![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fun in Montreal...
Aug. 7th, 2004 05:32 pmI know, I know . . . I've been bad. It's been what . . . 2 months since I've written in my Live Journal? Too long. So here's a very large update:
I almost killed myself yesterday. I'm in Montreal, for the Gathering of Gargoyles, a convention showcasing the Disney cartoon, Gargoyles. More on that later. I was supposed to be delivering dinner to Chris and Becca at 7:00 pm. It was 7:10 before I finally found a suitable place (more on that later) to grab food and I was hurring back to the hotel. Now everyone in this city, and I am not exagerating, crosses intersections without waiting for the street lights to change, at least downtown. All day, I had been being good, and causing a small pedestrian traffic jam by actually having the gall to wait for the "WALK" sign to light up. But now I was in a hurry and rush hour was over so the traffic was low. The street I was crossing was a 3 lane one way street so it should have been a no brainer . . . and yet somehow, inexplicably as I keep going over what happened in my head, I stepped out and was sideswiped by a gold SUV going 35 or 40. Maybe sideswiped is too strong a word. Maybe saying that the SUV hit me is too strong. I think I stepped into the side of the car as it passed me. It definately hit the bag of chineese food I was carrying, sending food and soda cans flying across the intersection. I hit the side of the SUV (behind the side-view mirror) and I have a small wound on my left arm that I'm thinking is from the chrome trim running along the side of the car. And the back tire ran over my foot. The big toe of my right foot is black-and-blue under the toenail, but it's not swelling so I probably won't loose the nail.
I staggered back a few steps and the SUV screeched to a halt a short distance away. I noticed that my cell phone was on the ground (knocked from my belt holster) so I picked it up and got to the corner of the street that had been my destination. The driver got out with a strange combination of concern and anger on his face. I think I must have looked stunned. I didn't hurt anywhere and all my limbs worked, so I waved to him. He yelled asking if I was alright. I said I was, and asked if I had damaged the car. He said no without looking and I apologized for what was my fault. He got back in his SUV shaking his head and drove -- slowly -- off. I walked one more block back to the hotel. My foot and arm didn't start hurting until I was in the elevator, and I was greatly relieved when I got my shoe off and got a good look at my toe.
Chris and Becca were still at opening ceremonies where Greg Weisman was making a very neat presentation of a script for an episode of the proposed Atlantis cartoon series (which died before ever airing) which was a Gargoyle crossover. So I couldn't even tell them my story for another 30 minutes. After that though, we wound up in the hotel bar and I was feeling much better after a shot of Tequila and 2 White Russians. Sitting here today, the blister on my left foot (that I got from walking around the last couple days) hurts worse than either my right toe or my arm. So I was lucky . . . really lucky. If I'd been a foot farther out into the intersection I'd be in the hospital right now.
The strangest thing about the whole experience is how I've been reacting to it. I find it hard to take it too seriously. Rationally, I know how close it was, I know how dangerous it was. I was feeling the adrenaline and whatnot last night, but kind of expected to have this emotional breakdown late last night once the drugs were out of my system and the "enormity of the situation" caught up with me. But no. I just find it amusing. Well, amusing isn't quite the right word, more bemused, and kind of braggy that I survived. But none of that life flashing before my eyes or rededicating my life to hel;ping others or living in the day. The biggest thing it's doing is making me reconsider my plans to bicycle around the city on Monday.
Well, enough of that. The whole family is in Montreal. We arrived at dinner time on Wednesday with 150 lbs of books after only being delayed in Chicago for an hour. Getting through customs, which I had been obsessing about for the last two weeks, went about as I had expected and smoothly. We had to pay 7% duty on all the books, but it was only $65 Canadian. We'd been up since 2 am PST when at 8 pm EST we decided we needed food. The hotel restaurant had an awful selection of food, so we ruled that out. The downtown restaurants that catered to the business crowd were all closed, so we decided to head down to a restaurant called Gibby's which we'd found in a tourist brochure. We stopped at the front desk to get directions and they gave us this nice map of the Old Town, where we were going. Problem was, the hotel wasn't on the map, and instead of saying that, they just circled the closest block to the hotel that was on the map, so we immediately got confused. We eventually found it and wow -- the restaurant was fabulous.
