Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Near death experience

This past weekend was Columbus Day weekend, and I was trying to think of someplace to go. Kind of at the last minute, I found a cheap flight to Ohio, so I decided to visit my sister and her family. After I made the reservation, I was choosing my seats on the plane and realized I was taking a mini-plane there and an even smaller plane back. These little planes tend to make a lot of people nervous, including me sometimes because they tend to be a little more vulnerable to turbulence. That evening, I saw on the news that there was a plane crash and it kind of got in my head that my plane was going to crash, too. I can usually talk myself out of those kinds of crazy thoughts, but I did start to think about what poor soul would have to go through my stuff if I didn't make it back in one piece. I'll admit, though, that I did think about it on Saturday before I took off and again last night before my flight this morning, but that's it. I landed safe and sound at Laguardia and didn't even give it a thought....

Until I was on the M60 bus and this weird looking guy got on the bus. He kind of looked like that American guy that was part of Al Queda that was tried for treason... long hair, long beard, shifty eyes, etc. He got on the bus and did not have change so he tried to pay for the bus with dollar bills. The driver told him that he should ask the other passengers if anyone could make change. I took out my wallet because I knew I had a bunch of quarters, but instead of asking, he continued to seem puzzled and then said he would get off at the next stop. The driver dropped him off immediately instead of waiting for the next stop and instructed him to go in and get change. The guy got off the bus, but left his two large suitcases on the bus. Then the driver took off. I kind of thought he looked down and saw the suitcases, but apparently he didn't because he just kept on driving. This is when I started thinking my premonition had been right after all and I was going to die--just not on the plane but on the bus when these two suitcases exploded. I waited for a second and then went to tell the driver that Shifty Eyes left his suitcases on the bus. The driver decided he'd drive in a circle, back to the airport, to see if he could find the guy. People agreed with him that this was the only thing he could do, and I just kept watching the bags, waiting for them to explode.

We almost made the entire loop back to the airport and as we did so, the driver saw the guy. I have no idea what he was thinking when he found that the bus and all his belongings were gone, but apparently, he decided to just walk away because he was all the way on the other side of the airport. (Like, if we were driving east, he was walking west.) The driver pulled over and jumped out and was gone for a loooong time. They got back on the bus, and Shifty Eyes still did not have change, so I gave him a few quarters and another woman gave him some change. Just then he said he was trying to get to the 7 train, and the driver told him he was on the wrong bus and dropped him off again .

Not exactly a near-death experience but if you hear about a #48 bus exploding in Queens, you will know that that could have been me!

...Wait... do you think the dollar bill he gave me could have been laced with Antrax?

1 comment:

One Sassy Princess said...

this is why I love you so much! My imagination does the same to me in such situations! Glad you are still alive!!!