Earthquakes in Michigan???

Wait, WHAT? Yes, you heard me correctly…we had an earthquake in Michigan this morning at 5:30 a.m.!!! Get out! I thought when I left California that I wouldn’t have to deal with the shake rattle and roll…guess I was wrong. The earthquake was actually in Illinois, but people could feel it all the way out here in the mitten state. I, however, did not feel the earth move. I learned a long time ago how to just sleep through the things…no big deal in California…we shake all the time man! I vividly remember one earthquake when I was in high school. It was sometime during the night and I woke up to my whole bed shaking. And what did I do? Did I get under a table and cover my head? No. Did I run to the doorway for protection? No. I, set in my silly California-girl ways, just stayed in my cozy bed and enjoyed the ride. Once it was over, my mom called out to me “are you okay?” I said, “yeah” and then fell back asleep. That’s how we do it in California.

That is NOT how things go down here in Michigan, let me tell ya. It was all over the news this morning…it was a BIG story! I went on to the Grand Rapids T.V. news page today and they have a section where they post viewer emails. Some of them just crack me up. Here are a few that made me laugh:

“I felt the earthquake this morning. My dog was standing at the foot of my bed starring at me strangely and our bed was vibrating. I just thought it was my husband snoring.” (Ha! I love it!)

“I was woke up because my bed was shaking and I thought it was the cat jumping up on the bed, but there was no cat then I just thought maybe I was dreaming.” (ya, my cats can shake the bed like that too…and I love how she says “I was woke up”…can you say hick?)

“I was sleeping and my dresser handles started clanging and my bed was moving and I thought what in the world is going on, it’s like a scene out of the Exorcist movie or something. Then it quit.” (ya, because it was that strong…Pul-lease! Move to California, then you can feel a real earthquake!)

“Here in Rockford our cats totally freaked out. The 20 pound cat Minette woke my hubby up when she leaped up onto his lap at 5:30 am and another one of the cats was running around the house and just leaping up off the walls about 5 feet high. The others are all ‘on alert’. Me, I slept right through it.” (This is my favorite email. Ha! First, she has a 20 pound cat?!?! Talk about a wake up call. Maybe she is related to Pancake? Plus, the cats were leaping up off the walls? What? Is this spider-cat or something? Oh, and then “the others” were on alert…how many cats do they have? Talk about crazy cat lady…)

“I was watching “Lucy” this morning when all of a sudden my sofa began shaking (with me on it!), my glasses in the sink were rattling, and my wind chimes were banging on the side of the house. I thought my house was falling apart, I ran outside to get my cat, apparently earthquakes don’t affect cats she was just sitting in the yard sniffing the air. Way too early to rock and roll for me.” (Your cat is worthless…she can’t even leap off the walls.)

See what I mean? Michigan people are total freaks about earthquakes.