Earthquakes

I have developed a new paranoia.
Despite having felt several earthquakes in Southern California over the last few years, the disastrous earthquakes around the country in the last few months and the quake we had here at 4 in the morning one day really made me think about the possibility of "the big one" hitting Los Angeles.

Before, the little shakes were almost fun, an occasion to dive under the desk during work and laugh as it was over before you even got half way underneath. Having an earthquake at 4am in my shaky old apartment building without my contacts in made me realize that there could be an earthquake at any time. Imagine an earthquake from the highest seat in Dodger stadium, driving 65mph on a freeway overpass, or while you're taking a shower. What would you even do to protect yourself in those situations? Would you even have time to do anything?

Every time a truck drives by and shakes my apartment or the kid next to me taps his foot and shakes my seat, I find myself wondering if this is the first shake or something larger, and I look for the nearest hiding place and wonder if it would protect me if there was a real quake.