When I was brushing my teeth this morning at 5am I was thinking about a post I was going to write today. By 5:15 I was in front of my computer with my cup of coffee totally obsessed by watching video of the 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan today. I’m now trying to pry myself away from the live videos of the coast of Hawaii waiting for the tsunami to hit.

Many of my friends are at SXSW this weekend. I didn’t feel like going this year since I knew I’d be too tired (I’ve got a vacation coming up) and I was right as I’ve been in a particularly intense work and travel cycle since the beginning of the year. As I saw the tweets about SXSW last night I was feeling a little bummed about the choice I’d made not to go.

This morning, I’m really glad I’m in Boulder. Whenever a natural disaster like this happens, it’s really unsettling to me. I’m not sure why but I don’t fight the emotion any more. While I like to think I’m very comfortable with my own mortality, down deep I think that there’s something about the natural disasters that remind me how fragile life really is.

I’m hoping my friends in Japan, Hawaii, and any other places that are being impacted are ok.