Last night, an earthquake hit Chicago. Ok, so technically it was early this morning, and technically nothing "got hit" or even remotely damaged by the measly 3.8 earthquake. NONETHELESS, it happened. And I felt it. Here's my story:
I fell asleep early last night, exhausted from an evening of studying, and slept like the dead until about 3:58am. When I opened my eyes, it was dark and quiet in my bedroom, and yet I was suddenly wide awake.
"Hmm, that's curious." I thought. "Self, why are you awake?"
AND THEN IT HAPPENED.
I heard a distant rumble, and it was as if a giant, gentle hand nudged the house. Well, maybe it was more of a firm shove, because everything rocked back and forth, up and down for perhaps three seconds.
"Woah." I whispered as my bed continued to bounce even after the terra firma stopped doing so. And as I lay there, trying to reconcile what just happened with the logical part of my brain, my illogical self spoke up instead.
"So, Self, next the house is going to collapse, and then you are going to die. I wonder when that part happens. Do you think it will hurt much?"
"Don't be stupid." piped up my logical self. "It was just a big gust of wind...or something."
"Oh, no it wasn't." replied Ms. Illogical. "You should probably run screaming into the street. Save yourself, for heaven's sake!"
"Now, calm down." I said aloud, fighting the stream of adrenaline that had been injected into my circulatory system. "This is ILLINOIS. There's a foot-and-a-half of snow out there! Besides, there's no faultline in Illinois. Go back to sleep."
And so I rolled over, shivering at the thought of poking one toe out of my bed, much less dashing outdoors (even if it was to escape my impending doom). Instead I snuggled back under my covers, already halfway back to slumberland. I had almost faded out when that pesky illogical voice made its final point.
"But, what if..."
"FINE! Fine." I relented, grabbing my phone from the headboard and checking the time. "4:00am, on the dot." said Logic smugly. "We'll see who's right in the morning."
Ms. Illogic, even you can get lucky sometimes.
oh lord, i feel you! Japan has earthquakes all the TIME (oh, and volcanoes, typhoons, tsunamis are all possible). in fact they have ALREADY NAMED the next big one that is about 4 years overdue. After thinking about my escape plan long and hard, i have come to the conclusion that the only safe place i can possible be is in the air, in a helicopter. Not an airplane, because if all the runways were destroyed, we would have to crash land. But a helicopter would be just fine (seeing as how they can land anywhere). My escape plan is genius! I just have to make sure I'm in one ahead of time!
ReplyDeleteI woke up, thinking that a school bus had driven into the apartment. "freaking bus" I thought *world stops shaking* "good bus" sleep followed.
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