Slug that I am, I was just waking up when the earthquake hit.
I didn’t feel the first earthquake that I was in, I felt the next one – 1996 or so in my second floor Capitol Hill apartment. I was sitting in a chair reading. My thought at the time was that it was very strange to feel things shaking, but not have some stable reference point (ie: the ground) to refer to. Not exactly revelatory.
The second was a year or two later, I was reading a book in Elliot Bay Books’ basement cafe & I suddenly felt a little disoriented – kind of wobbly. At first I thought one of my chair legs was shorter than the others, no. I looked around & noticed someone else was eyeing the room confused & I heard the word “earthquake” amongst the cafe chatter. Most of the people in the cafe didn’t seem to notice & for those who did, it only caused a brief blip in their conversations.
Today’s earthquake certainly felt stronger than those past ones, but I wasn’t really scared like some other people seemed to have been. This is no indication that I’m particularly solid or level-headed – as indicated by this gem, pulled from the wreckage of my old geocities site.