What? That was an Earthquake?

I’m from Delaware, but I’ve been here at Stanford for 2 1/2 years now (including 2 summers).  I know for a fact that I have been here for at least 3 earthquakes, and possibly many more.  Yet for some reason, I still am unable to distinguish an earthquake from a passing truck or a fierce growling stomach.

As always, today was no different.  Earlier today Palo Alto Online News posted the following:

Two earthquakes struck the South Bay this morning, the U.S. Geological Survey is reporting. Centered east-northeast of Milpitas, the first had a preliminary magnitude reading of 4.1 and struck at 10:09, the second — a 1.6 — followed at 10:22 a.m. The temblors were felt in Palo Alto as well.

The earthquake(s) was/were the topic of the day 2 hours later at the lunch table, and all I could say between my bites of chicken was, “What? That was an Earthquake? I thought it was truck or something.”

In hindsight, I should have realized that a monster truck wouldn’t be driving through the Quad’s inner-courtyards.  But honestly, I will probably never get used to identifying these tiny tremors for what they are.  Either I’ll think to myself, *Wow, I wonder how big that truck was? *or Wow, I guess I could really use a sandwich right now.