An Illinois Earthquake???
Friday, April 18th, 2008Absurd. Absolutely absurd. An earthquake in Illinois. Illinois! I’m shocked, but delighted to learn I’m not crazy.
This morning, about an hour before my alarm was to go off, I woke up to the sound of the long beaded necklaces hanging from a corner of my dresser mirror clanging ever so slightly. That, and my bed was shaking. My whole bed, shaking.
I layed there unmoving, not sure what was happening or what to do. For a moment, I actually considered it might be an earthquake. But how could that be? This is the Midwest. Growing up, I remembered the earthquake drills where we’d hide under our desks in elementary school, how “they” always warned of the “big one” that would hit the Midwest. But never has…
After the shaking ended, I continued to lay there, unsure what to do. I listened for sirens, anything, but nothing could be heard. Was it thunder? Was it a bomb? Did something collapse? I do live in a ridiculously old building… Was it my ghost playing tricks on me again in the middle of the night? If it was, I decided that I’d get someone in here to make it leave.
Finally, I leaped out of bed and went to the hallway, but nothing there. I spent the rest of the night on the couch, awaking again to learn from NPR that I wasn’t crazy. Well, maybe I’m still crazy, but not about this at least.
My alarm clock and the earthquake both went off at the same time, so I started pressing the snooze button to make the earthquake stop. It didn’t work. I was confused.