Call Me Chicken Little...

But I seriously thought the sky was falling! The 5.3 earthquake that hit Southern California today was epicentered in Chino Hills, which is about 15 miles away from Brea, where I work. My store was full of customers when everything started to shake! Pots and pans were flying off of high shelves and crashing onto the floor, along with big bottles and jars of food, olive oils, and barbecue sauces. It felt like it lasted forever and I will tell you, no matter how much training you have on what to do in an emergency, you just want to run out of pure instinct to protect yourself. I was worried about my family, my Tim, and my poor little cat! I pictured her laying under a pile of rubble at my house. To make matters worse, the phones weren't working at first, so there was no way to check on anyone to make sure they were okay. I swear that my store is without a doubt the WORST place to be in an earthquake - heavy pots/pans, glass jars, wine glasses, and ceramic/porcelain plates - all enclosed with big glass doors and windows. It really turned me into a pile of nerves today. Thank god no one was hurt!

On a funny note, I remember all of the hype about the "big one" that was the buzz in the mid 1980s when I was in elementary school. They had a thing called "Yogi Bear's Quaky Shaky School Bus" which was a mobile bus that came to school and they put all of the kids in it and it shook - just like there was an earthquake. It was for education, not entertainment - I think the purpose was to show kids what an earthquake felt like. You could never get away with something like that in todays world. Someone would get hurt and sue. And Yogi Bear, well he is so not cool enough to be a spokesperson for anything - even earthquakes.