Earthquake

I never thought I'd experience one in my lifetime; it just never occurred to me. After all, I've never even visited California.

So at 5:37 this morning, when I was shaken in my bed so hard that I sat straight up and tried to figure out what was going on while rubbing the sleep from my eyes, "earthquake" was the last thing on my mind.

Am I REALLY swaying back and forth while sitting completely still?
What IS that noise that seems to be coming from the building?
The window next to me is open, is there a breeze making the closet door in front of me swing?

By the time it occurred to me that I might be experiencing an earthquake, thought that I maybe should go stand in a doorway or something (?), and decided that even if this was an earthquake, it didn't feel that bad, it was pretty much over. There was another tremble, but the whole thing took less than a minute.

I decided that yes, I WAS being shaken back and forth (east-west), the noise was the building itself rocking in its foundation, and the curtains were perfectly still, so it wasn't a breeze making the door swing on its hinges. I remember looking up at the ceiling and getting the sensation that the swaying was much worse up there than down on the bed. (I can only imagine what the swaying must have felt like up on the 7th floor!)

The cats were walking around looking confused, which is exactly how I felt, too. I still didn't know what had happened, but it was over. I thought about turning on the TV, but for some reason I didn't think that was going to be useful. I sort of thought (it was 5:37 am, remember, and I had been sound asleep so my logic was very fuzzy) that if there had been some sort of natural disaster like an earthquake, that the tornado alarms would be going off. It just made sense.

So I called Eric, apologized for waking him up, and asked, "How would I know if an earthquake just happened?" I contemplated calling 911, but I knew that was irresponsible. Eventually I tried to go back to sleep, but tossed and turned until I heard fire trucks in the distance. Somehow that calmed me. It must have been a real disaster if the fire trucks are responding. I'm not crazy. Other people felt it, too...

An hour later, Eric called me back to confirm that the 5.2-magnitude earthquake had happened about 150 miles west of Louisville, in southern Illinois. Poor guy, he had stayed up and didn't go back to sleep until after he told me that. In the meantime, I had been sound asleep and dreaming about earthquakes.

And of course, it was all over the local news this morning. A cornice fell off the roof of a building a few blocks away, and it's apparently a big deal. No one was hurt, though, which is good.

Meanwhile, life goes on. I guess I can check "earthquake" off my list of things to experience before I die.