A rude awakening on an early morn

It was pitch black out when I was rudely woken up in a panic. I heard a loud noise and my bed shook from side to side.

Right then, I knew it was an earthquake. I looked at my clock; it was 4:38 a.m.

It didn't last long, but it was enough to get a rise out of me. My body was shaking of nerves and my heart was pounding.

I went to my mom's bedroom to see if she had felt it. She had said no; it must have been nothing. She heard the noise and thought it was me coming out of my room to go to the bathroom; it wasn't.

She wasn't quite sure what to think. I went back to my room and laid down.

She came in two minutes later saying they were talking about it on the radio. I knew I wasn't crazy. So we listened.

They had given it a 5.2 on the Richter scale, which is pretty high. If it had reached a 7, the earth would have opened up.

After calming down, I fell back asleep slowly. My body was not completely relaxed.

This hadn't been the first quake I've felt. The last one was a couple years ago.

This one felt different though. Last time, it rolled under my bed as if a wave had lifted me and moved on the other side of the room where it shook my mirrors on the wall and then vanished.

This time I heard a loud noise first and then my bed shook. Maybe because it was a bigger one; last time had been rated a 2.

I called my fiancé at 4:50 a.m., waking him up. I had told him what happened and he was confused. He put comedy into it by saying, "Is Wrigley Field still standing?"

That put a smile on my face.

My mind was wondering as my eyes slowly closed. Before I knew it, my phone was going off and it woke me. I was drowsy, tired and out of it. This was going to be a long day.

Christine Doheny

Northbrook