Fight (stand-in-doorway) or Flight

Tuesday was an interesting day. My plan was to visit a few clients and then get a LOT of paperwork done at my 8th floor office on Massachusetts Avenue, in spite of the air conditioner that causes me to wrap myself in my baby blue Snuggie with clouds on it. (Don't be jealous.)

I was feeling good about my efforts to enter data, sign here, file papers, and send emails. As I stood to go get something off the printer, I heard a faint rumble and felt a small vibration coming through the floor. I looked at my coworker (#1) through the doorway. She looked at me, both frozen with an expression that said, "Did you feel that too?" Then the walls and floor began to shake more and the rumble came back louder. Something fell on a desk. My coworker and I both calmly stepped into the door frame. No words were spoken.

Just then, coworker #2 came running around the corner saying, "What's going on?!" We told her there was an earthquake and she should step into the door frame. She then began to walk hurriedly in circles not knowing what to do. Coworker #1 grabbed her and pulled her near the door frame. Coworker #2 then began hugging the wall, her leg trying to wrap around it, all the while hysterically crying, "NO!" Coworker #1 wrapped her arms around coworker #2 and told her it would be OK. I concurred by awkwardly patting coworker #2's shoulder, but really wondering how Laverne (my car) was doing in the basement.

As this is happening, coworker #3 steps into the middle of the room starring at the scene and, in his monotone voice, states "Coworker #2". Of course coworker #3 was ignored by all as he stood tempting mother nature in the middle of the room.

When the shaking ended (less than a minute after it started) coworker #3 states, "I think we are supposed to evacuate." We then calmly gather our cell phones and descend all 8 flights in a hurried manner. (Note, none of our coworkers are to be seen.) As we exit the building, there are crowds of people lining Massachusetts Avenue including all our other coworkers. My supervisor looks at me and shouts, "You're OK! I couldn't get a call through and didn't know where you were. What were you doing in there?!" As coworker #1 and I explain that we were standing in doorways, we were informed we should have evacuated by our supervisors whose eyes were glazed over with crisis. Coworker #1, from the shaky state of California, then informed everyone else that we would have lived in our door frames while they all died in the stairwell had the quake been anymore severe. As she stated this, a handful more of our coworkers exited the building with a similar report involving desks and door frames.

When we reentered the building over an hour later, I noticed I took the time to turn off my office light upon evacuation. No sense in wasting energy. Coworker #1 also noticed that she somehow found the time to pause her internet radio station. No sense letting it play if there's no one there to listen to it. It's funny what habits we pick up.

I didn't get done near as much as I had planned, but it was one eventful day!