A Friday at UCSB. Unfortunatley More Typical Than Not.

The young man arrives in his building's lobby having just given a friend's friend a ride home from the Greyhound station. It's something he's happy to do, he was on the receiving end of the ride at times in the past as well. As he ambles by the formal lounge, he spots a chess game going on, and tiptoes in to have a look-see. The young man is engrossed in what he thinks the next best move is, when he hears the wailing from the lobby. A girl has just come out of the elevator and is frantic, a complete jumble of words and sounds not all of which are intelligible, but both the young man and the young woman at the front desk can pick up the girl's room number, and the words "roommate" and "alcohol poisoning." Better safe than sorry, the front desk worker calls the campus emergency number. Literally before she's finished describing the situation over the phone, a CSO officer arrives via bike at the front door. By this time the young man is out in the lobby curious as to what's going on, and if he can do anything to help. He unlocks the door for the officer who hurriedly moves towards the East tower where the victim is located. Minutes later, paramedics arrive with a stretcher. The young man's eyes glaze over as he watches the stretcher rolled across the floor in front of him. His mind flashes back to the number of times in his short three year experience with this school that he's seen this situation before. He realizes he'll probably see this situation again. A different stretcher, a different person, a different reason, but all because of the same mistake.

Think that basically says it all. It's amazing how the mood around here can go from "bouncy happy cheerful excited let's party" to "slumping sad tearful depressed what have I done", in a mere few hours. I feel like I should be giving some sort of advice here, but do I really need to spell it out?