I didn't go on any "trips" while I was under the general anesthesia. I'm almost disappointed. I remember the lurid, halluciogenic dreams I had when I had my operation when I was 4½ years old, and, while they were terrifying to me then, I was thinking that I might have good visions now that I'm old enough to know what's going on and could prepare my brain in advance by thinking about something as I'm drifting off.
The anesthetic was in a jumbo/LARGE IV bag, administered through a drip needle placed on the back of my left hand. I had great hopes that I'd find myself opening my eyes on the island of
Lost, telling everyone things that are so obvious that I wonder why they haven't figured them out yet (like how "Henry Gale" is really a rejuvenated Alvar Hanzo... at least according to online theories, I have no inside spoilers for the third season) and then finding out that
Lost is real and all my memories of Montreal and Ottawa were implanted by the Dharma Initiative. Or, maybe, I could be riding an elephant in the jungles of Kerala or Chiang Rai. Or tear a Ferrari 355 around the Fiorano test track in Maranello, Italy. Or, perhaps, I could chat with the recently-departed, like my uncle Peter or the stingray'd Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin (since I'm someone who does believe in ghosts to some degree and that they can be seen when you're in a semi-conscious state). But... eh... nothing happened. The dental nurse, after checking my blood pressure and heart rate, stuck the needle in my wrist, I started to feel all floaty, and then, I just blacked out, no dreams or hallucinations, and the next thing I knew was that I was being wheeled in a wheelchair to the recovery room. It was a total textbook tooth extraction without complications. I didn't feel any pain after the freezing wore off, and I have hardly had to use the Tylenol Codeine painkillers I was prescribed. Much better than the previous times I've had dental surgery.
Even after the surgery, I still felt up for getting a Big Mac meal from the drive-thru at Merivale McDonald's. I ate the fries while my mother was getting the prescription drugs at the Shopper's Drug Mart in Merivale Mall, and I just "vegged" on the couch at home eating the Big Mac while searching, in vain, for a
Lost rerun. (Why the hell didn't either ABC or CTV show it this summer? I was hoping to re-watch the season to catch everything I missed.)
I was groggy for most of last Wednesday evening, but, by midnight, I was feeling back to normal, though I still felt a bit out of sorts on Thursday.
OH MAN...
I turn on Rush Limbaugh halfway through his show and what's the first thing I hear him mention?
Students being shot at Dawson College in Montreal, which is the CEGEP I attended from 1996 to 1998 (damn, I started a decade ago now?).
From what I gather from Newsworld reports, these shootings took place in the atrium cafeteria, which is on the ground level, though the level above the Metro level which is why some people say the second floor, to the west of the two storey atrium. It's an area enclosed by walls on three sides, with only one major way in or out (though there probably are some fire exits that I don't remember offhand). The atrium itself has some openings looking down to the Metro level, which would be good for sniping, though they couldn't actually shoot towards the Atwater Metro from that vantage point as there's a double-right-angle hallway between Dawson and the Metro station.
Montreal police are saying that 3 people have been critically-injured, and there might be more than one gunmen.
EDIT: Dawson College staff member Arielle Reid is telling Dawson students to go to Concordia University's Hall Building at 1455 DeMaisonneuve W. and to look for anyone in a "STAFF" shirt.
The shooter may have fled to Plaza Alexis-Nihon mall, connected to Dawson via Atwater Metro, after the shooting, and might have shot himself.
From what I hear, this guy was a goth "Trenchcoat Mafia" Eric Harris/Dylan Klebold wannabe, dressed in a black trenchcoat, boots, and studs. I hope we don't go through another "ban violent videogames/cartoon" cycle here in Canada because of this.
EDIT II: It's currently the top story on newsbreaks on
KOGO, the San Diego radio station whose live streaming feed I listen to to hear Rush Limbaugh, and local San Diego hosts Mark Larson and Roger Hedgecock after Rush.
EDIT III: RDI, the French version of Newsworld, is saying that there were two shooters, and they're now both dead, one from suicide and the other shot by cops.
EDIT IV: Newsworld is saying 4 dead, though it's unclear whether or not that includes the shooters, and the police have surrounded some kind of building a few blocks west on DeMaisonneuve.
EDIT V: Now Don Neuman has seditionist Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe talking about the boondoggle gun registry, even though the weapons used were clearly automatic weapons already illegal in Canada. Also, Dawson is an
anglophone CEGEP, so you'd think Duceppe... nah, I better not "go there".
EDIT VI: Now San Diego radio talk show host
Mark Larson said something sure to infuriate the Heidi Rathjen gun control types, that if Dawson College students were allowed to "pack heat" for self-defense, the shooters could have been put down before they did much damage. Don't get mad at me, Mark Larson said it, not me
(though I agree with him).
EDIT VII: Yeah, if you're going to be shot in Montreal, Dawson College is the place to be as you're close to two hospitals, Montreal General just above the top of Atwater on the westernmost slopes of Mount Royal (a building which I remember staring at and doodling sketches of in my notebook during one particularly boring class) and Montreal Children's Hospital, just south of Cabot Square, only two blocks south of Dawson on Atwater.
The Children's Hospital is the large building seen in the background of this photo I took in 2003.
Weirdly, I don't have any good shots of Dawson College in my photo archives.
