literally shake our windows (only the REALLY big ones). Anyway when the shaking continued and there was no accompanying airplane noise, I realized it was an earthquake. The blinds on the windows were swinging back and forth and I just had a dizzy, nauseated feeling. I ran for the kids who were in the bathtub and sat on the edge of the tub while the shaking continued...it wasn't too severe, just enough that I felt really dizzy but still mild enough that I wondered if I was hallucinating. After a few seconds things settled down, thankfully. It would have been fun to drag two naked kids under the kitchen table, slippery and screaming. Anyway I flipped on the TV and sure enough, the earthquake measured at 5.8 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was near Chino Hills, which is only about 50 miles from here. From what I'm hearing on the news, I'm surprised that what I felt wasn't more severe...people in downtown LA are reporting that their building was rolling back and forth and people were screaming and crying. I guess those are high rise buildings though, I'm glad we're close to the ground. Apparently the shaking was felt as far south as San Diego and as far east as Las Vegas.

But...in case you were wondering, we're fine. The joys of living in Southern California...