FC Furrrociously Fun!

[ceagle]

Wow... it seems daunting to even try to tackle a con report sometimes... knowing that ya might miss sumthin'... but there's more good reasons to go ahead anyway :>

*skreeeee!*
:D What a GREAT convention! *wags and hops around on talons from the residual energy*
I decided to attempt to catch it all this time, or nearly all of it, instead of the usual one or two days... partly cuz I'm workin' part-time this year, partly cuz I just really needed the break and immersion in festivity.. and hopes that it would indeed be festive this time around, even though last year's seemed slow. I think the communal desire that the entire attendance brought with them helped it to come true *cooo* :>

Going chronologically, summa the notable things on the drive up there...
neocanis joined me for the ride up, and we had some keen conversation along the way!
Traveling from So Cal, one can go up the 101 or the 5, depending on whether ya want speed or coastal scenery. Opting for the 5 (and thinking I'd just take the 101 back), the 1st oddity was that we hit a traffic jam on the Tejon Pass... caused by an adolescent cow trotting down the middle of the freeway! There was nowhere for it to go except forward, so it took a few minutes to get safely past the critter... I hope it got away okay.. *boggle* 8|

We also stopped at a truck stop for gas along the way, a "stopping center" they called it.. and they even had showers and a small movie theater. I also found a cute lil tchochkie (sp?) for my sis swandog there, so I hope to send it before too long :>

Just so it won't be anticlimactic, I'll include the things on the trip back here now too...
Some trucks (usually the better drivers I think) were playing convoy and going 20 mph or more over the speed limit and were boxing cars in along the way.. it was weird, and as soon as I figured it out, I shot clear of the crunch and kept my distance from their line until they were gone.
Maybe it was bad karma for them, since when we got on Tejon Pass, a Walmart truck and another huge rig had collided, and was horizontal across the entire fwy... resulting in a HUGE delay ;P
Before that though, there was a beautiful redtailed hawk in a tree along side us, so all in all the drivin' part of the weekend was good :> I'm also getting good mileage again after re-tuning my car, so the trip cost about 2/3 of what it woulda been otherwise *warble* :>

Anyways... got up there around 8:30 Thursday night, and things were already abuzz!
I got checked in to the con, and then roamed about, enjoying the proliferation of costumes out so soon this year :> The internet terminals had a glitch, so they weren't running yet.. so I read up about events and possible room parties coming up .. *peep*
I saw that my buddy genecatlow had drawn on the sketchboard already, but I didn't find 'im til a few hours later... eep!

The first super-awesome thing that I remember was seeing yashataur and chrissawyer, and him pulling my feathers over to meet warphammer, whom I've known for years now online but never had met iRL... cool!! :D He and his pal rafn had met up out here from across the country to enjoy the con too... *warble!* I hope y'all had a great time!

Neo had a room there, but I was staying offsite about 50 miles, so I headed out to get some rest after a few hours there and the long-drivin' day in general..

The next day, the first rilly cool thing was encountering dingybatty in person! *wags feathers* Gosh... now I just had to work on my well-practiced fanboy meter, and suppress the urge to take up all her time with adoring comments :> Y'all know how it can be... no matter how much of an artist or writer one is, there's always people we admire and have to contain our enthusiasm.. *beak blushes*
I had a few nice and brief chats with her and her superduper mate kliefox at the con, and I was glad to hear she did fairly well with sketch sales and socializing a bit too!

