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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Not Quite Earth Shattering, But Almost

So by now, I'm sure you've all heard that we had a 5.8 magnitude earthquake here on Tuesday. I was at work, after lunch, standing in the hall talking to another attorney and his parents when all of a sudden the building started shaking! It was scary because while it was going on (which seemed like 10 minutes, but probably only 20 seconds or so), people were debating whether it was an earthquake, a terrorist attack, or the building collapsing from the construction they've been doing. Either way, I just kept thinking, "Who the heck cares which one it is? Why aren't we running out of here?"  So I followed the crazies running out of the building screaming (the crazies, not me), only to get out to our evacuation meeting point and realize that apparently I was supposed to bring my keys because they'd probably shut the building down, send us all home, and not let any of us back in for any reason! Ooops! Apparently, next time I'm in a possibly-collapsing building, I need to remember to get my purse!

So anyway, after standing outside for about 20 minutes (which actually gave me a good opportunity to check out all of the DEA Agents), they let us go back in to get our stuff and then sent us home.  I thought that would be awesome since it was only 2:30 - now I could get to happy hour even earlier than I thought! So, I go to get on the metro (yes, I know - we just had an earthquake, and I make the decision to get on an underground train), only to find out that metro is going only 15 miles per hour and that the entire DC area has shut down and everybody and their mother wants to get home NOW. Apparently, we all wanted an early happy hour. I took the metro to my transfer point, but my transfer point was a little crazy! I saw 2 trains go by, but they were too full so I couldn't get on. So by this time, I thought, well I'm only 1 mile from home, I'll pop outside and grab a taxi. Well, I got outside only to realize there were even more people out there! How it's possible that even more people were outside after seeing how many people were on the metro is beyond me.  So, I started walking home, hoping to catch a taxi along the way. No such luck. So, I walked the 1 mile home! I only live about 4.5 miles from work, and typically with metro it takes me 20 minutes to get home. I finally made it home at 4:30!

Thank God for happy hour! Anne and I sipped our wine right through the 4.2 magnitude aftershock!

2 comments:

  1. Kel, so glad to hear you're safe! You seemed pretty calm about the whole thing...I think I might have flipped out! And I love that what got you through the turmoil was thinking about an early happy hour--that's my girl! Stay safe, lil lady. P.S. And the report on the other DEA agents?

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  2. Well, I'm trying to comment for the 5,000th time so let's see if it'll actually work this time! I'm glad to know you are safe too! And, really, who remembers to grab their purse when there's an emergency situation? Geez! P.S. - I want to know about the other DEA agents too! :)

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