1044 Imagine chaperoning on this school trip

Cindy (one of my linkers) and her husband were chaperoning a group of 12 seniors in Washington DC and were in the Capitol Building when it was evacuated during that airspace scare last week.

When they weren't moving quickly enough, one cop yelled: ""Don't you remember 9/11? This is not a drill! RUN!!!"

Meantime, sirens of all kinds were sounding, official cars were zooming by with police escorts, whistles were blowing, and we heard fighter jets overhead. My first reaction was confusion, then disbelief--"This CAN'T be happening!" Then fear sets in, then self-preservation. My husband was struggling to keep our group together. Girls were having trouble running because of sandals and flip-flops; one boy in our group lost a shoe at one point and had to get it back on; all the while people continued to yell at us to "run! move! get out of here!"

I don't know how far we ran, maybe only a few blocks, but we re-grouped in front of the Department of Health and Human Services building, and shortly afterward a security guard informed us that the all-clear had been given. Shaken, out of breath, still on edge but relieved, we started calling family members on our cell phones."
Whole story here.

My story isn't nearly as exciting, but I'll tell it anyway. Friday night we went with our neighbors Bill and Jean to "Old Bag of Nails" where we'd eaten almost every Friday night since it opened until mid-February when they changed the menu. We hadn't been there in almost three months. Last night we were watching the 10 p.m. news and that restaurant was the focus of a robbery/chase story on Saturday.

"Upper Arlington and Columbus police chase a suspected robber through the streets.
Police say Darryl Kelly robbed the Old Bag of Nails Pub in Upper Arlington, and took off with police cruisers close behind. The chase went on for 7 miles through Upper Arlington and Columbus. At one point Kelly's car smashed into one of the police cruisers trying to stop him. The chase finally ended 11 minutes later at Taylor and Rosethorn Ave." . . . [Recently, we've been eating at Lane Ave., but apparently he was there on Friday and we weren't]. . . "Upper Arlington police say a man armed with a revolver entered into the Christopher and Banks store at the Lane Avenue mall late Friday afternoon."
(Channel 10 story)