Well ladies and gentlefurs, I am back!
Prohibition is over and hopefully a great post-con depression wont kick in as I return to my normal daily life after coming home from this years Anthrocon (the roaring 20's). What an amazing convention it was this year, record breaking numbers! And given that it was my second year in attendance I knew how to better prepare both financially and planning wise, since there is always an abundance of things to see and do. As I mentioned in my previous journal post I roomed with Fraddas, Shizari, and my tiggy, although they were both surprisingly absent to our big cat presence 95% of the time. I also arrived a day early to dive back to the past in style with my tiger, after flying all night long and missing a connecting flight thanks to the amazing American Airlines. This would be the second time I have flown with them and had to be put onto standby because they couldn't seem to arrive when expected for one reason or another. I could rant much longer on this but needless to say I got to where I needed to be only a few hours after I was supposed to and I will certainly go out of my way to not book with them again.
After a nice night together as big cats my tiggy pushed me out of bed and we made our way out the door at a reasonable time for our drive to AC on Thursday morning. After several confusing trips around the block to find the parking entrance to the Double Tree we made it in and quickly unloaded, checked in, and unpacked. The room was more spacious than our room from last year, my only complaint again was the small bed size. We big cats like to sprawl out and between the two of us it could've been a much greater fight for the bed. The room although nice also had a strange "L" layout, would've been great had we hosted a room party, and we could've even hosted more roommates had we known prior. Fraddas and Shizari didn't come to check in with us till much later that day, after Tiggy had met up with his fursuit maker to get his long awaited prize. And after having lunch/early dinner together after we had our badges and I made my way to my first panel of the convention "To Absent Friends". I had just finished my grief counseling group two days before and felt like I needed to get that out of my system to have a better mindset for the weekend ahead. It was a somber reflection for myself, and for those in attendance, as Uncle Kage remembered J. Badger, a staff member who had unfortunately passed away earlier this year.
The second day we all slept in a bit, Fraddas and Shizari more so than us because they went out and did fox things till about three in the morning and we headed to bed early after a long drive, exhausted. The first stop of the day however was opening ceremonies, and we didn't plan well enough because we arrived to standing room only, squeezing in at the back right side of the room, Tiggy in suit for the first time. After a quick bite to eat we returned and waited for the dealers den to open, this time arriving just in time as they were just letting people in and since we were sponsors/Supersponsors we were able to jump to the front of the line beating the rest of the traffic coming in. This year as I said before, I had a much bigger budget but surprisingly only managed to spend around the same amount as I did last year, not that I am complaining. My first time through the den I didn't go overboard, bought myself an engraved Foxy (FNAF) drinking glass, a sketch commission by Lil' Shark, and bid on a couple of items in the art show.
After dropping off our new shiny things back at the room we went back to see the Foxes and Peppers concert where they debuted their new collaborative album together "Hashtag", which I recommend you picking up since it is a really strong effort by both Pepper Coyote and Fox Amoore. After the show I returned to buy a couple of CD's from both of them and also Hashtag as well since they sold out quickly. Before we went to see 2's Rant we planned ahead for the first time and went out for a nice streak dinner...VERY nice...$$$$ but Tiggy wanted steak so it was okay to have one nice night out I suppose, despite how under dressed we were, and carrying around a fursuit. Both dinners were great although for the amount I paid I would've expected a larger proportion. I ordered the miso sea bass, and tiggy got himself a nice cut of steak cooked to his liking, rare. The last two stops for the day, were to see The Dragget Show podcast ran by Xander the Blue and then following that was Whose Lion is it Anyways? Both were great and raised money for the charity and I managed to get back on stage for the second year at whose lion preforming next to a cosplayer of cthulhu I had photographed earlier in the day who was "running against" our presidential candidates.
Saturday I was more focused in hunting down things that I wanted in both the dealers den and the art show, picking up more books from Red Rusker, and "Don't Call me Coach" and "Jake's List" both of which I hope to read and actually finish. I also picked up several business cards from different artists/vendors that I want to commission later on, a useful trick I started at FWA. After browsing through I had a great meal at the Super-sponsor lunch then dashed back to see the fursuit parade. Following the success of last years route they once again made the loop outside, and drew a great crowd, its great to see the city behind us! This year there was an increase of almost 1,000 in attendance and also in suiters, we are growing!
The parade was much longer this year as to be expected, so after it had concluded I was worn out and decided to rest up for a bit watching Niic the Singing Dogs concert. I didn't have the time to meet him after but that will certainly be on my list of things to do for next year, on the plus side I did learn that I was pronouncing his name wrong this entire time, oops. Later in the evening after returning to the room for a quick cat nap we made our way to dinner, a better choice of a hole in the wall place that served great homemade tacos and a tequila bar, a win for tiggy. Uncle Kage's story hour was the final event for our night, although I did come back briefly to check out the mature art auction. I didn't win or defend anything but was curious to see what items were up, and a bit shocked at how much some of them went for.
The final day was spent picking up a few final items from the dealers den, again nothing too big. And also picking up the item I won from the art show, a lion piece of course! I bid on two other pieces but didn't make it back in time to defend those bids. So from there I thought I would try and blow some extra money out of my wallet and attend the charity auction. There was one item that caught my eye on the table that I did want, and after some back and forth with another bidder I did manage to win. It was a 1920's spoof picture of Uncle Kage, 2, Alkali, and someone else, and I managed to get Kage and Alkali to sign it. After dropping everything off and packing away all the things, it was time for closing ceremonies. We made it early this time and snagged seats in the third row, learned the theme for next year is "Take me out to the Ball game" and reflected on the hits and misses of this year, overall I'd say it was fantastic. On the way out I even got a fuzzy fellow lion hug from Kijani lion, something that I had been meaning to do the entire convention but kept getting pulled away for other things.
I will definitely do my best to return next year, with one goal being to book a room closer to the convention center, but that's luck. And by that time next year I will have my suit completed and can join in even more fun! For those of you that I missed I apologize, anthrocon is very busy and I get caught up in that, but I do my best not to forget my friends. Now from here I return to my normal non fuzzy life until December when I attend my final convention for the year Midwest Furfest, which will be my first time attending since I had to cancel at the last minute last year.
Thank you all so much for reading and for being there! Stay fuzzy!
