Shake, Rattle, and Roll

Early this morning at around 1:30 AM, the room started shaking. Talk about rocking and rolling,  I felt as if I were suddenly on a boiling, angry ocean.  I knew it was an earthquake.  This was not the first earthquake I’ve been in but it was the first one I was NOT on the ground level when it rolled through.

I woke up just after the room began shaking.  Through a fog of half sleep, I decided it was an earthquake, so being originally from Southern California, I went to Plan A.  So my first thought through the shaking was:
 1.I need to get to the bathroom door frame because it is the safest place.
2. I’m on the 7th floor. 
3. No way is that going to protect me with several floors above me. The doorway is not going to remain standing while the rest of the building falls.
I’d probably end up as the filling in a sandwich of floors.

All this time I had not moved.  I still stared at the light coming in the window while the building danced.  So I threw that idea out the door and went to Plan B:
 1. I could crawl under the bed which might offer protection.
2. This is a hotel so the mattress is on one of those wooden platforms designed to keep you from loosing anything underneath it.
3. The bed is so close to the ground that I might have fit under it when I was 5 but not as an adult.

Ok, toss that plan out the window.  At this point, the quake was still shaking the building, so I came up with my final plan. One born out of desperation and insanity.
1. Hide under all 5 pillows strewn over my bed.
2. It might offer some protection in case the hotel falls apart.
3. Maybe not.
Yes I did burrow under the pillows and the shaking finished about that time.  I waited, hidden under the protection of my pillows, breathlessly wondering if there would be any significant aftershocks.

About 10 min later, I called the front desk to verify there had been an earthquake.   An hour later, I turned on the television to see if I could find out anything on the event.  Yes, I has having trouble going back to sleep.  The earthquake was mentioned on Fox News as being a 7.1 Earthquake originating in Pedro Bay, south of Anchorage. No injuries or damage reported. This was around 3 AM

I finally got back to bed around 3:30 but I never got back to the same deep sleep I experienced before the earthquake.  The only reassuring thought I had through the event is that my hotel and others in the downtown area were built after the devastating1960’s Good Friday earthquake.  The front desk said that until it reaches a magnitude of 8.1, they don't have to evacuate because the hotel meets current building standards.

I still prefer to be on the ground floor, in a house, rather than a multistory building because I feel so much safer.

Note: due to the internet being down, I couldn’t post it first thing this morning but had to wait till after they fixed the internet which meant I had to go to my conference first and wait till the now to post this.