So there I was

Lying in bed, asleep, at 4:36 am.

I awoke initially because I heard Coopers crate rattling. I sorta sat up and squinted in his general direction (I wear glasses and am nearly blind without them, plus it was pitch black) to see what was wrong with him. Just as I sat up, I realized the bed was shaking.

I looked for Hubs, but earlier in the night, he had moved into the guest bedroom b/c his allergies had him coughing up a bad storm and he didn’t want to bother me.

I began calling out for Craig.

My thoughts in order of how they entered my head during the 15 seconds of the quake:

1) Thunder (curiosity)

2) A car crashed into our house (fear)

3) (continued shaking) Earthquake? (extreme fear)

4) (continued shaking) Earthquake is going to get much worse.

5) It’s the second coming of Christ (I’m not kidding! That thought seriously crossed my mind) (fear combined with curiosity)

6) (no more shaking) Did that really just happen?

The thoughts flew through my mind faster than I could process them. I had no control over what I thought or felt.

Then it was over.

I seriously, seriously doubted it was an earthquake. We looked out the window down the street at all of the houses fully expecting bedroom lights to come on one-by-one. But no. Not one house lit up.

Then, I started doubting that we even felt anything. I thought we were going crazy.

We walked around the main level, making sure there wasn’t a car temporarily embedded in our home. After that, we made our way upstairs where I asked Hubs if we should call the cops, to which he replied, “no. what are they going to do?”

Then I asked if we should call the local news station to report shaking, to which he replied, “no. what are they going to do?”

Then my cell rang and it was Matt. I answered by saying, “did we just have an earthquake?” I was really excited to be talking to someone b/c until we received confirmation of such, it was an uncomfortable feeling not know what had happened. Matt had called his parents who live about 30 miles south of us and they also felt it. At that moment, I felt the first sign of relief.

I turned on the TV and about 3 minutes later, the local news broke with the story that there was indeed an earthquake. It was about 4:55 am when they confirmed it, so for a solid 15 minutes, I questioned my sanity not knowing if what we felt was real or not. Freaky!

Fortunately, everything is fine. Obviously, it was the talk at the office today. Some people slept right through it. Most didn’t, though. It was interesting hearing the different thoughts people had. Seems most people just laid in bed even after they recognized it was probably an earthquake. They acknowledged it happened (out of assumption) then rolled over and went back to sleep! I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t sleep after that, so I stayed up watching the news coverage and checking out the blog world to see just how many people felt it.

For a day that started out pretty scarily, it ended up being a pretty cool day.

April 18th, 2008 Posted by Jessica | Life | one comment