Did the earth move for you too, honey?

Insert hilarious sex-based 'earth-moving' joke here. Seriously though - we've just experienced the biggest quake in California for 25 years. If you're popping your seismic cherry that one was a doozy.

I've got to admit that I was feeling pretty smug that while the rest of the states has had storms and hurricanes and freaking tornadoes, we've had a jolly nice few months. I still maintain that this is the best bit of the States from a geographical and meteorological perspective, although if I lived 80 miles closer to the epicenter of the 6.1 quake I think I might be less flippant about it. Especially with the drought and wild fires that are already kicking the crap out of region. That said, the frequency with which Cali is hit by seismic activity means that everyone is prepared. The civil engineers have to take extra earthquake exams to ensure that the infrastructure is sound and building maintenance chaps know to turn off the gas to avoid leaks and fires, so I guess this means its the safest place to experience an earthquake.

The San Andreas fault is, weirdly, something I learned about a school (my knowledge of North America gleaned from school, not TV, amounts to the San Andreas fault and a half-remembered calypso ditty about Christopher Columbus and his three ships), and when discussing the California move with friends and family in the UK the threat of earthquakes certainly rears its head so I've been following the seismic activity on Twitter and with an iPad app since just before I moved here.

My gorgeous Aussie chums have experienced quakes on trips to NZ and have tried to describe what its like, but you can't really explain the sensation, or guess how each person will react to it. It was a very weird experience to be woken up at 3:23 by all the solid stuff in your apartment moving around and banging against other stuff, and you can't really explain the unnerving-ness of it all unless you've experienced it. I wasn't scared (*sniff sniff* what's that smell? Is that bravado? Really? No, I think it must be blind stupidity), but I was certainly weirded out. The only real thing going through my mind was 'this feels like its been going on for a fucking ETERNITY! Surely it's going to end now. Now? Maybe now? Now?' Afterwards I was full of adrenaline, and, like the social media whore that I am, I jumped straight on Twitter. Not really sure why. To check that it wasn't just our imagination? To find out if my local chums had the same thought as me and jumped on Twitter? To find out if it was as a big a deal to other people as we thought it was? Whatever my reasoning, the constant stream of tweets fed my adrenal rush and, like the dutiful Brit that I am, I went and made a cup of tea.

Like I said before - if we lived in Vallejo or owned a wine shop I'm pretty sure my thoughts on this quake would be very very different, but I am currently sozzled on an odd cocktail of exhilaration, awe and experience.

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Exhilaration, from the rawness of this natural occurrence, and the incredible connection I feel to people as a result. There's nothing like a natural disaster to bring people together, and the wave of tweets and Facebook messages that the quake has generated of people sharing their stories of past and present experiences, near misses and future warnings has made me feel part of a huge international web of people. FFS - it sounds so trite, and, rest assured I am giving myself side-eye as I type this. But its true - the quake gave me the initial adrenaline buzz, and the connection with humanity in the darkest hours before the dawn kept it coming.

The awe I feel is pretty obvious. Now I've experienced the power of the earth, and the lack of control that we have over it, I'm a little more wary of it. I won't go so far as to say that I am less likely to take it for granted, but I'm certainly in awe of it.

And experiencing my first earthquake has made me feel inaugurated into the NorCal club. A noob no more - I have experienced a right of passage, and can legitimately bore people in pubs for the rest of my life. I had planned to do that anyway, though.