Today's Brush With Death

OK - this might not be all that interesting to you but it scared me half to death so I'm using this blog as my outlet so I don't bottle up my emotions.

I hit my mid-afternoon sleepy period around 2:15 every day and today I decided to go downstairs (I work in a 50+ story building in downtown Charlotte - on the 9th floor) and get a refill on my iced tea. I got on the elevator to go down and strangely the door opened on the 8th floor but nobody got on. That was strange but occasionally happens if somebody presses the wrong button or something. The doors close and the elevator goes into a FREE FALL! The thing is falling so fast that I'm losing my balance in the elevator and almost crashed into the side wall. Then it jerks to a stop and just sits there.

I'm all alone on this elevator wondering what the heck I'm going to do so I decide to press the 'door open' button. The door opens about 1/4 of the way and I see that I'm on the ground floor of the building and the ground where I usually step out is about even with my chest. So...in my work clothes no less, I push the door open to the point that I can climb out of the elevator and narrowly escape a close call with a serious injury! FYI...that whole thing about if you jump at the same time that the elevator reaches the bottom - that doesn't work. It was going so fast there was no time to think of that, much less muster a jump the way that car was shaking.