I cheated death in the Pentagon City food court.
No, seriously. I was eating a late lunch with jungfroid, starlightgloom, thepinklamb and Kim. It was July 3rd. MIB II had just been released. We were sitting on the edge of the foodcourt, just in front of the Electronics Boutique where I work “part part time.”
I was minding my own business, chatting excitedly about nothing in particular when suddenly, a loud ring interrupted us. Right in between Kim and myself, a long, heavy piece of metal which had been previously part of the protective railing–clanged on the floor with an extremely disconcerting clatter. It had somehow been knocked loose from three floors above us. After its liberation, it had accelerated to a good speed and fell into the six inch gap between Kim and myself. The loud ring we had heard was the piece hitting my chair.
Six inches either way would have placed the shaft into either my head, or Kim’s. Not a pleasant prospect.
So remember:
No matter how much you need to sit down and eat, no matter how full the food court is–try for something in the center. Preferably out of the dropping range of some psycho and a cinder block, or that fake potted plant they have hanging as “decor.”