When the dealer's room opened (a tad late), I dashed in there to picked up the gold that IS Huzzah!, and stashed it back into my car afore it could get smoooshed. :9
In the dealers room, seeing familiar faces can really bring a comforting and warmfuzzy feeling... *wags feathers* ....got to see and chat a bit with calicougar, mistahbojangles, martes (someday mebbe I'll git up da noiv to ask her for a commission)... :>, custer_winston, Steve Galacci, furtech, dustmeat, Joe Rosales, kevinjdog, fuzzybearca, kitsumi, cooner, Mitch Beiro and a few other awesome folks in there... :>
Six folks of whom I wished could make it but were unable to, were makovette, rain_luong, desertcoyote, gryph0n, chahala, and herbietoons_art ... :/ *feathers wilt for a moment regretfully, and then send good wishes to them all in thought beams, nevertheless...*

I basically just scanned the room and resolved to spend money on Saturday instead... there was just too much going on all about, so I kept soarin' about mosta the day, enjoyin' the phenominal costumes, checkin' out the art, and chattin' it up with folks :> Got to see the terrific Terraluna again, and the Blob also returned this year.. *hehheh!*
Another costume that really was astonishing was a cat-coon that had not only a movable jaw, but servo-controlled ears, which did not simply move from up to down, but followed an s-shaped path as they would tuck, and could pause in any position along the way... *boggle* Apparently the maker of the suit does computer controls for automobile manufacturing in Germany *waggle*
Also got to see furtech's cool outfit on stage again, and headpieces in the dealer's room. :> It was also cool to see saharalion and hoofdahorse enjoying the con too, and later that day up on stage too!
Two other great suits that I liked this year were made by brokkentwolf... a raccoon named Seneca, and a phenominal new griffin made for my friend kreggan. *wingflaps*

As the evening drew near, went to dinner with the super sennard and BojoPigeon over at a sushi place, though since this tropical eagle is wary of raw fish, I had the teriyaki chick'n :9 ..It was a tad expensive, but I put my mind into vacation mode and chilled out *hehheh*... The helpings were pretty generous too, anyways :>
Met up with Neo and Catlow again (since he had to work during the day) and roamed the halls checkin' out the neat stuff til about 1am, then headed out after a brief peek online after they got the computers goin'.

Saturday started off with a bang (even though I slept in a bit) with the pleasure of breakfasting with the tremendous trio of meowzaroonie, the_gneech and jonasbagel! Wheeeeheeeeee! *fluffles up and winghugs y'all* That was a blast!
I then went to the art show and put in a piece for a friend (neverwench) which she did last year. I was hoping it might catch Lance Rund's eye :> (or another griffiny fan...) Unfortunately it didn't sell this time around.. arf. Overall it looked like a pretty good show though, and I guess people only have so much money to spend, what with that and the dealer's room stuff too. They said the art show sales volume was around $60,000 this year, so I guess that is pretty good.

I went thru the dealer's room and scooped up some goodies into my credit card quicksand, and enjoyed the pleasant mixture of excitement and calm that made for a really nice atmosphere (as opposed to a mixture of frenetic and boredom extremes, the likes of which plagued the final CF con). Met up on and off with Catlow and Neo throughout the day, which also brightened up the pace and place quite a bit :>
Got to meet another cool critter there too, rcoony, having previously only chatted with them only now and then over the years.. *tips straw hat to the churring one in return!*
Another real highlight was getting to meet the hard-working yet easy-going higginsdragon, for which the convention itself was so dependent, from business matters to printing newsletters and who knows what other miriad tasks!... Thanks for indulging me with the sharing some of your time and thoughts, good dragon sir... *hugs ya with them eagle wings*

In the evening, the generous and amiable avian warphammer treated me and rafn to dinner at Coco's, and we had a rollicking fun time catching up on the latest feathery headlines and news!

Headed back afterwards for a bit more roaming, went to wonderful lil' party (thank you dingybatty and kliefox!!), and peeked in on the dance, exquisitely DJ'd by the tuneful crocodile.... thanks for the awesome selections, duude! I've never actually danced at any of these, in all these years, but the energy just seemed right this time... and I jumped in the ring for about an hour or so :D *wags tail and taps talons*
Unfortunately I seem to have missed patchoblack since he could only stay one day and somehow we never ran into each other.. :| *hugs virtually anyway*... at least he got to catch up with the cool Catlow critter :> Mr Meow and Neo and I also peeked in to a funny 'evil mastermind' kinda party, where they wanted to get approval to post some of Catlow's villains on the wall amongst their tongue-in-cheek rogues gallery :D They also had a book there of bad hair of the 1970s which left us in stitches! Gradually we rolled things up for the night around 2 this time, and left... but not without a mystery to solve, the very next day.... *ulp*

