FC2008 Con Report
I'm sitting here relaxing in my motel room in Santa Cruz after a not-too-eventful day at work, so it's time for my FC con report!
The Saturday before FC, I started my drive to Santa Cruz. Why so early? I live in Albuquerque and telecommute. It's a very convenient coincidence that the office I telecommute to happens to be in Santa Cruz, about 45 minutes away from the DoubleTree. It allowed me to avoid using up 4 days of paid time off just for driving since I could work on-site on the non-FC weekdays. The boss was OK with this and even let me swap the MLK holiday with Thursday, saving yet another FTO day. W00T!
I love being able to drive to a con. It allows me to bring much more stuff. In this case, a good number of my plushies and Care Bears bedding, as well as plenty of “supplies”. Also, no worries about having to catch a plane in either direction.
On Saturday, I drove from Albuquerque to Laughlin, where I put a little spare change in the slot machines. I got a $39 room, so no big loss. (I remember when it was easy to get $19 rooms in Laughlin. They're getting too proud of themselves). I woke up on Sunday and drove the rest of the way to Santa Cruz and checked into the Inn at Pasatiempo. It's kind of a funky old motel just off of Hwy 17. The room rates are affordable this time of year, and I like being able to back my truck right up to the door of my room.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday was work. But this is a con report, not a TPS report, and I don't need no steenking cover sheet :)
Wednesday is when the real fun started. I got off work around 4:30 and drove from Santa Cruz to the DoubleTree. Once I found the hotel (I hadn't been to FC since FC#2 many years ago) I met up with Carol, Sabot, Tugs, Albear, and Dex. I shared a room with Tugs, Thrashbear, and FoxCub. We checked into the room and Tugs helped me haul all of my fine plush booty up to the room. :) I like to totally kyOOt up the room when I go to cons, and really need to come up with a way of non-destructively decorating the walls. The more Care Bears the better! I never counted, but I had at least 20 of my plushies including some of the bigger ones. That and numerous items of Care Bear bedding. Squeeeeeeeeee!
After getting all checked in, we went down to the lobby and a bunch of furs got together for a trip to Outback. It seemed to take an hour to get everyone to agree on exactly which Outback to go to. The furry inertia was causing light waves to bend and time to warp, so I don't know how long it really took. We eventually got there and much chatting and socializing ensued. Fox_Cub arrived later on and we went out around midnight to find food and supplies, but everything was closed. I'm not too familiar with that area, so I didn't know where to find the super walmart.
On Thursday, I hung around the con a bit, and picked up some snacks and supplies while out and about with Carol Kitty. We were well stocked with snacks and supplies for any partying.
Thursday evening was Carol and Sabot's dinner night at the Melting Pot where we had a wonderful time with 30 or so furs. Thank you both for organizing the dinner - it was totally awesome. Great food and great conversation! After we got back I don't really remember too much what we did. By that time ThrashBear had arrived and I think they went out for dinner and BevMo, because there was now alcohol in the room. :) I was offered and consumed some drinks and we chatted for a while, with several other furs. My memories of Thursday are a bit sketchy, as I didn't take notes, and probably also because of Friday. :)
Since I was too lazy to preregister, I paid the price and spent two hours in line Friday morning to get my badge. Tugs was working at the BunnyWarez booth while I was waiting in line and Sabot was there too, buying (IIRC) a pair of their new PJs. I am definitely ordering a pair if/when the large size comes out. I hung out some more that afternoon, then several of us (I think it was Thrash, Fox_Cub, and LilPup, others?) went out to get lunch. Actually, we went on the Great Gas Station Adventure, and had a hell of a time finding a station. Once we did that, we went to a Mexican place called On The Border. Not bad for Not New Mexican. *giggles* I grossed at least someone out by ordering fish tacos. Come on guys! Fish tacos are yummy! After fighting traffic, we got back to the con, and I made it to the Dealer's Den in time to pick up my new Marci badge and sketch. OMG they are so CUTE! I'll have to post them and make icons once I get back home to my scanner. We sort of opened up the room that evening and a bunch of furs came by. While up in the room, Babs came by and Tugs introduced us. She's such a sweetie, and she drew my character as a very cute Care Bear Cousin wolf cub. Gah! I just about melted when I saw it. Thanks Babs! *hugs*
Now for the really fun part. While up in the room, I began to imbibe alcohol. Quite a bit of alcohol. Frankly, I was trying to get rather buzzed to loosen me up for the dance. I'm normally pretty introverted and reserved and would never get out on a dance floor. I don't know how to dance worth a shit, either. I figured getting a bit drunk would break my inhibitions. It worked. Boy, did it ever work. LOL! I was already getting quite a buzz just before we went downstairs, but I was bitching that I wasn't drunk enough, so FoxCub handed me a cup with quite a bit of vodka in it and I slammed it, then we both took a big gulp of Peppermint Schnapps. Neither one of us realized at the time just how much alcohol I'd already consumed just before that.
