From an earth quake to the earth quake drill

Remember the earthquake in Arlington last August? I was with my son, Will, in our living room. The baby was asleep in his crib upstairs--Will was waiting for a ride from a friend. Suddenly, the walls shook, and the frames rattled against the wall. It sounded as if a boulder was rolling toward us, or maybe a boulder-sized meteor landed in our backyard--we just had no idea what it could be. Of course, we soon found out exactly what it was.

Yesterday morning, Will and I had a VERY hectic morning. It was my job to get him to school and you all know that elementary school starts later than middle, but the friend who he was supposed to stay with before the bus came got sick. Will ended up with me in STAR to hear about "mum ball" and "visits to the copy machine, not the coffee machine". A substitute arrived to my classroom as 1st mod began, so I could run him down to the bus stop. Just as he pulled his backpack onto his back, a voice came over the loudspeaker, "Ladies and gentlemen, please take your positions for the earthquake drill." For a moment, I thought we'd both get trapped in a locked room, sitting on the floor under the desks while his bus drove away, but no! We looked at each other and made a split decision, "Let's go!" We ran, full speed, out the front door of the school and down the street in the rain. He made it to school on time.

Our hectic morning definitely didn't shake the earth, but I felt a bit shaken. Fortunately, in both cases, no one got hurt. In the end, we both laughed about it instead.