FurFright is Best Pony + Halloween Shenanigans
Bit of a late trip report on FurFright, but also haven't actually been at a computer for non-working purposes since my return.
When I first began studying this fandom, before even openly participating, I read up on most of the major convention gatherings. FurFright always stood out to me because of all the positive feedback it continued to garner in each forum I went to. I knew early on I'd want to make that a destination when the time came to get out in the open.
I had initially made plans to visit this con in 2009, but had to back off them due to my mom's health. I finally got my opening in 2010. Not only was it my first convention as a fursuiter, it was also the first time I got to actually visit a number of east-coast friends and acquaintances I had made online in the years prior. I pretty much fell in love with that con with that first visit. I realized since I'm based on the other coast that visiting it each year would be a challenge, but somehow I've found myself trekking out there three of the last four years.
Given the distance and the uncertainty of time-off availability, I can't promise a return visit next year, at least not yet. However it is now firmly burned in on my radar so I will be back for 2014 assuming the time is available. This is also a con I'd feel ok to have Tina tag along with me. It's not a non-stop fetish parade or a continual contest of who is the bestest furry of them all. It's a gathering of friends run by a core of folks who work their asses off to make sure the environment is enjoyable and positive. In my experience, only Confuzzled in the UK has come close to this type of environment.
Things I'm already missing:
1) BarWars - This goes without saying! Ever since it was founded as a forgotten round of drinks between myself, Skippy and Silvermane, this has developed a life of it's own. The small gathering has now grown to a rotating who's who of thirsty con attendees. The force of BarWars was in fact so great that it kept me out of suit on Saturday as I spent the first half of the day shaking off the aftereffects of Round One. Wouldn't change a thing though. Great time spent with great folks! Next year, swing on by the con bar. Come for the drinks and stay for the Kanic show! :)
2) Hockey - I haven't held a hockey stick in my paws for at least 10 years. This was apparent on Friday as I brought Bjorn down to the ballroom to play in Belic's Diabolical Floor Hockey Tournament of Doom!
Unsurprisingly I was held off the score sheet as I vacillated between employing a cherry-picking style of offense or using my size to lean into the other team's top players. Still, I had a not entirely pathetic shot on net in the shootout, I didn't get injured (yay!) and I had a great time. I'll be back for this, fo'sho! I had so much fun even though I was on the losing side, I won't even complain about the handicap that my team (Team Fullsuit) faced against Team Guys-With-Masks. ;)
3) Team Trivia - I knew I'd need to be at a table with smart folk for this one. Luckily I happened onto a table that had Skippy, Kittrel and Wag! at it! We did actually end up winning the thing, despite JD Puppy's table trying to confuse Belic by claiming victory! Note to myself: next year load up on more useless, non-Doctor Who trivia before playing!
4) Poker - This was a hard decision for me since I had to sacrifice the masquerade to play. Tourney was well-run and moved well for self-dealing tables. Unfortunately I played like poo-poo and ended up as the bubble boy (last out before the final table). Still, any game of cards beats even the best days of work so I had a good time overall.
5) Helping out - I'm notorious for not wanting to give up any enjoyment time to help out con operations. I blame past bad volunteering experiences and laziness for this. FurFright however is a con that I'll make an exception for. Indeed, I left the con feeling like I didn't help out enough. This just may drive me to volunteering even more next year and maybe even to seek out a staff assignment. These guys just have the ability to make me want to help. I pitched in to wrangle fuzzies out the door for the parade on Saturday, helped out in headless for a bit and carted a few things out of the ballroom after the Dead Dog on Sunday. My goal next year is to get scheduled for some work prior to the con so I know I'll be in place to pitch in when needed.
6) All those crazy furry peoples! - Reunited with some old friends, spent some time with recently acquired ones and met brand new folks! Special shout-outs go to Wag!, Skippy, Kittrel, Chen, Raz, Nemmy, WolfPaws, Border, Kar, Silvermane and all the other folks I'm forgetting. Also glad to have finally met Tibor, our awesome goalie in hockey and who was once the focus of a fursuit crush on Fur Affinity of mine. Really awesome guy I got to hang out with a bit at the con's end. Hoping we can hang out some more next year. :)
All in all, it was a great time start to finish. I noticed on social media there was a lot of hype for the upcoming Midwest FurFest, but little attention was paid to FurFright which was happening right then. Too bad. I think if a few of these folks gave this con a try they'd be as hooked as I am!
***
Halloween! Unless I have plans for a party or am helping out at my brother's place (he sets up an elaborate pirate theme each year), I usually am pretty "meh" about it. Trick or Treaters at the door have always seemed more like a distraction than entertaining or fun. This year I tried a different tactic.
I went out to get dinner for us at a local taqueria. When I returned home, Tina was already sitting outside, dressed in tie-dyed shirt and hippy headband with bowls of candy at the ready and the first of the neighborhood kids were already out and about. In the past I've been ambivalent about handing out candy in fursuit. One reason being the potential pedobear knee-jerk reactions by over-protective parents, the other being I never really saw any potential gratification to just doling out candy in suit. Since our house is set back a ways from the street and we had a metric shit ton of candy to give out, I decided to get down to the end of our walkway in high-visibility Hunt to direct traffic to the candy. Surprisingly kind of fun! A few kids really liked being greeted by the big polar bear. Some of the older kids (who I think are hip to the furry scene) were a bit "meh" but did remark they liked my costume. Stayed out for a few hours in him, then de-suited and sat with Tina for the last hour handing out candy to the last of the kids. Still a ton of not good for us treats left so these are going to be shunted off at work, probably all the way till Thansgiving!
