EARTHQUAKE

So, an earthquake in Mineral, VA sent DC/MD/VA into chaos today around 2pm. Most people are saying everyone is overreacting and it wasn't that bad. Well sorry, but I work in a federal building in DC, and an old one at that. My first thought was, oh no, it has had all it can take, and we're going down. Mind you, I am on the top floor of my building so getting out alive isn't that likely! The building shook a little and then it REALLY started shaking and it felt like the building was going to crumble.

I ran out of there so fast, but I had to go down 11 flights of stairs. And people were moving so slow, linking arms, and using the railings. SORRY, BUT MOVE!! I seriously thought the building was going to go down and all I could think was I'm going to die. I started panicking, couldn't breathe, and felt light-headed. Basically I became "that person" in an emergency situation. I wanted out though. I wanted to call my mom and see if she knew what was going on in DC! And I was just praying that the building wasn't going to come crumbling down. Finally, I got out and noticed lots of other people. I found one of my coworkers and people were talking about an earthquake. Umm, what?! This is DC. We don't get earthquakes here. My coworker said she thought it was a bomb, and that didn't even occur to me at the time, but that's also pretty scary because that could happen. My building would be a prime target for a terrorist attack.

So, it was an earthquake and a 5.8 one at that. It was time to go home. Who knows if my building is going to hold up. It was literally falling apart pre-earthquake, so one more shake and that thing might go down. So my coworker has the idea to bikeshare because we just KNOW metro is going to be a hot mess. That turned out to be an awesome idea and it was a pretty fun ride too. DC was crazy and the police were everywhere yelling at people. We were riding with the traffic, which was kind of scary, but we made it to Arlington in about 25-30 minutes and put the bikes back. This was really not how I imagined my day going when I woke up at 7am and then delayed my alarm until 7:15am!