Friday, March 11, 2011

Earthquakes are my biggest fear.

Right now, It's 9:21.  In Tokyo, it's 1:21am.  That means it's been almost 11 hours since their devasting earthquake.

The strange thing is, last night, about 10 hours ago, I couldn't stop thinking of earthquakes.  Since the three small quakes hit Utah County a few weeks ago, I've been paranoid.  I keep thinking about my house falling in on itself, about horrible distruction up and down my street.  People stranded in the middle of the night with a moving, shaking, wriggling world beneath them.  It isn't new (I've always worried about earthquakes; thanks, Mr. Tulley for educating me so well on geology), but usually I don't spend this much time focusing on earthquakes.

And so last night, I was worried.  I should blame it on my washer, which needs to be replaced and has a tendency to vibrate the floor a little when it's on the spin cycle.  As I felt the vibrations from the washer, my mind turned to the (eventual) earthquake we will have in this valley.  I keep wondering how old I'll be, how old my kids will be, whether I will be at work and have to walk home (you know, just a 20 mile jaunt. I'll be fine.), whether I should buy some earthquake insurance.  My heart started to beat and my whole mind was filled with earthquake.  And now, today, when I do the math, I was having earthquake anxiety at the exact moment that Japan would have been having their massive earthquake.

I am FREAKED OUT!  Am I the earthquake-whisperer?  Do Britt and I have a secret pulse on the future Utah earthquake?

(Disclaimer: this post is not intended to minimize the suffering I know is going on in Japan right now. My heart goes out to those people who are lost or scared or hurt or in any way impacted by the devastation.  I'm hoping and praying that things can be cleaned up over there as soon as possible.  Stories like this one [about the restaurant giving out free curry and rice to stranded commuters] give me peace, knowing that there are good people all over the world who try to alleviate suffering.  God bless you, Japan.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't watched the news today because I'm not ready to.

(And since my earthquake hasn't happened yet, I believe enough time has lapsed for me to think I was just being paranoid).

Ginger said...

Wow, crazy! It is my uneducated and possibly just self comforting guess that if an earthquake is this far overdue then maybe it's just not going to happen but I too have imagined where my family members would be in the event of an earthquake.

Apryl said...

GET EARTHQUAKE INSURANCE. My aunt had a few days left on her policy before the Northridge earthquake hit. If it had expired (as she'd planned to let happen), it would have been devastating. At least look in to it. (Maybe it's so expensive that it's not worth it, but it's still worth your peace of mind to look in to it.) (Getting off soapbox now.)