Don't know what our trick-or-treat plans are. Hopefully there'll be none as we'll both be at Furfright. Time will tell though!
When I first began studying this fandom, before even openly participating, I read up on most of the major convention gatherings. FurFright always stood out to me because of all the positive feedback it continued to garner in each forum I went to. I knew early on I'd want to make that a destination when the time came to get out in the open.
I had initially made plans to visit this con in 2009, but had to back off them due to my mom's health. I finally got my opening in 2010. Not only was it my first convention as a fursuiter, it was also the first time I got to actually visit a number of east-coast friends and acquaintances I had made online in the years prior. I pretty much fell in love with that con with that first visit. I realized since I'm based on the other coast that visiting it each year would be a challenge, but somehow I've found myself trekking out there three of the last four years.
Given the distance and the uncertainty of time-off availability, I can't promise a return visit next year, at least not yet. However it is now firmly burned in on my radar so I will be back for 2014 assuming the time is available. This is also a con I'd feel ok to have Tina tag along with me. It's not a non-stop fetish parade or a continual contest of who is the bestest furry of them all. It's a gathering of friends run by a core of folks who work their asses off to make sure the environment is enjoyable and positive. In my experience, only Confuzzled in the UK has come close to this type of environment.
Things I'm already missing:
1) BarWars - This goes without saying! Ever since it was founded as a forgotten round of drinks between myself, Skippy and Silvermane, this has developed a life of it's own. The small gathering has now grown to a rotating who's who of thirsty con attendees. The force of BarWars was in fact so great that it kept me out of suit on Saturday as I spent the first half of the day shaking off the aftereffects of Round One. Wouldn't change a thing though. Great time spent with great folks! Next year, swing on by the con bar. Come for the drinks and stay for the Kanic show! :)
2) Hockey - I haven't held a hockey stick in my paws for at least 10 years. This was apparent on Friday as I brought Bjorn down to the ballroom to play in Belic's Diabolical Floor Hockey Tournament of Doom!
Unsurprisingly I was held off the score sheet as I vacillated between employing a cherry-picking style of offense or using my size to lean into the other team's top players. Still, I had a not entirely pathetic shot on net in the shootout, I didn't get injured (yay!) and I had a great time. I'll be back for this, fo'sho! I had so much fun even though I was on the losing side, I won't even complain about the handicap that my team (Team Fullsuit) faced against Team Guys-With-Masks. ;)
3) Team Trivia - I knew I'd need to be at a table with smart folk for this one. Luckily I happened onto a table that had Skippy, Kittrel and Wag! at it! We did actually end up winning the thing, despite JD Puppy's table trying to confuse Belic by claiming victory! Note to myself: next year load up on more useless, non-Doctor Who trivia before playing!
4) Poker - This was a hard decision for me since I had to sacrifice the masquerade to play. Tourney was well-run and moved well for self-dealing tables. Unfortunately I played like poo-poo and ended up as the bubble boy (last out before the final table). Still, any game of cards beats even the best days of work so I had a good time overall.
5) Helping out - I'm notorious for not wanting to give up any enjoyment time to help out con operations. I blame past bad volunteering experiences and laziness for this. FurFright however is a con that I'll make an exception for. Indeed, I left the con feeling like I didn't help out enough. This just may drive me to volunteering even more next year and maybe even to seek out a staff assignment. These guys just have the ability to make me want to help. I pitched in to wrangle fuzzies out the door for the parade on Saturday, helped out in headless for a bit and carted a few things out of the ballroom after the Dead Dog on Sunday. My goal next year is to get scheduled for some work prior to the con so I know I'll be in place to pitch in when needed.
6) All those crazy furry peoples! - Reunited with some old friends, spent some time with recently acquired ones and met brand new folks! Special shout-outs go to Wag!, Skippy, Kittrel, Chen, Raz, Nemmy, WolfPaws, Border, Kar, Silvermane and all the other folks I'm forgetting. Also glad to have finally met Tibor, our awesome goalie in hockey and who was once the focus of a fursuit crush on Fur Affinity of mine. Really awesome guy I got to hang out with a bit at the con's end. Hoping we can hang out some more next year. :)
All in all, it was a great time start to finish. I noticed on social media there was a lot of hype for the upcoming Midwest FurFest, but little attention was paid to FurFright which was happening right then. Too bad. I think if a few of these folks gave this con a try they'd be as hooked as I am!
***
Halloween! Unless I have plans for a party or am helping out at my brother's place (he sets up an elaborate pirate theme each year), I usually am pretty "meh" about it. Trick or Treaters at the door have always seemed more like a distraction than entertaining or fun. This year I tried a different tactic.
I went out to get dinner for us at a local taqueria. When I returned home, Tina was already sitting outside, dressed in tie-dyed shirt and hippy headband with bowls of candy at the ready and the first of the neighborhood kids were already out and about. In the past I've been ambivalent about handing out candy in fursuit. One reason being the potential pedobear knee-jerk reactions by over-protective parents, the other being I never really saw any potential gratification to just doling out candy in suit. Since our house is set back a ways from the street and we had a metric shit ton of candy to give out, I decided to get down to the end of our walkway in high-visibility Hunt to direct traffic to the candy. Surprisingly kind of fun! A few kids really liked being greeted by the big polar bear. Some of the older kids (who I think are hip to the furry scene) were a bit "meh" but did remark they liked my costume. Stayed out for a few hours in him, then de-suited and sat with Tina for the last hour handing out candy to the last of the kids. Still a ton of not good for us treats left so these are going to be shunted off at work, probably all the way till Thansgiving!
Don't know what our trick-or-treat plans are. Hopefully there'll be none as we'll both be at Furfright. Time will tell though!