Wow, my first earthquake!

I am traveling in the San Jose area (for the Business of Software conference) this week. Last night I was out at dinner in Sunnyvale with a colleague, and suddenly the room started swaying left to right. It felt as if it was swaying as much as 6 inches, but nothing was falling off tables, and it felt mostly gentle but random. There was no rattling and no thunderous noises as might be expected from what Hollywood has told us.

It lasted about 20 seconds, and then I had the strange sensation that maybe the ground was still moving, but I couldn't quite be sure. Similar to the sensation you get when leaving a cruise ship after a few days.

Apparently earthquakes of this magnitude (it was 5.6 and located about 8 miles from San Jose) are not super common, so I was "lucky" to experience it.