My SO has taken to calling me Oblivious Girl because I didn’t feel it. I arrived at work at noon and noticed a higher-than-usual number of people milling about outside. Whatever, that wasn’t so unusual, and besides, it was lunchtime. Then I overheard people talking about whether “it was safe to come out” and something about picking glass out of their hair.
My cell phone rang just as I was walking through the office door. “zomg! Did you feel that?!” It was my SO’s first California earthquake and he was excited. “Guh?” “Yeah, just now-- DIDN’T YOU FEEL IT??” Apparently it was strong enough to shake him in his computer chair. (The quake hit just as he had activated some kind of warp speed thing on his ship while playing EVE Online, so for a moment he was amazed by the realism of the effects. 
)
I honestly didn’t notice the earthquake. All I can say in my defense is I was walking to work at the time, with my iPod on, and was about 75 percent awake.
[QUOTE=Shayna]
I wasn’t here for Northridge, but the most violent shaking I’ve experienced here was the Hector Mine quake, at 7.1. That sucker felt and sounded like a massive freight train was inches from my window. My bed was shaking so hard I couldn’t get out of it!
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Yeah, that was probably the biggest one for me (living in Apple Valley), although it was just a notch above the one-two punch of the Big Bear and Landers earthquakes when I lived in Calimesa (AKA “South Yucaipa”).
Actually, I think I’ve felt every major quake here in SoCal since Sylmar in 1971.
[QUOTE=Rick]
When the shaking stopped, we all looked around and I said 5.5. Looks like I was pretty close. 
No damage out in Chatsworth, but it was a good shake. I used to mountain bike in Chino hills. Man that would have been a ride.
Best comment about the 94 Northridge quake was in the LA Times the next morning. They sent a reporter to get quotes from guests a high end hotel in Warner Center (Woodland Hills area)
He got a quote from a bride who had spent her wedding night in the hotel. It’s all my fault, the earth moved
[/QUOTE]
I think that was my little sister.
Anyway, that’s what I said to the future kaylasmom at the time.
[QUOTE=whiterabbit]
I got very good at estimating aftershock magnitudes. When you have them for several months, I guess you sort of develop a sense for them. And the phone conversations that went, (Them)“Blah blah blah…whoa, there was an aftershock! You’re going to get it in a second!” brief pause (Me)“Oh, yeah, nice rolling one!” I wonder if I still have that talent. It’s been years since I felt a quake of any size at all.
Earthquakes are surreal.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, you probably still could identify a quake’s magnitude within one to two points. I still can, and I’ve been out of the SoCal/Cal area for years now.
I am very sensitive to ground movement of any kind these days.
I wish I could figure out a way to test my magnitude sense; about the only thing I’ve got to do that is that the water main construction going on down the street occasionally causing shaking that I’d say is about a 2 or 2.5, I can feel some vibration but only just.