A Year of Blogging: August 23, 2011

Today is 'Ride the Wind Day'. As we are nearing the end of summer, today is meant for you to enjoy the day. There are several ways to ride the wind. You could go parachuting or hang gliding. You could take a hot air balloon ride. You could feel the wind in your hair by hoping on a motorcycle or rolling the windows down in your car. Finally, you could fly a kite, although then technically *you* wouldn't be riding the wind. Get out, relax, and enjoy a nice summer day. Store the memory away to warm you when you are bundled up against the January chill. Today was a bit of an exciting day for me. I experienced my first earthquake! I have lived in the Northeast and Midwest, both of which are areas that can experience earthquakes, but rarely do. Today, I was working in my office at work, and suddenly everything started shaking. The floor, my chair, my desk. I've heard people describe earthquakes as 'things started rattling and falling'. Nothing rattled, and nothing fell. Everything just shook. My mind raced. My first thought was 'What the...?' Then I thought 'It's a gorgeous sunny day out, it can't be an earthquake.' Ok, don't laugh at that. It is perfectly reasonable. When you hear thunder, the sky is usually dark with storm clouds. If it's a blizzard, it's gray and miserable out. Weather things don't usually happen on nice sunny days. And I know, an earthquake isn't actually a weather event. But as my whole office shook, my mind was trying to figure out what was going on. I even wondered if I was having some sort of medical event- like a dizzy spell but so much worse where things were shaking instead of spinning. I am not sure how long it lasted. I know things shook for at least 10 seconds. It seemed like a long time and it seemed to be over quickly. Just as it was ending, my phone rang, so I took care of the phone call and then set out to see if anyone else felt it. No one else in the office felt it. I work in the basement, so it kind of makes sense that I felt it. They were looking at me like I was a little crazy (by now they should know the answer to that), and then one of my coworkers received a call from his girlfriend. She asked 'did you feel it'. So I didn't imagine it. Soon it was all over the Dayton and Cincinnati news outlets, and of course, Facebook. The epicenter was over 500 miles from here. I'd hate to find out how bad the shaking was if it were closer. So now I've got 'earthquake' on my list of experiences. And I can say, I'd be fine if it were a one time occurrence. One more tidbit about today. Today is my nephew Drew's first birthday. It seems like just yesterday that my sister called me to tell me she was having a boy. He's crawling now, and starting to babble more. While right now he's a handful, I'm looking forward to him getting older. I'm waiting for the day when he's old enough for me to take on an outing, like I've been doing with his sister for a couple of years. I'll take Sydney and do something with her, and then take Drew and do something with him. My trips home will take longer, because I'll need more time with the children. I don't know what I'll do if they both want to share the bed with me- we may have to get them sleeping bags and they could sleep on the floor next to me. For now, I'll settle with getting some Drew snuggles and giggles!