Just off the Place d'Youville, the building was an 18th century stables. The exterior seating was in the courtyard, reached through a gated entranceway, and surrounded by gardens and statues. Inside, Gibby's was dark, with massive wood beams, a huge selection of wine bottles lining the walls, bringing to mind rathskellers and sterotypical fantasy inns. The food was excellent -- I had a fabulous breaded rack of lamb. We were seated across from the little station where they made all of the falming dessert coffees and drinks -- that added a lot of extra ambience (and kept Becca's attention).
Thursday we spent wandering around the Old Town during the day. There are not words to describe the architecture. Even the new high rises all have character. We took a bunch of pictures (and I'll take more on Monday). We took boat cruise on the St. Lawrence river. It wasn't as scenic as I expected it to be, but it was certainly nice to sit down for an hour. After the cruise we returned to the hotel and started meeting people who were arriving at the convention.
The Convention. The Gathering of Gargoyles. I got suckered into this by my wife and this is the third one I've attended. And surprisingly, I always enjoy it much more than I'm expecting to. The Garygoyles cartoon premiered just after Becca was born in Oct., of 1994. It has remarkably intelligent scripts with good characters with only a little bit of the dumbing stuff down for kids.
One of the defining moments in Christine's writing career was when she started writing fan fiction -- her only stories set in the Gargoyles universe and with Gargoyle characters. The feedback and encouragement that she received by fans of the show gave her a great deal of confidence and helped her make the jump into professional writing. So she has a lot of fans who know her Gargoyle writing and it's pretty easy to get them hooked on her original stuff.
In desperation, we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and got absolutely abysmal service as well as mediocre food at high prices. Then we hung out in the Con Suite while people arrived until going to bed.
Friday morning, the convention started at 1:00 pm, but the Dealer's Room setup started at 10:00. We decided that our first priority should be breakfast and a plan for lunch and dinner. I went down to the food court under the stock market building (next door) and got us bagels and croissants for breakfast. After those were eaten, it was decided that I would go out exploring and find us places to eat for lunch and dinner. I had a very nice 90 minute walk, exploring more commercial downtown Montreal. Kind of by accident (I thought it was a park) I wound up at McGill University. That is the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. So beautiful it hurts. And I didn't bring the camera. I plan to spend a few hours there on Monday.
Then I wound up in the Underground City, which was part of my plan because I was looking for food. Basically, all of the downtown skyscrapers have food courts and shopping centers in their basements, and then these are connected undergound and linked to the subway stations so you can cross downtown without seeing sunlight (or in the winter without braving the cold). For the most part, however, all the shops kept standard business hours. The restaurants were open 7:00 am to 6:00 pm and the shop were open 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. Some shopping areas were open late bvecause it was Friday. Some weren't. One food court (in the train station) had some signs that said they were open until 7:00 pm. I made the assumption that they all would be. That came back to haunt me later in the day.
I found a computer store and wandered around it for a while. They had a video capture device that I had never seen before that looked pretty good. It's called Instant DVD 2.0 by ADS Tech. I've looked it up since then and ti has received some pretty good reviews. One thing I really like is that it has its own audio inputs, instead of requiring you to input the audio through your sound card. I think I'll probably pick one up . . . eventually.
I came back and we made plans to go the the train station for lunch and for me to bring back chinese food for dinner. Then we set up for the Dealer's Room. Our 16 books look pretty good lined up along the table. At noon, we trudged 2 blocks up hill to the train station for lunch. Huge mistake. It was jam packed with every business person in Montreal all trying to get food. And much to my surprise, the longest lines were at McDonalds. We had promised Becca McNuggets, so we had to wait in the lines. Then Chris, intimidated by crowds, didn't want to eat. So I got a sandwich and chips and we went looking for a table. We finally found some, but they were surrounded by smokers (something unknown to us urban west-coasters), so we moved on finding a table for two. I was in such a rush to get us out of there taht I accidentally threw away my chips.
We got back and the Dealer's Room opened and things went well. Chris snacked on almonds that she had brought and I sold stuff. A little slow, but not disasterously so. At 5:00 pm the DR closed and I went up to the room while Chris and Becca went to opening ceremonies. Around 6:00, I went out to get food so that it would be ready for everyone at 7:00. The close place in the stock market building was all closed up and so I went on a Grand Expedition for food. I finally found some and thus began my death defying hurry back to the hotel.
