I just heard a news story that kinda sent chills down my spine. Last night I went out to The Strip, which is a 2-block area right off campus with a bunch of bars. I had a couple drinks with a friend (yeah, I know. I'm back on the wagon today), we met some guy that we talked to for a while and barhopped with him. We ran out of money and went home, no big deal. I just heard on the news that last night while I was out on The Strip a 40-something man brought his 24-year-old son to town and went to The Strip. The son has some emotional problems and was "looking for someone to hurt." It didn't matter who it was, and his dad actually drove him to town to let him find a drunk college kid to hurt. Who does that? Anyway, I guess he found some 19-year-old kid at the bars (they hardly ever check IDs when it's quiet at the bars around here, it's pretty normal for 19- and 20-year-olds to be in the bars) and took him out to the lake where I take my walks and beat him up pretty badly. Some guys fishing found him this morning, he was still alive but he couldn't talk because he was kicked in the throat. He wrote a note to the police and they found the guy who beat him up. I have no idea who the kid was, it's possible (though unlikely) that it was the guy we were barhopping with.
That's terrifying, easily could have been me. It's been weird. I did some coke a couple weeks ago and the next day started hearing all sorts of stories about people who overdosed on coke. And now I got this sort of cosmic warning about drinking and hanging out in bars. I'm feeling quite unsettled at the moment.