Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Shakin' It

Oooo, baby, I was shakin' for a little while yesterday afternoon. Rockin' and rollin'. We had an -- are you ready for this? -- earthquake. We have them occasionally in Virginia but they're usually so slight that I've never felt anything. Yesterday, I did.


I was sitting at my desk working when, all of a sudden, I heard -- or perhaps felt -- some kind of rumble and felt the floor under my feet vibrating. My chair shimmied and my computer monitor bounced. The Senile One was standing across the room by a file cabinet, so I jumped up and said, "Senile One, what was that? Did you feel that?" He says, "What? What? I didn't feel anything." Duh. I headed out front because I seriously thought a truck or something had hit the building. The receptionist and a client were standing out there, and she was holding onto the front desk and the chandelier was swaying. The other paralegal came running down the stairs and said her desk was moving, too, and that stuff had fallen off her shelves. The client, who's some sort of civil engineer, pronounced that we had just experienced an earthquake. Turned out to be a 5.8 or 5.9 with an epicenter some 150 miles away. Virginia hasn't experienced a 5.8 in over a hundred years. It only lasted for what must have been under thirty seconds, but let me tell you, it was scary. I don't think I want to experience one of those big apocalyptic quakes any time soon.


My dog had been pacing ceaselessly since Sunday night. The only time I could get her to relax was with food, and then she'd go right back to pacing. I think she sensed the earthquake coming. They do say that animals are cognizant of and have a built-in early warning system about such things. I think "they" are right.


Oh, and as if that weren't exciting enough, the other paralegal had been building up a head of steam since the late afternoon before and went quasi-off on the junior partner yesterday morning. By the time the Senile One had spent all day driving us crazy, she was not to be trifled with. She went off on him full-tilt boogie. When he tried to make some of his conciliatory noises, she told him in no uncertain terms that whatever was going to be said needed to be said among him and the three of us, and so he stands there asking us "what he's doing wrong." The secretary and I were caught off-guard, both of us being on the phone with clients at the time, and tried to be as polite about it as we could, but paralegal #2 just kept getting hotter and hotter. Senile One finally herded her into his office and closed the door, where we could still hear her raised voice. By the time I left for the day, Senile One had somehow dragged himself up the stairs and was closeted with Junior Partner in his office. God only knows what went on and what we'll be walking into this morning.


This song -- which I have always adored -- seems wildly appropriate for today. Enjoy.


5 comments:

Marion said...

I thought about you when they showed the earthqake map. Glad nothing fell on yo head. LOL! xo

quid said...

SJ- I thought of you too, when I saw the epi-center. A good friend of mine was at a reunion event at Virginia Tech. He said they overreacted (as they've done since the shooting), thinking it was terrorists.

Just a little bit of Mother Earth putting on her girdle.

Girdle. Now that's a word I haven't used in years. Thank God.

quid

G-Man said...

You should check your Cream in the fridge to see if it turned to Butter!

Marion said...

Quid, it's Spanx these day instead of girdle (but the same pain when you have to wiggle into them). I mentioned "Spanx" on Facebook one day and my older sister had never heard of them. LOL!

I'm glad there were few injuries in this earthquake. Now if only Ms. Irene stays off the coast! Y'all batten down the hatches this weekend and stay safe. xo

Serena said...

It was definitely freaky, Marion. And I'm dang glad nothing fell on my head, too.:)

Oh, yeah, Quid -- Mother Nature has to show us who's boss every now and then. Girdle. LOL.:)

It didn't GM, but I wish it had. That might be pretty good on toast with jam.:)

I've been thinking about buying some Spanx, Marion -- for, you know, those days when one has the bloat. And also simply because I love saying Spanx.:) I told my sister, who's in Irene's path if it hits Carolina, she could come up and stay with me if she had to evacuate, and she said, "Shee-it, y'all are having EARTHQUAKES.":-)