So apparently there was an earthquake today?
Everyone here is fine. It was reportedly a 5.8-magnitude earthquake, which, as many West Coast people were quick to point out over Twitter and elsewhere, is pretty much nothing, especially when you’re several miles and states over from the fault line. We definitely felt it in my office, up on the eighth floor, a weird vibration that caused a bunch of us to look up and say things like, “Did…did you feel something?”
Yeah, it was weirdly disconcerting, especially since I don’t think I’ve ever experienced an earthquake before, but it wasn’t exactly frightening. We’ve had freight trains go past our block — we’re right by the tracks, here at home — that have shaken me more. I wasn’t able to reach my sister, who works around the Washington, D.C., area (and therefore closer to the epicenter than New York), but only because the cell phone coverage went down. She wasn’t in any danger either. I have one co-worker who was outside, eating his lunch, who missed the quake altogether.
Other than that non-event of a quake — which nevertheless dominated conversation in the office most of the remaining afternoon — it was a pretty standard Tuesday. A conference call about a book in development was about as exciting as it otherwise got.