Summary
First I want to welcome punktiger , ethan_wolfcat and chanobear; I hope my life won’t seem to boring for you.
I will try to resume what kept me from the living for the past two months. Do you remember the audit I mentioned in my last post? Well that audit kept me very busy, doubled my load of work and tripled my stress level up to Furfright (which was establishing the beginning of my vacations). Well yesterday in a board meeting, I learned that all our work did pay off. We are now certified from Eurami with the highest credentials.
We are also the first company in America and we are the company they took the less amount of time to approve our status, all that without even a single recommendation. I learned that we passed the Canada Transport audit as well, with only five little recommendations. Furthermore, we passed the Audit from Esso with a note of 4.9/5 (which is something close to impossible to obtain).
So now that I finally caught up with the overload accumulated from my vacations, things are back to normal.
In theses two last months, I also had to deal with my friend that attempted suicide. It took me a lot of control, a lot of time and work. All that, added to my stress.
It is harder to help someone after the crisis than saving him in that intense moment. It is easier to give him a boost when his defenses are down and that, having nothing else to loose, he opens himself. After the crisis is past, he feels ashamed, hurt and he feels lost so he puts his defenses up.
My task was then to try and decipher his body language and decorticate everything he was saying so I could be there at the right place and the right time for him to grab me as he lost balance. Every word had to be thoroughly thought so the message was crystal clear, truthful and positive. That can be quite demanding.
Again, the hard work seems to have paid off since he seems to do a lot better. I think that the worse is behind us and that with a bit more time, he will come back from all this, a stronger and happier man.
Just like everything else, BDSM has been put aside. That is why nothing has been post there. I know for a fact that it will be picking up soon.
Do you remember that I worked on my Jeep to make sure that it would be in good condition for my trip to FurFright? Well life didn’t give me a break there either. Thursday (the day prior my leaving for FF), my radiator started to seriously leek and I didn’t had the time to repair it. I went to buy some stop leak and plenty of coolant fluid in preparation for my long trip.
Friday morning I started the car (2H30 AM), poured the stop leak in the radiator with enough fluids before noticing that I had a flat tire. I tried to change the tire but couldn’t take out one of the stud. I went in my basement to fetch my big air compressor to inflate the tire and drive to the nearest garage (which I knew wouldn’t open before 8AM). As I went for my compressor, my car doors locked themselves and I had to break in my Jeep before inflating my tire.
The mechanics had to cut the bolt with the blowtorch (and I have aluminum mags). So, I started my trip 10 hours later than expected and $50 short. Of course with that delay, I hit more traffic in Montréal and I also was delayed at customs.
Just before leaving Vermont, I stopped to fill my coolant fluid and I noticed that my left valve cap was leaking oil. Fortunately I had some oil in the car so I was able to fill it and continue on my trip.
It started to rain as I reached Hartford right in traffic hour (5PM). Being stressed out and very annoyed, my driving was a bit more aggressive than usual (and it can be very aggressive) which had me hitting the break way more than I should have…my breaks started to heat and my front left one ceased. I had to go off the highway and stop for almost an hour until it cooled down enough so I could hit the road again.
I finally made it to the hotel around 7PM. I ran to registration and I tried to find my mate (he was out for supper). Waiting for him I missed the Franken sponsor little happening. He finally came back at the hotel and I kidnapped him to go back to the restaurant so I could eat my first meal of the day.
Coming back to the hotel, I unpacked my Jeep, gave some Canadian Coke to my roommates and went to bed.
Saturday I suited up for the day and finally I was able to forget about life for a while. I met old friends, made new ones and entertained others. I was really happy to see how the Mexican disguise for Kildoo went well. All was going so well that day until diner time. Coming back to our room, my mate informed that he had lost my car keys. It didn’t take more than that to bring back with a vengeance all my previous stresses.
Searching for the keys and trying to come up with a back up plan made me miss the dance that night.
Sunday morning, I walked to Stopshop and bought what I needed to break in my car (again) and I searched the car for my keys. They weren’t there. When I got back in the room to suit up, my mate was happy to tell me that the front desk had found my keys.
After being in fur suit under the wool poncho all Saturday, I decided to try something else. I just put my leather jacket over my fursuit and finished the look with my sunglasses. It was fun to see that I was attracting a deferent group of people that day (different clothes, same wolfy). I also tried some carpet skaters that my mate bought for me. I must say that they are a blast but skating in fursuit wearing a leather jacket was getting me overheating quite fast. I never went to the headless lounge to drink and stand in front of the fans as often as I did that day.
Too soon it was time to say goodbye to many friends and to attend the dead dog party. I was surprised to see people actually dance for once (at a dead dog party). I tried to dance as much as I could (and I don’t mean fursuit dance) and bring people to the dance floor.
After the party, I helped the staff to gather everything before heading back to our room. I only wish someone would have taken a picture of me climbing on the chair while having Chakatfire sitting on my shoulders.
Even with all the problems I had getting there, I was so happy to meet many of my friends again. Everything about the con was exceptional. I am only sad that I couldn’t be more energetic and more present this year.
I met old friends, learned some more about recent friends and I made new ones. I also felt the absence of some friends I was looking for to see again (or meet for the first time), notably Nyn, White tiger, Flare and I would have like to finally meet Rj.
Monday I helped loading the truck and I said my last goodbyes.
I then decided to go and try a restaurant I noticed coming in. With a name like “Wolfie’s"
, you can understand that I couldn’t help but to go and inquire about it. It is locate at the exit #24 on the 91 in MA.
The food was generous and really good. I highly recommend that you stop there if you ever passing that way.
After that we went in search of a camping ground (I wanted so much to go camping with my love). All the camping ground we stopped at (which were supposed to be open from… through October) were closed. So we ended up sleeping in my Jeep in a rest area.
The next day we went to visit a couple of tourist attractions before heading to Brun’s den. That is the day that my camera finally died. I had problems with it for a few weeks prior to FF but its last picture was the one from Wolfie’s restaurant.
Waiting for Brun to come back from work, we were walking the town and I was lucky enough to grab a free pair of pants, a shirt and a gown at the local costume shop.
As I saw Brun, I was a bit uneasy to impose on him and his roommate like that. They were so tired…. I will have to go and visit some furfriends in USA but I will have to so, far from FF.
We left Brun’s place Wednesday morning to go camping at Stowe. Half way through there, my car stopped. To make things short (I know…TOO LATE) we were brought to one garage and then found another one that could actually do some work on it the same day. The Jeep dealer fixed my coil connector (and I had my belt and tension adjuster changed). Another day lost and almost $600 bills.
I was so tired and pissed off that we did head up straight back home to try and relax a bit.
As the weekend came closer, the need to go camping came back so I headed to St-Donat hoping this would be the right occasion for it… but it poured rain all day. To end my vacation, Sunday it was snowing…
Monday was back to work for me and my quality time with my love started to be really scarce. The following weekend, we went to the BDSM convention where my friend had another small existential crisis which prevented us to really enjoy that con. I nonetheless met good friends and it also permitted my mate to see that people in BDSM are pretty much like the people in furry; they are very kind and open minded people (even a bit more sensible than average) that are cursed by stereotype and bad press.
That pretty much summarize how things have been busy for me lately. Since then I slowly started to enjoy life instead of merely surviving. I was also able to buy a new camera (I still have to pay for it though). Life has come back to the way I like it (if only my mate could be living with me already).