Scarred and Scared

If the Earth comes a rockin', don't come knockin'.

Let me begin by saying, the one and only thing I'm deathly afraid of is earthquakes. Living in Northridge during the epic Northridge earthquake has forever left me scarred and scared. I was only 8 years old when it happened, but 4:31AM on 1/17/1994 is embedded in my memory.

This morning, 5 minutes before my first alarm, I (and the rest of LA) was rudely awakened by an earthquake. The scale may sound small with only being a 4.4, but it was originally recorded as a 4.7. I'm not sure how you read the scale wrong and downgrade a quake, but it sure as hell felt like a 5.2 at my place. I basically reached out to get my flashlight and hid under the covers, as if that's something that would save me. I had an immediate panic attack and basically froze in place thereafter. If I was living at my parents house, I would have immediately screamed out "MOM" like I had when I was 8. I think, no matter how old I get, I will never get used to earthquakes. Each time it happens, I revert back to my childhood trauma and freeze. I will admit, that I basically started crying. I texted my friend, who's usually a sissy like me in these circumstances, but she was rather calm and immediately reassured me it was over. It didn't do the trick though. I stayed comatosed in bed for another hour and half.

Did you feel the quake?