Got into National airport just about on time, despite the snowy conditions. (Yaaay, Continental.) Opted to get a taxi and waited for 30 minutes for one brave enough to go my direction. Got into the cab with a really nice Army guy who was checking into Ft. Belvoir for some training. 17 years in, and this is his first time to D.C., so we talked about the sites he couldn't miss while he was here.

After we got him to the billeting office around 8:30 (with a Dominos parked outside, which bodes well for his dinner), the cab driver and I started exchanging stories. He's a father of 15, 8 of whom survived, ranging from 34 down to 3. He was a political prisoner in Afganistan, and has driven a cab here for 15 years. The whole family lives together in the Lincolnia area, in three adjoining condos, and he's got two grandsons from his eldest daughter.

He was telling me how it's harder now to be a Muslim in this area with all the security consciousness, and he was relating a story about a series of tickets he received because another driver falsely accused him. Offers from lawyers started pouring in to defend him for $1500 or $2000, but he opted to defend himself, and at the end of the day, the judge dismissed all charges.

At this point, we're trundling down Route 1 at about 25 mph, and we noticed a truck. Careening sideways. As in perpendicular to the road. Which is going to definitely intersect our path since we're parallel to the road. And WHAM. The whole front end of the cab was smashed. The truck continued on its sideways path right off the road. I was on the floor, despite being buckled up, and somehow I managed to lose a shoe (additional note to self: boots with laces). Cab driver was banged up pretty good. He wasn't bleeding that I could see, but he'd hit his head, and he was holding his left leg. His door was sealed shut, so he climbed through on my side, and called 911. Dude in the truck looked dazed, but, then again, I probably would have been, too.

Cab driver handed me the phone. The dispatcher was wondering where we were located. I saw a cross street up ahead, and I sludged across the highway to pick out the name and read it off. She said she's sending a crew.

My cab driver had the presence of mind to call me another cab, and a few minutes later the rescue team arrived. Some asked questions, others assessed my cab driver and got him into the ambulance. I sat in the back of the cab to keep dry (but not terribly warm since it wasn't running or airtight any more). I checked in with the cab company, who took my number and said they'd give me a ring when they found a cab to send my way. An officer noticed it was freaking cold in the cab, and offered to let me sit in the back of the squad car while he filled out paperwork. He rocked. Opened the divider thing and cranked up the heat until I stopped shivering.

These are Fairfax County police officers, and I live in Prince William, so I'm not so much on their way home. Eventually I whimper, "I can see Fairfax County from my balcony. Does that count?" and another officer offered to transport me so I didn't have to wait for a possibly non-existent cab. He dropped me off at the top of Riverview, which was a good decision. We saw one car successfully traverse the downward slope, but squad cars are unwieldy, and on my walk downward I saw another car try unsuccessfully to make it up the same hill.

So. Now I'm sitting on the couch with Sug curled up on me. Just about everything aches, but I suspect that's a combination of being out in the wet cold and having my entire body infused with a lot of adrenaline that wasn't really necessary.

Annnnd that's it for me. Longest. Entry. Ever.