I planned to write yesterday evening about the gorgeous weather we’re having this week, and the pleasant lunchtime walk I took and the nostalgic mood it engendered… you know, my usual sentimental drivel. But then the earthquake struck.
No, I’m not kidding.

At 5:59 PM last night, I was still sitting in my cubicle at work, just getting ready to shut down my computer for the day, when my chair seemed to roll back an inch or so, as it would if I’d leaned forward or started to stand. Then I thought it moved forward, then back again.

I got a new set of glasses earlier this week, and my first baffled thought was that there must be something off with my prescription and I was experiencing some mild vertigo or something. I’ve had equilibrium problems before so that’s usually the first thing I consider. But I’ve also felt mild earthquakes before, too — I should perhaps explain for my out-of-state readers that Utah is fairly active that way, although we haven’t had a big one in a very long time — so that was the next possibility that sprang to mind. I glanced up at the ceiling and thought I saw the bank of florescents over my desk sway a little, but the movement was so slight I wondered if I only imagined it.

The next step was to ask the guy sitting nearest me if he’d felt that mysterious sensation, too. He had not… but another guy was emerging from his nearby office with the same questioning look on his face that I imagine I had on mine… then someone across the cube farm stood up and asked if anyone else had felt…

About that time, my Facebook news feed started filling with updates from friends in the downtown area all asking the same thing: “Was that an earthquake?”

Yes. Yes, it was. A 4.9 magnitude quake with an epicenter just outside the little farm town of Randolph, Utah, roughly 80 miles northeast of where I was sitting in downtown Salt Lake City. As I said, I’ve experienced mild quakes before, but this one felt different than any I recall going through before. In the two previous ones I clearly remember, there had been a sort of all-over trembling feeling, kind of like you have when someone gives you a good scare and you’re turbocharged with adrenaline for a few minutes. But this one… there was a definite back-and-forth movement this time. I realized that I felt the earth rolling under my feet. And considering that my cubicle is located in a basement with six stories of century-old brick and masonry above it, I suddenly wanted to be anywhere but at my work computer…