[Con Report] Midwest FurFest '05 - Friday
I’m going to start this report off by saying that I met and talked to so many wonderful furs at MFF that I know I’m going to leave more folks out than mention. To say that MFF turned into a “social” con for me would be an understatement. To everyone I had the opportunity to sit and talk to and get to know a little bit more, foxie hugs and a heartfelt thank you.
It was a long 8 hour drive Thursday night, but having TOS and Xavier along to share the ride made the trip that much more enjoyable. We did a lot of talking and listening to Weird Al but we sure were thankful to pull into the parking lot for the AmeriSuites behind the Hyatt at 1:30AM CST (2:30AM EST). We made short work out of unpacking the car while Sil got us checked in and after a quick bit of unpacking we crashed for six hours.
After breakfast Friday we headed to the convention and from there split up to follow our own course of panels and activities for the day. Sil and I got down to registration and ran into several old friends while we got our badges. I got the paperwork filled out for Friday evening’s mini star party, it was approved along with the signage, and I posted it right up on the message boards.
As things don’t start up at MFF until afternoon, Sil, Xavier and I wandered over to the Woodfield Mall to wander the Lego Store and Build a Bear Workshop, as well as just do some window shopping. I picked up a cute little foam firefighter’s axe from the Lego Store to use as a prop with Safety’s firefighter fox gear. By noon though, I was getting antsy to get into the rhythm of the con and perusing the mall felt like I was wasting precious time.
So we arrived back at the con just in time to catch Caddie and LilPup sneaking up on us to surprise us with actually being at the con. Well, a little bird had already told me that they had been on their way to MFF the day before so I feigned surprise with a bit of over-acting and ruined his fun. :D
After catching up with Caddie, I got into suit for about 45 minutes before Sil caught me an invited me to lunch at Jimmy John’s with Bob and Spiral. So I de-suit and we trekked down the road about two miles for sandwiches and a little time talking with long time friends we only really see at cons.
Arrived back in time for Sil to attend a panel she’d been waiting on and I skulked back to the fursuit lounge to do some hot glue work on Safety. The craft foam at the lower portion of his left ear had broken loose and needed to be tacked back down. In the process of figuring out exactly how to make that repair, Caddie discovered that the orange fur below the cheek line on both sides had separated from the foam frame and needed to be glued back into place before the ear could be tacked. With the “all important” advice, “Don’t get hot glue in the fur” he left me to experience the pleasure of burnt paw tips and hot glue.
For someone who has absolutely no idea how a fursuit head goes together let alone how to maintain such a thing I managed well on my own and Safety was repaired in about two hours. I was just finishing cleaning up when somefur came in with a message that Sil had been looking for me for the past hour and a half. It was nearly time to join Xavier, Javi, Shareen and Brian for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.
Dinner was as good as the company and there was enough left over to take back to the room and nuke up for Saturday night. While Sil, Javi and company stayed behind at the mall to go to Build a Bear, Xavier and I went back to the Hyatt. I had to get things ready and set up for the Astrono_Furs Mini Star Party at 8PM and Xavier had the DDR pre-quals to attend.
The mini star party turned out to be more successful than I thought, though I was prepared for more. Including myself, six of us braved the 28 degree temperatures to take in the best night for star gazing of the whole con. Out under the lights from the parking lots and using the power of our 15x70 binoculars, we took in the long, deep shadows along Mare Crisidum and the Ajax crater on the Moon, the beauty of the Pleiades (M45), the bright, red disk of Mars, split Albiero, Epsilon Lyra and Deltal Lyra. When we called it a night it was about 9:15PM. We took a couple pictures of the four of us who were left then went inside to warm up and talk a little more about astronomy and the evening’s tour. We challenged and beat the Chicago light pollution dome. Thanks to Keegan for his help.
After putting the gear away, I went back to the fursuit lounge to get back into Safety again, this time with Ashe’s hockey jersey. I suited for about two hours, wandering the halls with my camera, taking random pics and interacting with the different fursuiters along the way. It’s a ton of fun to do that and an excuse to take some pictures. I wandered up to the C’ubhouse as well and hung out with a few of the Babyfurs who had attended MFF for sometime.
As I was cleaning up from suiting at 11:30 the folks involved with the Furry Variety Show began to arrive and the room began to fill up quickly. Sil caught me and told me she was going back to the room to go to sleep. I told her I’d be behind her shortly, but I changed my plans and decided to stay behind in the lounge to talk to folks and help folks into and out of their suits and costumes. Needless to say, I didn’t get to bed until almost 3AM Saturday morning.