I danced for probably two straight hours without really stopping. I'm sure I looked like a complete drunktard. Actually I've been shown video blackmail-grade material proving it. :) I was flailing around like a complete Dee-Dee-Dee. And I don't give a shit, I had a fucking BLAST!
After two hours dancing, it really hit me hard. I really don't know how I made it back up to the room. I got into the bathroom and sat down to answer nature's call, and suddenly I just lost it and puked like on the exorcist, booze, digested fish tacos, and all. The smell hit me and then barfed out my shoes. It was really bad, all over the floor, and I think I might have been close to blacking out. That was definitely my Epic Fail moment at the con. I did my best to clean up the mess, showered, and hit the bed. I stayed awake an hour or so before I finally passed out. The next morning I swear I was still drunk. I slept a bit longer, then got up. The cleaning people did a good job of cleaning up the remainder of my mess, and I made it a point to go to the front desk and complimint the cleaners and make sure they got a $40 tip for dealing with that grossness. Overall, though, Friday was totally memorable, even if I did end up sacrificing my lunch to Ralph, at the porcelain altar.
On Saturday, after I recovered somewhat, i headed over to Santa Cruz to get the power adapter for my laptop. OMG Must have intarwebz! I got back and we headed over to BevMo to pick up booze for the Babyfur room party that night. FoxCub and LilPup bought $200 or so of alcohol, and another $100 or so for pizza. I kicked in $40 for the booze and $20 for a tip for the pizza guy, but decided to take it easy on the hooch for reasons that should be obvious if you read the last paragraph.
The room party absolutely ROCKED! It was a 21+ party, since we had a bar going in the room, so Thrash and I took turns as ID nazi at the door. Technically, we weren't supposed to have a room party like that on the third floor, but Con Ops was aware of us and we behaved ourselves very well. We had over 100 furs show up throughout the night, indulging in drinks and having good conversation. Up until after midnight no one that I could tell was truly shitfaced drunk either. A couple furs got rather wasted by the end of the party, but nobody did anything retarded and there was no damage to furs or property. It went over really well and should help to dispel some of the fandom's stereotypes of us.
During the party, I ducked out for a bit to check out the Plushie Party on the 7th floor. Much to my surprise and absolute utter delight, who did I meet up there but PlushLover a.k.a. Rabs a.k.a. Lontra! One of my best furry friends from the “old days”. Much very tight hugging ensued. Plushlover, I'm so very glad you were able to make it, even if for only one night. Well, he and I went around for a couple of introductions then headed back up to the plush party room for a while. I rather wish we could've gotten together the following day, but too many things were going on a the same time, as is the nature of a large con. I went back to the room for the rest of the night. The bar was closed at 2:00AM as per con rules, and it wound down over the next half hour or so. We reassembled the beds in the room and crashed, utterly exhausted. What a night!
On Sunday we all slept in until around noon or so, and a couple of us went down to the hotel cafe for lunch, just to get something quick to eat. I checked out the dealer's den and the art show and put in a commission for a new Marci badge of the Care Bears wolf that Babs drew for me. I also had to pick up a couple FC and “LOL Furries” T-shirts before they sold out my size. Several of us hit the hot tub that afternoon then I went along with Thrash and LilPup to see the Taiko drummers. It was pretty cool and we ended up staying for the Furry Night Live show. That was really the only official con event that I actually went to. I enjoyed it, and it went really well. “Dick in a Box!” Hee hee. After that we went over to the SoftPaw room for a bit and then back up to our room for a more mellow (and mostly non-alcoholic non-21+) chill-out. Various furs were put in “compromising” positions (No I won't name names) and we stayed up until after 6AM. We said our goodbyes to FoxCub around 4AM and he went to catch a 6AM flight back home. (Ugh)
On Monday at 9AM, I went over with Carol to her mom's to pick up some stuff to bring back to Albuquerque, since I had extra room in my vehicle. Since two hours of sleep doesn't cut it, I got back to the hotel and took a 2-3 hour additional nap. Afterwards, I got a final In N' Out fix, and went over to Fry's to see if there was anything I couldn't live without. Thrash had to catch a plane, so we got a last meal together at the hotel cafe again. Later on we hit the dead dog party and another late night chill-out. Around 2AM or so Tugs, Koru, and I headed back to the room to try to get some sleep, since we all needed to head out early.
Tuesday was anticlimactic. Tugs hit the trail for SLC, and I headed in to work in Santa Cruz. I was a bit worried about Tugs, since the weather over Donner Pass looked to be quite crappy from the webcams. I'm very glad he made it home safely. Now I cross my finger and hope Flagstaff is clear this weekend. I really don't want to go the long way through Tucson. That easily adds an extra 6 hours to the trip. I plan on visiting my folks Saturday night and then heading in to Albuquerque from the San Bernardino area on Sunday.
FC2008 kicked ass! Thank you Tugs for sharing room with FoxCub, Thrash, and me. I miss you guys already and am absolutely going to FC 2009. I'll also be at AC this year in the hopes of meeting some furs I haven't seen in ages. (Mejeep, FoxWolfie - Are you going?)
Well, it's off to bed for me. I have to work tomorrow.