You know, I never realized how close I held some of the people from my first job at the MCX to my heart until yesterday afternoon after reading a text from a female friend/former co-worker.

A young black man who'd been a rather close friend at the establishment had died on Thursday, due to the driver of the vehicle he was in passing the railroad guard rails only to be smacked by an Amtrak passenger train going 67 mph not even five seconds later.

Just as the news hit, memories of the good times we had at parties and other shenanigans we had gotten into at the MCX came back. The most vibrant one of these being when we drove some passed-out drunken fool
who'd had too many shots of Everclear straight back to his house, dumping him on the front doorstep, and then driving away after ringing the doorbell.

Pretty much everybody who'd worked with this young man already knows about his unfortunate and untimely death, and it even drove me to go on a vodka-induced drinking binge last night to try and forget about him being killed because of his dickweed friend.

Just... don't know what to do or say when the memorial service comes around, since his younger sister lost not just him, but her second-oldest brother as well.

tl;dr version, It hurts right now to know a personal friend just died in the very beginning of his adulthood, all because some reckless friend of his decided to cheat the system and pass the rails on a suspended license.

Almost feels like a serious punch to the gut right now.

Dude... that, is terrible, I can't even describe how sorry I feel for you. you have my condolences.

The worst thing about this is the anger at the driver for being such a ludicrous dumbass by passing by the crossing rails like they did.

Maybe if they hadn't done that, he'd still be alive and able to come back to VA some time to hang out w/the old gang.

But thanks.