Phew! That was just Friday! The report is continued here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/swift_fox/251268.html
*Hugs*
Swift Fox
It was a long 8 hour drive Thursday night, but having TOS and Xavier along to share the ride made the trip that much more enjoyable. We did a lot of talking and listening to Weird Al but we sure were thankful to pull into the parking lot for the AmeriSuites behind the Hyatt at 1:30AM CST (2:30AM EST). We made short work out of unpacking the car while Sil got us checked in and after a quick bit of unpacking we crashed for six hours.
After breakfast Friday we headed to the convention and from there split up to follow our own course of panels and activities for the day. Sil and I got down to registration and ran into several old friends while we got our badges. I got the paperwork filled out for Friday evening’s mini star party, it was approved along with the signage, and I posted it right up on the message boards.
As things don’t start up at MFF until afternoon, Sil, Xavier and I wandered over to the Woodfield Mall to wander the Lego Store and Build a Bear Workshop, as well as just do some window shopping. I picked up a cute little foam firefighter’s axe from the Lego Store to use as a prop with Safety’s firefighter fox gear. By noon though, I was getting antsy to get into the rhythm of the con and perusing the mall felt like I was wasting precious time.
So we arrived back at the con just in time to catch Caddie and LilPup sneaking up on us to surprise us with actually being at the con. Well, a little bird had already told me that they had been on their way to MFF the day before so I feigned surprise with a bit of over-acting and ruined his fun. :D
After catching up with Caddie, I got into suit for about 45 minutes before Sil caught me an invited me to lunch at Jimmy John’s with Bob and Spiral. So I de-suit and we trekked down the road about two miles for sandwiches and a little time talking with long time friends we only really see at cons.
Arrived back in time for Sil to attend a panel she’d been waiting on and I skulked back to the fursuit lounge to do some hot glue work on Safety. The craft foam at the lower portion of his left ear had broken loose and needed to be tacked back down. In the process of figuring out exactly how to make that repair, Caddie discovered that the orange fur below the cheek line on both sides had separated from the foam frame and needed to be glued back into place before the ear could be tacked. With the “all important” advice, “Don’t get hot glue in the fur” he left me to experience the pleasure of burnt paw tips and hot glue.
For someone who has absolutely no idea how a fursuit head goes together let alone how to maintain such a thing I managed well on my own and Safety was repaired in about two hours. I was just finishing cleaning up when somefur came in with a message that Sil had been looking for me for the past hour and a half. It was nearly time to join Xavier, Javi, Shareen and Brian for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.
Dinner was as good as the company and there was enough left over to take back to the room and nuke up for Saturday night. While Sil, Javi and company stayed behind at the mall to go to Build a Bear, Xavier and I went back to the Hyatt. I had to get things ready and set up for the Astrono_Furs Mini Star Party at 8PM and Xavier had the DDR pre-quals to attend.
The mini star party turned out to be more successful than I thought, though I was prepared for more. Including myself, six of us braved the 28 degree temperatures to take in the best night for star gazing of the whole con. Out under the lights from the parking lots and using the power of our 15x70 binoculars, we took in the long, deep shadows along Mare Crisidum and the Ajax crater on the Moon, the beauty of the Pleiades (M45), the bright, red disk of Mars, split Albiero, Epsilon Lyra and Deltal Lyra. When we called it a night it was about 9:15PM. We took a couple pictures of the four of us who were left then went inside to warm up and talk a little more about astronomy and the evening’s tour. We challenged and beat the Chicago light pollution dome. Thanks to Keegan for his help.
After putting the gear away, I went back to the fursuit lounge to get back into Safety again, this time with Ashe’s hockey jersey. I suited for about two hours, wandering the halls with my camera, taking random pics and interacting with the different fursuiters along the way. It’s a ton of fun to do that and an excuse to take some pictures. I wandered up to the C’ubhouse as well and hung out with a few of the Babyfurs who had attended MFF for sometime.
As I was cleaning up from suiting at 11:30 the folks involved with the Furry Variety Show began to arrive and the room began to fill up quickly. Sil caught me and told me she was going back to the room to go to sleep. I told her I’d be behind her shortly, but I changed my plans and decided to stay behind in the lounge to talk to folks and help folks into and out of their suits and costumes. Needless to say, I didn’t get to bed until almost 3AM Saturday morning.
Phew! That was just Friday! The report is continued here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/swift_fox/251268.html
*Hugs*
Swift Fox