A momentary fright
When you live in the Bay Area, earthquakes are a reasonably common experience. Every now and then you'll feel a quick jolting of the building as the earth moves a little. Every so often, though, there's a quake that's just long enough or just big enough that the thought creeps into your mind - is this the big one about to strike?
I've only ever thought this twice in the past 2+ years that I've lived in San Francisco. The first time was on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 at 8:08 p.m. I was in the Parish Hall at St. Dominic's listening to a presenter who was speaking on the "Gospel of Work," when I thought the person behind me was kicking my chair. When the "kicking" didn't stop but rather turned into a slightly more intense bobbing, I realized that is was an earthquake. As it turns out, this quake was a 4.4 in magnitude. Now, it wasn't as if this was a very violent quake, but it was right on the verge of going from exciting to frightening.
The second quake that caused me a little concern was actually just this evening. I was sitting at my desk at work at 8:40 this evening (yes, I worked late tonight), when I felt a brief shake. Having had another earthquake while at work last Friday, my initial reaction was, "oh how cute, another little earthquake." But this little shaking suddenly got a little bit worse. The building was very obviously shaking, the windows rattled, the desk creaked. It lasted just long enough that I got this little tinge of fear in the pit of my stomach wondering if it was going to stop or get worse - it was going to be one or the other. Thankfully, the earth decided to stay friendly with the citizens of the Bay Area for the time being, and settled down. The intensity map pictured in this entry shows the epicenter with a star. Berkeley isn't too far from there at all, probably only about 10 miles as the crow flies. This quake was a 4.2 - yes, smaller than the August, 2006, quake, but it had a similar effect.
I think everyone in the Bay Area knows that it is really just a matter of time before we really are hit with the big one. Just a matter of time.