I wanted to be in an earthquake all my life, but living in Kansas and Missouri, I always thought it would take the Big One in the Boot Heel of Missouri (we actually had earthquake drills when I was in grade school on the opposite side of the state).
I never imagined that I would experience it living up near Kansas City, KS. For the Americans, remember those earthquakes that Oklahoma was experiencing a few months back? Ok, maybe it was a few, but it was some time this past spring. The largest of those earthquakes was actually large enough to felt up here, about 300 miles away.
It happened at night. I had just gone to bed after reading the latest news, and was actually asleep. But then I felt my bed rocking, and the first thought that popped into my mind was, "Boy, Cacher (my dog) sure is scratching at fleas hard." It wasn't but a moment later that I realized that Cacher was locked up in his pen, downstairs, and even if he were on my bed, he wouldn't be capable of making my wine glasses clank on their shelves. "Did I just experience an earthquake?"
Fortunately, I had been writing in bed, so I had my lap top sitting on the floor next to my bed. So, I did what any interested person would do and went to the USGS website to their map of Earthquakes. I felt disappointment roll through me as I saw that there had been no earthquakes in the previous day, let alone the past five minutes. But, since I was on the website I poked around a little bit and by the time I returned to the map, there it was! Excitement ensued.
Just wish I were more awake and on the ground floor so I could really feel and pay attention to the waves.