Is the sky falling or the earth jumping?

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Roughly an hour ago, 2 AM local time, I believe that I may have experienced my first earthquake. Shocking as that may seem to anyone reading this from California or along any tectonic plate boundaries, I've never felt an earthquake before.

Hurricane? Check.
Blizzard? Of course.
Tornado? Oh yeah. Watched one coming down through the clouds not half a mile away in April '06. That was scaaaaaary.

I've experienced the majority of nature's little climactic quirks, and now, I've added another one to the list. YEAH!

I know, earthquakes aren't really something you should get excited about, unless you're an earthquake scientist, and then you should still find a doorway. Furthermore, in light of what hit China a few weeks ago, I should probably have more of the fear in me. Unfortunately, it's difficult to compare/equate what I experienced with something so tremendously destructive.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. So this is how it happened. I'm in bed, reading and minding my own business of "not going to sleep yet" when I hear a slight rumbling noise. Pretty typical stuff when it's quiet at night; could've been any 18-wheeler passing by for no obvious reason. But this sound was then accompanied by an unmistakable quaking. I lay in bed thinking "Oh my gawd. Is this really an earthquake? This is it?" (No one ever said I got A's in common sense.) I mean, the bed shook a little, and I heard a wall panel sigh a little in exasperation, along with chattering from the glass in the window frame, but that right there sums it up.

Before tonight, I'd dreaded the pending threat of an earthquake, but this is Chile, and it was bound to happen. Now that it has, I'm not scared of the baby ones anymore, and I can only pray fervently that the big kahunas keep snoozing for a while longer. I'm only in town another six weeks or so, and I would appreciate it if those feisty plates could just stay in place until then. Or rather, as long as everyone I know and care about is still around, and maybe even until all their descendants disappear, too. So pretty much never. But I know the futility of that wish, so I'm just going to keep rooting for the six week marker.

Anyways, first earthquake. Thought I'd relate. What fun!

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