False Alarm
I just picked up my big kids from school, and the head administrator said to me in a serious hushed voice, "Did you hear about the 6.5 earthquake in Tokyo?"
My heart stopped beating for a second, as that feeling of cold electric shock passed through my body. When I could breathe again, I asked her if she knew anymore, and she said, no, she had just seen it on the news in the morning on her way out the door.
I wondered, how did I miss it? I don`t watch much TV, but I read NYTimes.com and MarketWatch.com every day, usually quite compulsively. How did I fail to see headlines about a major earthquake?
Another school administrator who happened to be in the office said, "Good thing your husband and kids are over here now! Oh, but you have an apartment there, don`t you?"
I blurted out, "I don`t care about the apartment! I care about all of our friends!" How could these people be so CALM? Great, so my own family is safe, but the entire context of our life was crumbling before my mind`s eye.
Of course I realized why I hadn`t noticed a headline -- there wasn`t any. The earthquake was a 6.2 off the coast of Ibaraki, and it shook buildings in Tokyo as quakes do all the time.
So now I have that sensation that you get when you wake up from a bad dream about something awful happening -- like your house burning down or your kid, spouse or close friend dying -- and you wake up with that feeling of grateful relief and think, "Oh, thank God it was just a dream!"
But in the back of your mind, you know that next time could be the real thing.....
My heart stopped beating for a second, as that feeling of cold electric shock passed through my body. When I could breathe again, I asked her if she knew anymore, and she said, no, she had just seen it on the news in the morning on her way out the door.
I wondered, how did I miss it? I don`t watch much TV, but I read NYTimes.com and MarketWatch.com every day, usually quite compulsively. How did I fail to see headlines about a major earthquake?
Another school administrator who happened to be in the office said, "Good thing your husband and kids are over here now! Oh, but you have an apartment there, don`t you?"
I blurted out, "I don`t care about the apartment! I care about all of our friends!" How could these people be so CALM? Great, so my own family is safe, but the entire context of our life was crumbling before my mind`s eye.
Of course I realized why I hadn`t noticed a headline -- there wasn`t any. The earthquake was a 6.2 off the coast of Ibaraki, and it shook buildings in Tokyo as quakes do all the time.
So now I have that sensation that you get when you wake up from a bad dream about something awful happening -- like your house burning down or your kid, spouse or close friend dying -- and you wake up with that feeling of grateful relief and think, "Oh, thank God it was just a dream!"
But in the back of your mind, you know that next time could be the real thing.....
posted by L. at 2:08 PM
4 Comments:
This is my first time commenting L., I have been reading for the past few days, this is my first chance to say anything and that thing is whoa. What a start to your morning. So glad that it was not what it sounded like in the beginning.
Welcome, Gawdessness! You`re not half as glad I as I was.... I`m not from a "natural disaster state," and even though I`ve lived almost my entire adult life in various major earthquake zones, I`ve never quite gotten used to it.
Wow, I thought the sad post was going to be that you discovered that someone you had known had died in the quake. I am glad at least that that was not the case.
Tokyo has more than its share of quakes. I know that feeling well. A tornado hit very near my upstate NY home town many years ago (tornados in NY?) and I couldn't rest until I got through to my folks.
When we had the bad tornado in Arkansas (Tim was an infant) my dad finally got through to us and said his finger was quite literally blistered from re-dialing. (before touchtone and instant redial - at least on their phone).
We came through fine - can't say the same about the rest of the town. Tornados skip around and luckily skipped us and took out the main high school - nighttime thank God. My husband and Carol were at the 7-11 when the roof blew off. I was in the closet with Jim & Tim under a mattress. Wonder I didn't smother them both in my frantic urge to protect.
Sorry - I got sidetracked. I do understand that heart in mouth feeling very well.
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