i thought i was going to die today.... twice. during the landing in greensboro airport, the plane started shaking and wobbling left and right. about 3 seconds before the landing, the plane was at about a 25 degree angle before the landing, then suddenly the plane jeered right and we landed. i thought it was turbulence, but nope, just a newbie pilot... female, i might add. the only thing that kept my sanity - and a lot of other people's sanity - was that there was a pilot sitting as a passenger and he didn't look worried at all and was just chatting away. if he had suddenly jumped up or grabbed onto his seat, i would have crapped my pants. even people in front of the pilot was turned around looking for his reaction. i'm sure the pilot knew what was going on.

on my way back home from the airport, my driver decided to ignore 'road closed' barricades on the road. the first barricade didn't cover up the whole street so he just whizzed right by it. in my head i was thinking, 'oh, he must know a shortcut since he knows the area so well... that sign must be old or the construction crew forgot to put it away or something.' then the second sign came up, and that covered about 80% of the road. mind you, i was in one of those big 10 passenger vans and there was no way this van was going to squeeze by. the driver didn't even slow down, and drove on the median with the edge of the barricade just scratching the side of the car. i repeat, HE DIDN'T EVEN SLOW DOWN. that's about the time i got really scared. then the third barricade came, and that covered 100% of the road, both lanes including the median. he wasn't slowing down until it finally clicked in his head about 20 feet away from the barricade that he wasn't giong to make it through. i literally braced for an impact by holding on to the seat infront of me while my eyes were as big as golf balls (that's pretty big considering the size of my slanty eyes) and my heart stopped beating. images of dukes of hazard came to my mind. a part of me was scared and another part of me was excited - i really thought we were just going to bust through the barricade and it just seemed like something i wanted to do but never had the courage to do it. but the old man slammed on the brakes and stopped about 2 inches from the barricade.
the old african-american driver says to me, "hey, what's going on here, i guess they blocked the road!"
i reply, "i guess you're not going to bust through this one."

i guess i shouldn't have given him a tip for driving like that, but i still did. it was definitely entertaining.