My laptop's battery is about to run out, so I should call it quits there. Hopefully more tomorrow.
--Tim
I almost killed myself yesterday. I'm in Montreal, for the Gathering of Gargoyles, a convention showcasing the Disney cartoon, Gargoyles. More on that later. I was supposed to be delivering dinner to Chris and Becca at 7:00 pm. It was 7:10 before I finally found a suitable place (more on that later) to grab food and I was hurring back to the hotel. Now everyone in this city, and I am not exagerating, crosses intersections without waiting for the street lights to change, at least downtown. All day, I had been being good, and causing a small pedestrian traffic jam by actually having the gall to wait for the "WALK" sign to light up. But now I was in a hurry and rush hour was over so the traffic was low. The street I was crossing was a 3 lane one way street so it should have been a no brainer . . . and yet somehow, inexplicably as I keep going over what happened in my head, I stepped out and was sideswiped by a gold SUV going 35 or 40. Maybe sideswiped is too strong a word. Maybe saying that the SUV hit me is too strong. I think I stepped into the side of the car as it passed me. It definately hit the bag of chineese food I was carrying, sending food and soda cans flying across the intersection. I hit the side of the SUV (behind the side-view mirror) and I have a small wound on my left arm that I'm thinking is from the chrome trim running along the side of the car. And the back tire ran over my foot. The big toe of my right foot is black-and-blue under the toenail, but it's not swelling so I probably won't loose the nail.
I staggered back a few steps and the SUV screeched to a halt a short distance away. I noticed that my cell phone was on the ground (knocked from my belt holster) so I picked it up and got to the corner of the street that had been my destination. The driver got out with a strange combination of concern and anger on his face. I think I must have looked stunned. I didn't hurt anywhere and all my limbs worked, so I waved to him. He yelled asking if I was alright. I said I was, and asked if I had damaged the car. He said no without looking and I apologized for what was my fault. He got back in his SUV shaking his head and drove -- slowly -- off. I walked one more block back to the hotel. My foot and arm didn't start hurting until I was in the elevator, and I was greatly relieved when I got my shoe off and got a good look at my toe.
Chris and Becca were still at opening ceremonies where Greg Weisman was making a very neat presentation of a script for an episode of the proposed Atlantis cartoon series (which died before ever airing) which was a Gargoyle crossover. So I couldn't even tell them my story for another 30 minutes. After that though, we wound up in the hotel bar and I was feeling much better after a shot of Tequila and 2 White Russians. Sitting here today, the blister on my left foot (that I got from walking around the last couple days) hurts worse than either my right toe or my arm. So I was lucky . . . really lucky. If I'd been a foot farther out into the intersection I'd be in the hospital right now.
The strangest thing about the whole experience is how I've been reacting to it. I find it hard to take it too seriously. Rationally, I know how close it was, I know how dangerous it was. I was feeling the adrenaline and whatnot last night, but kind of expected to have this emotional breakdown late last night once the drugs were out of my system and the "enormity of the situation" caught up with me. But no. I just find it amusing. Well, amusing isn't quite the right word, more bemused, and kind of braggy that I survived. But none of that life flashing before my eyes or rededicating my life to hel;ping others or living in the day. The biggest thing it's doing is making me reconsider my plans to bicycle around the city on Monday.
Well, enough of that. The whole family is in Montreal. We arrived at dinner time on Wednesday with 150 lbs of books after only being delayed in Chicago for an hour. Getting through customs, which I had been obsessing about for the last two weeks, went about as I had expected and smoothly. We had to pay 7% duty on all the books, but it was only $65 Canadian. We'd been up since 2 am PST when at 8 pm EST we decided we needed food. The hotel restaurant had an awful selection of food, so we ruled that out. The downtown restaurants that catered to the business crowd were all closed, so we decided to head down to a restaurant called Gibby's which we'd found in a tourist brochure. We stopped at the front desk to get directions and they gave us this nice map of the Old Town, where we were going. Problem was, the hotel wasn't on the map, and instead of saying that, they just circled the closest block to the hotel that was on the map, so we immediately got confused. We eventually found it and wow -- the restaurant was fabulous.
