Mine's Bigger ... My Earthquake that is

Today was a first. We were sleeping (wish I could say soundly, but I had recently gone back to bed after nursing lil lady) and then at apx 4:00 AM, we were awoken by the room shaking. We experienced our very first earthquake!!

My husband and I are both from the Midwest, so this was definitely a first. The good news is that no one was hurt, the kids didn't wake up and the dog didn't even bark (which is a miracle as he is quite a talker!!).

Two things I had to share. The first is an email that my husband sent to my entire family (which is split between living in IL and California) - mom, dad, sisters, brother, etc. all included. The second speaks to the immediacy of social media and its impact on how we communicate.

First, here is my hubby's email (not for the faint of heart or anyone easily offended).

Subject: Mine's Bigger...
My Earthquake that is - it's bigger than yours. We we're awoken at 4:00 AM this morning by a 4.1 earthquake, which is pretty substantial for the Land of Lincoln.

- The house started shaking
- We woke up
- Stephanie said "WHATS THAT?"
- I said "Earthquake, go back to sleep"

How ya' like me now California???!!!

The second is about social media. You see, I did not go back to sleep after the earthquake. I was a little shaken, no pun intended, so I decided to see what was being said on TV. I turned to all of the local news stations, waiting for a moment... and then nothing. No breaking news, nothing. I then went online to see what Yahoo news or MSN would have to say, but again, nothing. (I actually thought that maybe I was delusional. Maybe it was not an earthquake at all.) So, I turned to Twitter. I got on Tweet Grid and typed in earthquake. There I found it. A stream of tweets that was running as fast as it could, trying to keep up with all of the new tweets. There, and within minutes, I was able to find out that it was a 4.3 earthquake and that the epicenter was just outside of De Kalb, IL.

Later the news stations caught up, but it was social media that prevailed with the fastest account and urgency on the day's anomaly. Our world is changing and I can't wait to see what happens next!!!