This story disappeared from my other blog back when it blew up a few years ago and I thought it was time to bring it back.

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Ok, true story. (Circa 2007)

My co-worker and I are trying to get through the airport last Friday morning after being at the MVP Summit all last week. We had just got off the shuttle from the car rental to the airport and were carrying our bags on the way to check in to our flight.

Then it happened.

My co-worker was in front of me (imagine 6’2″, 450lbs) on the escalator carrying all of his bags, and I had mine with me, my laptop in my backpack and my other luggage at my side.

I was still trying to wake up since it was still pretty early; so I don’t remember if anything was said before I started to see my co-worker lose his footing and begin to fall back towards me, it just happened too fast.

For a split second, I might have actually tried to stop his fall. For those that know my co-worker, he is a rather….large man, so it didn’t take long for my survival instincts to kick in and I attempted to get out-of-the-way. By then it was way too late.

Next thing I know I am tumbling down the escalator sideways, like a towel on tumble dry. I could hear my laptop hitting each time I tumbled end over end, but then I didn’t know if it was that or my bones cracking as I hit each step on the way down. It only took me a fraction of a second to realize my second problem. I was falling down but the stairs were carrying me up at the same time. It’s surprising how clear your thoughts are when you are tumbling down stairs. There was only one thing left to do as I heard the snapping and cracking as I fell.

“STOP IT!!!!” came the shrieking cry of a little girl sounding like she just saw her favorite kitten get run over by a truck. Over and over I heard “STOP IT!!!!!” Shortly there after, the stairs did stop carrying me up the stairs. Luckily there were people behind us that had survived the avalanche and had reached the emergency stop button. As I looked around for the little girl who was screaming for her cat, I realized that was me screaming. Man I hope it sounded manlier than what I heard.

After I picked myself up, the three other MVP’s that were behind us on the escalator helped me push my co-worker to his feet. He had ended up flat on his back with feet pointed up to the next floor and his head pointed to the bottom of the stairs, his baggage on top of him

Luckily none of us broke any bones and my laptop works just fine. Meanwhile I am one sore SOB with one hell of a set of bruises just about all over. No wonder I slept the whole flight home.