So I was sitting in the Los Angeles County Courthouse in Downtown Los Angeles. I got there at 7:45 to report for jury duty and was waiting to see if I was going to be selected. A gal I was sitting with in the morning took me down to the cafeteria and bought me breakfast. I have no idea why she wanted to pay for it. But I accepted the gift. She was called for jury duty when we got back and I never saw her again. We were on the 5th floor of a building that has something like 20+ floors. At 11:40am I was called to go to a courtroom for my first jury duty assignment. I put my things in my purse and zipped it up and then the entire building started to jolt and rumble. It was the scariest thing I've ever experienced. It went on for about 30 seconds and then quieted down to a very very soft rumbling and vibrating that went on for at least 1-2 minutes. We were told to evacuate the building. So we walked down the flights of stairs and out to a large courtyard around the block. My heart was racing. But all of us calmly walked down and out. It reminded me of stories I heard about 911 and getting stuck in dark stairwells. This one was not dark and the building was not harmed, it just brought up my memories of those stories and it scared me that the building might collapse or that it was a tremor before "the big one". So many thoughts went through my head in those 30 seconds. I didn't have my cell phone to call Jerry. That made me incredibly uncomfortable. A gal next to me e-mailed him from her blackberry to let him know I was ok. he e-mailed back that he was ok too. I felt dizzy. I sat with that gal who e-mailed Jerry for me and found out she is a therapist that works with pregnant women as her specialty. I got her card. She told me that she had a premonition about 20 minutes before the earthquake that it was going to happen and that she doesn't even believe in that kind of psychic thing.
The guy who worked on the 5th floor came up to the courtyard where all of the people were from all the surrounding buildings and courthouses and asked if anyone from the 5th floor jury duty waiting area was there. We walked over and he handed us our completion of jury duty slips and told us we were done for the day and will not be selected again for the next year.
WOW.
I walked to the Disney Hall and down 3 flights to my car underneath the building. That wasn't fun to go underneath it. Again more vivid thoughts of the building collapsing on top of me.
Drove home with relatively no traffic. Pretty girl was asleep on the couch.
I called Jerry. Our cell phones didn't work - but his office line did. It was so relieving to get through to him. That was the WORST part of it. Not having my phone and not being with him.
I sat on the couch for a while, just sitting there, trying to calm down. I called Mom, Amy, Marty. My mom was concerned about how our couch looked. I was concerned that the "big one" was going to happen at any moment. Once I felt better I made myself lunch and then took myself to whole foods and bought myself a wheat free, sugar free chocolate crunch cookie. And I bought one for Jerry too.
I ate it when I got home and then at about 5:30pm I went to bed. Totally exhausted.
Jerry got home around 8:30 but I was totally out.
however......after 8 hours of sleep I woke up. yep 1:30am and wide awake.
It's 5:30 now and I decided that if I'm just going to be up now that I should just get up and do stuff. Pretty girl asked for some holding and hugging, and that is always a treat.
This took up some time and now I'm going to put myself back to bed.
the baby experiences his/her first earthquake!
Yep, he/she is a real native Californian now. Just like her momma.
( I did have a conversation with Amy trying to figure out which state in the USA has nothing big happening ie: no earthquakes, floods, ice storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, etc....the first place I thought of was IDAHO. )
So I'm going to look up Demi Moore and Bruce Willis and see if they have any spare room in their enormous home up there.......
Until then. I am still waiting for
"the big one"
I think we all got educated on the fact that standing in your doorway is NOT where you go in an earthquake. And you don't run outside.
you get underneath the sturdiest piece of furniture in the house and stay there.
ok - now I'm exhausted again and going back to bed.
Glad the little bean is safe and ok!
No comments:
Post a Comment