Saturday, I called my sister to wish her a happy 15th birthday only to find out that my great grandmother, "Grammy," had passed away earlier that morning. Not the news I had been expecting or wanting to hear.

An hour after that phone call I was headed to the train and stopped by a neighbor informing me that the trains weren't running- which didn't make any sense because the trains are always running. He said there had been some sort of accident he guessed at the train stop north of us- He had seen a bunch of ambulances go by. Turns out that a man had recently jumped in front of an oncoming South bound train, killing himself. I couldn't believe it. I mean you hear about these things but THIS... it had JUST HAPPENED. I kept thinking, 20 minutes ago this man was still alive, just 20 minutes ago.

With the trains down, Cory and I jumped into a cab and I told the driver that the trains were down because someone had jumped. He looked absolutely shocked and then told us a story of when he was driving some 25 years ago and got stuck in traffic due to a man at the top of a building threatening to jump. The police had piled mattresses at the base of the building in case he did jump, hoping they would break the fall, while trying to talk this guy down. The guy kept saying that if anyone got too close, he would jump. Sure enough, a cop tried to move in on him and the guy jumped. My cabbie said that he saw it- watched him jump- but then turned away at the last minute. Later that night on the news he learned that the man had missed the mattresses by a foot.

Death is so weird- so sudden. So surreal. I mean, for my Grammy, I can be happy. She was 98 years old, her husband had been dead for almost 20 years, she was sick, she died peacefully and now she's in a better place. Then there's the man who jumped in front of the train- young with his whole life ahead of him, but obviously depressed and feeling like death was his last option. That's not a good end.

Sorry, I'm a bit pensive today. Maybe I'll go take a walk.

Cory just walked in and told me he just read that two people were killed by a bear while they were sleeping in Alaska! Two experienced campers, who had all their food in airtight, bear-proof containers, and they even had a firearm to use in case of an emergency- which they obviously didn't get to use. Scary. Like the girl who got killed by the shark over the weekend in Florida in the exact place my family goes every year.

Why can't the news cover good happy things?