Go ahead and laugh at our east coast earthquake

Yesterday's 5.8 magnitude earthquake may be considered mild to most west coasters, but here, in NYC, a few weeks away from the 10th anniversary of 9/11, a shaking building was not something we were psyched about. You must remember, that we folks aren't used to "feeling the earth...move...under our feet..."

It wasn't until I got home last night, that I discovered my own personal casualties of this beast:

That is my totally awsome, large, and uber flattering mirror. In pieces and laying on top of part of my wine collection. My first thought was, "Shit! I lost some of my GOOD wine!". This was quickly followed by, "Oh crap. Where are the cats???!!!". That's when I saw the bloody paw prints dotted on my tile floor, in a perfectly straight line from the pile of glass and red wine to my bedroom. Investigating all sixteen paws took a few minutes, and finally, I discovered that Caleb's rear paw was a yucky bloody mess.

Now, I ask you this: How easy do you think it was for me to herd 3 cats into the bedroom, while holding 22-lb Caleb in one arm, with his bloody paw dripping, all the while trying NOT to step in the thousands of teeny, weeny, shattered glass bits? Answer: It totally sucked. [It was also dinner time (read: kibbles) and the cats were not an angelic example of patience.]

After 3 hours of cleaning, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, (drinking), rinsing & disinfecting said bloody paw, I was dripping with sweat and nicely covered in a layer of cat fur.

So, to add to your list of jokes (you Californians) here's my list of casualties from the 2011 East Coast Earthquake:

• 1 mirror (I'm assuming this comes with a  decade of bad luck, at the very least)
• 2 bottles of nice red wine
• 1 cat spa station (don't ask)
• 1 stained floor
• 1 cat toe claw
• roughly 500 calories

I must thank KK for her kickass neighborly ways. She literally ran to the apartment to help me with the mess and tend to Oosle's paw. Some unbroken wine, and spicy Thai on me, was the very least I could do.

And, in case you are concerned, I think Caleb will be ok. It appears that his claw was sliced clean off, which is going to be pretty sore for the big guy, but he'll survive! All the excitement was too much for him to handle, so after getting cleaned up and fed, and given lots o' love, he went belly up.