Just off the Place d'Youville, the building was an 18th century stables. The exterior seating was in the courtyard, reached through a gated entranceway, and surrounded by gardens and statues. Inside, Gibby's was dark, with massive wood beams, a huge selection of wine bottles lining the walls, bringing to mind rathskellers and sterotypical fantasy inns. The food was excellent -- I had a fabulous breaded rack of lamb. We were seated across from the little station where they made all of the falming dessert coffees and drinks -- that added a lot of extra ambience (and kept Becca's attention).
Thursday we spent wandering around the Old Town during the day. There are not words to describe the architecture. Even the new high rises all have character. We took a bunch of pictures (and I'll take more on Monday). We took boat cruise on the St. Lawrence river. It wasn't as scenic as I expected it to be, but it was certainly nice to sit down for an hour. After the cruise we returned to the hotel and started meeting people who were arriving at the convention.
The Convention. The Gathering of Gargoyles. I got suckered into this by my wife and this is the third one I've attended. And surprisingly, I always enjoy it much more than I'm expecting to. The Garygoyles cartoon premiered just after Becca was born in Oct., of 1994. It has remarkably intelligent scripts with good characters with only a little bit of the dumbing stuff down for kids.
One of the defining moments in Christine's writing career was when she started writing fan fiction -- her only stories set in the Gargoyles universe and with Gargoyle characters. The feedback and encouragement that she received by fans of the show gave her a great deal of confidence and helped her make the jump into professional writing. So she has a lot of fans who know her Gargoyle writing and it's pretty easy to get them hooked on her original stuff.
In desperation, we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and got absolutely abysmal service as well as mediocre food at high prices. Then we hung out in the Con Suite while people arrived until going to bed.
Friday morning, the convention started at 1:00 pm, but the Dealer's Room setup started at 10:00. We decided that our first priority should be breakfast and a plan for lunch and dinner. I went down to the food court under the stock market building (next door) and got us bagels and croissants for breakfast. After those were eaten, it was decided that I would go out exploring and find us places to eat for lunch and dinner. I had a very nice 90 minute walk, exploring more commercial downtown Montreal. Kind of by accident (I thought it was a park) I wound up at McGill University. That is the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. So beautiful it hurts. And I didn't bring the camera. I plan to spend a few hours there on Monday.
Then I wound up in the Underground City, which was part of my plan because I was looking for food. Basically, all of the downtown skyscrapers have food courts and shopping centers in their basements, and then these are connected undergound and linked to the subway stations so you can cross downtown without seeing sunlight (or in the winter without braving the cold). For the most part, however, all the shops kept standard business hours. The restaurants were open 7:00 am to 6:00 pm and the shop were open 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. Some shopping areas were open late bvecause it was Friday. Some weren't. One food court (in the train station) had some signs that said they were open until 7:00 pm. I made the assumption that they all would be. That came back to haunt me later in the day.
I found a computer store and wandered around it for a while. They had a video capture device that I had never seen before that looked pretty good. It's called Instant DVD 2.0 by ADS Tech. I've looked it up since then and ti has received some pretty good reviews. One thing I really like is that it has its own audio inputs, instead of requiring you to input the audio through your sound card. I think I'll probably pick one up . . . eventually.
I came back and we made plans to go the the train station for lunch and for me to bring back chinese food for dinner. Then we set up for the Dealer's Room. Our 16 books look pretty good lined up along the table. At noon, we trudged 2 blocks up hill to the train station for lunch. Huge mistake. It was jam packed with every business person in Montreal all trying to get food. And much to my surprise, the longest lines were at McDonalds. We had promised Becca McNuggets, so we had to wait in the lines. Then Chris, intimidated by crowds, didn't want to eat. So I got a sandwich and chips and we went looking for a table. We finally found some, but they were surrounded by smokers (something unknown to us urban west-coasters), so we moved on finding a table for two. I was in such a rush to get us out of there taht I accidentally threw away my chips.
We got back and the Dealer's Room opened and things went well. Chris snacked on almonds that she had brought and I sold stuff. A little slow, but not disasterously so. At 5:00 pm the DR closed and I went up to the room while Chris and Becca went to opening ceremonies. Around 6:00, I went out to get food so that it would be ready for everyone at 7:00. The close place in the stock market building was all closed up and so I went on a Grand Expedition for food. I finally found some and thus began my death defying hurry back to the hotel.
My laptop's battery is about to run out, so I should call it quits there. Hopefully more tomorrow.
--Tim
