I think this is an Earthquake

I survived my first earthquake yesterday. Not ever having experienced one before, I must admit to being a little freaked out as I stood there in the midst of stocking sugars at the condiment bar while the building around me and floor beneath me, things that I take for granted will remain stationary until the end of time, continued shaking. My first thought was "what in the world?" my second, "I think this is an Earthquake;" my third, "Ummm, should I do something?" Our emergency drills in grade school on the east coast consisted of how to effectively exit your burning house (Children's Fire Safety House, anyone?) and what to do if there was a tornado (sit on the floor in the hallway with the rest of your class, strategically place yourself next to your crush and stick an opened text book on top of your head). I vaguely remember something about doorways, which they talked about probably once, but other than that, we left the emergency know-how for quakes to our west coast peeps.

After we all looked at one another to confirm that no, it wasn't just us, my coworker who had just finished his shift looked at the two of us behind the counter and said, "I hope you guys are ready, because you're about to get slammed." I said, "What do you mean?" He grinned. "They're gonna evacuate both of those building across the street." Sure enough, within the next ten minutes, people were streaming out onto the sidewalks. Within half an hour, half of them were inside our walls or lounging outside on the patio, cellphones glued to their ears. I don't remember much about the hours between 2 and 4pm except for a blur of pouring steaming coffee, shoveling ice, calling out drink orders (my voice carries the most, not always a good thing), and lots of paper and plastic cups sliding back and forth over the counters. Despite a less than smooth morning (I had spent about an hour taking down orders manually, adding up totals, and making change in my head), I loved it. My brain registers fast pace by clicking into high gear and all of the sudden, I was all over eight things that needed to be done, and with probably more acuity than when I'm just keeping up with two. Bring on the chaos, I say. But maybe next time without the earth moving under my feet.