All Shook Up

I woke up at 4:37 this morning with the bed vibrating and something rattling on the dresser.
"What's that?" I said.
"Just the wind," Matt mumbled.
"I think it's an earthquake," I said. "Why would things inside be shaking if it was just the wind?"

Matt didn't really respond, and it went away pretty quickly (I think it took me a while to come to, so I missed most of it) so I had kind of a "huh--that's interesting" reaction and went back to sleep. I had a dream sometime between then and 5:50, in which I told someone what had happened, but concluded it wasn't really anything.

After I hit "snooze" a couple times, I woke up at 6:10 to some song with the word "shaking" in the chorus (not Elvis, not Twist & Shout, I just can't remember), and then the deejay came on and made some cheesy connection between the song and the fact that we'd had an earthquake overnight. "Huh--so that was real."

Anyway, all that to say, we experienced an earthquake this morning! The epicenter was in southern Illinois, and they say the 5.4 quake was felt from Minnesota on down to Alabama. I kind of wish it had been during waking hours so I would have a better recollection of what it was like, but that's a silly thing to wish. The New Madrid Fault has been overdue for a "big one" for a while, so I really should not wish to experience another!

It's a nice conversation piece, though. Kind of like my stint as an undercover underage alcohol buyer for the Greenville County police in college. But that's another story...