shivers

We experienced our first earthquake today.  J was with me at work, T was at home sleeping.

Around 1:45 pm, I was working in my office visiting with 3 other colleagues.  J was snoozing dreamily in his moses basket in the corner.  I stood up and strolled across the room to look at some material, when I felt small vibrations in my inner ear.  Consequently, this made me feel a bit dizzy.  I asked if anyone in the room noticed the peculiar vibrations.  Someone laughed and pointed out a bottle of water teetering on the desk.  Almost instantaneously, the ground began to shake in a very violent, rhythmic pattern.  And that's when I lost it and began to shriek.

GET MY BABY!  SOMEONE GET MY BABY!

One of the women who was standing close by frantically lifted up J's basket by the handles.  Seconds later I was there, whipping him out and into my arms.  We fled to the doorway and stood there for a few moments until the shaking stopped.  Visibly distraught, we quickly walked outside to see hundreds of people fleeing their high-rise office buildings.  Thankfully, we saw no signs of injury or severe damage.  With a sigh of relief, we quickly learned that we had experienced a large earthquake.  The largest our area has seen in history.  J woke up but, perhaps sensing my fear, was very quiet and observant in my arms.

The phone companies were immediately bombarded with calls, allowing us only to communicate via FB or text.  I heard from T who jolted out of bed and out the door - consequently locking himself out of the building.  I heard from J's Godparents, our colleagues at our other locations, my friends, our family.  Thankfully, no one was injured, just shocked.

I sped home to be with T and burst into tears explaining to him how terrified I was, not for my own life, but for the life of J.  I so desperately want to protect him.

I will forever DESPERATELY try to protect him.

I'm okay now, thankful that we can all "laugh" about the extensive news coverage of bricks falling to sidewalks.  But now that I'm a mama, I am not sure that I will ever recover from the immediate stress those 45 seconds put on me.

Thank God, one extra gray hair will be the only negative consequence of today's event.

Did any of you experience today's earthquake?  

Have you ever experienced an earthquake?

Please share how you dealt with the situation.

I'm from the midwest.  I can handle tornados like a champ.  

Earthquakes, on the other hand...