The new shaken mama

So last night I got to cross one more thing off my list of things to do in this lifetime:

I survived an earthquake.

I say "survive" like it was a harrowing tale of drama and tragedy. All reality, it wasn't. It was just enough of a shake to wake me up, but nothing fell off shelves, walls were not ripped from their junctions and fires and chaos did not erupt. But it's definitely something of note when you live in...ahem...the midwest.

(Don't know what I'm talking about? Read yo' news, fool.)

It was another awesome night of No. Sleep. Til Brooklyn! with the Punky, so she and I were sleeping on the couch. I had just gotten her to sleep and had barely fallen asleep myself when I woke up to the house shaking. These are the following explanations I then rendered up in my sleep-deprived mind, in the order in which they occurred to me:

1.) Wind.
2.) A big train. (Our house is about 200 yards from tracks.)
3.) The ghosts that inhabit our house are fucking with me. I've seen Poltergeist, I know it's possible.
4.) Somehow A is fucking with me.
5.) Armageddon... maybe I shouldn't have been so adamant against the existence of a god?
6.) I am so sleep-deprived that I am imagining this. I have finally, officially lost my mind.

Notice, "earthquake" does not appear on the list -- but the possibility of ghosts does. That is how rare earthquakes are in these parts. I will suggest unproven supernatural phenomenon before I suggest natural occurrences.

A. came out of the bedroom and went to the bathroom, then peeked into the living room to see if I was awake. By then I had decided that whatever forces exist and abound, they just don't want me to sleep. First, I have a screaming infant til 4 a.m., and now the house is shaking for reasons yet unknown? Are you fucking kidding me?

"Is it just me or did the house just shake?" I asked him.
"Okay, you felt it too. I was just thinking I imagined it."

With that, we went to bed, content with our various explanations (none of which involved "earthquake") until the next morning when A read the news online before he left for work. He peeked into the bedroom to til me the news.

"Argarblegrabackgrahahhhhh," was my response. Because, you know, I never sleep. But somewhere in the depths of my sleep-starved mind, I found the news intriguing.