Diana's first class seat on The Denver Flight of Doom

I flew to Denver on Thursday for a client meeting, and what follows in the harrowing tale of my connecting flight from Dallas to Denver that afternoon. (Aunt Sue, you might not want to read further.)

I purchased the ticket the day before, snagging one of the last seats available, which happened to be in first class. The flight was turbulent but I couldn't complain, since they provided warm towels, warm nuts, (no kidding), and even dinner (!) in first class, which wasn't too bad. As we made our final descent into an apparently stormy Denver though, the thick clouds obstructed our view out the windows. At what seemed only a few minutes from landing, the plane suddenly pulled out of its descent and began climbing again. The pilot came on the loudspeaker and informed us that air traffic control had us coming in to close to another plane and we'd have to circle back and try again.
Only a few turbulent minutes later, I heard through the cockpit door, "pull up! pull up!" and the plane climbed steeply back up to cruising altitude. I wasn't sure if anyone else had heard this, but looked over at the distressed stewardess in the jumpseat on the phone with the captain, as she held her face with worry. Um, not a good sign, I thought, I stared out the window at the thick clouds, hoping we would land soon. Suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a thunderous crack and a flash of light that filled the plane, causing many to jump, and the woman next to me to gasp loudly and grab at me in fear. We all braced ourselves for more lightning, but luckily, after 15 long minutes, we landed, resulting in cheers from the passengers.
Taxiing down the runway, I noticed that the tarmac was crawling with firetrucks, and we wondered aloud to each other if they were meant for us. When we parked at the gate, the captain announced over the loudspeaker that we were owed an explanation. Turns out that after we pulled out of our initial descent, the pilot's controls lit up with a "terrain warning," which later turned out to be false, but required the captain to gain altitude for safety's sake. Once higher in the clouds, our plane was actually struck by that lightning bolt we heard, and the captain declared an emergency to air traffic control, hence all the firetrucks.
So, despite almost hitting another plane, the ground, and getting struck by lightning, I made it to Denver. whew!