On Sunday my friend genecatlow had to work, so unfortunately he couldn't pop in for any more of the con (Monday either... mmmf) :P. I snagged a McD breakfast and headed off to the festivities with hope of resolving the terrifying issue the night before... I had left my envelope of purchases and credit card info somewhere on Saturday, having put it down to take pictures and leaving it behind.. *tremblefeathers* It was a spooky day, as mr. catlow had almost lost his car keys the same day!
First I checked with Dingybatty, who had already checked out so I couldn't go into the room again to look. I also peeked in the other last location I put it down (backstage at the masquerade) but it wasn't there.
So I went to the Con Ops.. and wonder of wonders.. some kind soul had turned it in there... *tingles and melts with happiness and relief*! That was *SO* assuring, and really delivered the warmfuzzies about all these cool folks at the con... Sure there are some extremes .. but I guess that's in every fandom. I just gotta say if folks are that respectful of other's things at FC, it says a lot for what's really inside some of them. It's times like these I wish I could offer my sincere thanks.. so if any of you out there are the goodhearted person who made my Sunday shine, please know how truly deep and sincere are my thanks.. *sends a winghug in the direction of the mysterious hero or heroine*

I relaxedly wandered the dealer's room again a bit, and then headed for the day's big event, the fursuit olympics, which was a kick to watch.. even though a tad cold, good weather for the performers! I watched most of it, and they were quite energetic.. so much so that one even lost a tail... eeep! 8| (I hope they got it sewed back on without a problem.) Later in the day I chilled out with Sennard again at the internet room, and chatted with a new griffin online in a bit of roleplay about magical visions and potions and such, with much comical effect :>

Caught up with the exquisite mythic higginsdragon again later on, and got to join him and sennard and jonasbagel and goldenrod (the rockin' fox!)... for dinner at Coco's, which was still a good deal, but kinda low on staff this time around. Also there was the talented and versatile nerfcoyote and his troupe of stalwart mascotters at an adjacent table... the energy was positive and in high gear throughout the restaurant!

After dinner, I met up with Neo to see if I could get some crash space where he was staying, since I had no more room reservations after Saturday.. and so he ran it past the folks there and it sounded fine to 'em... excellent! *wags*
We strolled about, peekin' in room parties here n there.. and it looked like folks were having a splendid time everywhere *warble* The hotel was totally mellow with us, and the non-fur travelers seemed to exhibit a friendly curiousity too, with just a few exceptions who seemed to be tanked anyway.. ;D

The highlights of this evening were finally getting to talk with my ole friend and Guest of Honor Grant Freckelton,... we had passed several times but he was under an extreme schedule most of the time, so we hadn't had any time to catch up. It's totally warmfuzzifying to be remembered by someone, especially after they hit the big time, and it was cool to catch up with him for a bit *warble* :>
Later on I also got to meet millerwolf, who is a rather awesome and prolific artist as well, and I got to check out his work and chat with him and neocanis and chrissawyer for a while in the sketch room *fluffles happily* :> I also got caught up with some LJ and email in the via the Wi-Fi connection at the hotel..it was interesting... first page it would take you to before letting you go anyhere else was the hotel web page... I wonder how they did that... *fluffs plumage and ponders*
Around 2:30am I was wilting, so I went up to the room, while Neo went to Denny's (you know how I feel about Denny's) *hehheh!*
I didn't have a key and didn't wanna wake anyone, so I snoozed at the door waiting for Neo to return. After about a half hour, the room host suddenly came out for a late night walk or something! :D ...so I went in and found a place on the floor, just like ole times at the San Diego Con.. hehheh! *ugh*
It was a tad uncomfortable, but mostly cold since I was by a window. Noone else had gotten there yet, but after a few minutes another person showed up (around 3:30).. Neo later told me they had a rat costume and was a nice person, but we just said hi since I didn't know them, and was tired anyways.
Just before 4am, Neo came in and said I could use the barkalounger.. which was a *great* relief... soft and not by a cold window!! *sighs happily*
He had brought a sleeping bag (the rat person also had their own covers too) and the host used the bed when they came back around 4:30... then all was quiet and I could finally snoooooooze......

The dealers' room was closed on Monday, so it was just lotsa seminars n stuff.. a very relaxed day. hoofdahorse was leaving today and had some car trouble.. ack! (Glad ya got it resolved okay...) He and saharalion and the fluffy scruff_e_coyote all put on splendid performances throughout the con too! sennard and yashataur and chrissawyer all went home around midday as well, so we said our farewells then, and I went to find some snax, catch up a little more on the computer, and see a few more sigs and sights. *warble* I missed a few because I got into a really interesting conversation with a group of Germans who were visiting the convention, and having a sketch session with Neo too :> I also had a nice visit in the open bar with Sennard and Rcoony and his friends from a locally hosted muck. I looked around for a few more people I wanted to see, and luckily I was led to meet dogzrbarkn before he had to go home... somehow I had missed seeing him the entire con! eep!
Another wonderful highlight, albeit brief, was getting to meet the inimitably sweet pawpad for a few moments... *warble* ...she wasn't able to attend the con this time around... but thank you for the opportunity to say hi! :>
One person I didn't get to meet was the mysterious tchall ... :/ I really wish I had gotten to meet them there, as they have always seemed very nice from LJ comments in my journal and in others' as well... perhaps another time I hope... *sends a feathered hug*

The crux of the evening was to be the dead dog party, so we hung around for that. *warble* It was fun!... I had a PBJ sandwich there for dinner (since there wasn't pizza or other entrees) and we enjoyed the award announcements, and I got to see the splendid Hug E Bear, Terraluna, Super Jayhawk and higginsdragon one more time..
I gave nerfcoyote a call to see if he would be at the party too, but he was going to dinner at that moment, so Neo and I had a powwow and decided to head home after a few hours at the party :>

So here it is 6:20am... I've been writing this for the better part of four hours... I sure hope I didn't miss anything :D

Thanks to you all who helped make this event such a fun experience, and to all who couldn't come, I hope you enjoyed this report, and I send my wishes and convention energy your way as well!

Best Wishes, ..your eagle pal :>

Comments

[makovette.livejournal.com]

/Me Boggles! Now that Sir Eagle is a Con REPORT! :-D

Loved every word of it too CE, thanks for taking the not inconsiderable time to write that all up. I am deeply impressed that you remembered all the names, how you do dat?! :-)

I'll do what I can to catch ya at FC next year, but in the mean time don't be too surprised if I show up at the Aerie to polish the Alpha's fenders in person again ;-)

CYa!
Mako

[mortonfox.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a great time at FC!
I guess the only problem was the traffic delay but that always happens one way or another.

[theregaltigress.livejournal.com]

Great con report! One of these days I ought to get back to going to them. :) Your report definitely reminds me how much fun they can be!

-Kymba

[swandog.livejournal.com]

Awesome report, Igglebro! :D BTW, what's a tchochkie? :D *cocks her head to one side, tailwagging*

[saharalion.livejournal.com]

WEEEEE! It was sweet to see ya at FC! We will definitely have to do lunch or somethin sooner or later. I'll KIT ;)

[tchall.livejournal.com]

(foxy hugs you right back) I'm sorry we didn't hook up, as well. I was looking forward to seeing you beak to muzzle, at last. Thanks for the very kind words. You're one real nice bird. Well, next year at FC for sure, if not sooner.

(sends you another foxy snug)

Great con report, too! :)

[desertcoyote.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a good time! :)
Next year- I'm planning on going next year! :)

[rcoony.livejournal.com]

*hugs* It was great meeting you there. I don't know how you can remember all that though! :)