Stone house set installation.

Since I knew ahead of time that I was going to miss out on Day 0’s load-in and most of Day 1, I joined the Theme Team with Strypes and Kaluna over the summer to help build their photo-op set. This year’s theme was prehistoric, so we built this super cute stone house and various props for it inside and out. I got to contribute a little to the house, stones, and mailbox.

Friday
(Opening Ceremony, hotel movie night)

I arrived at the convention in the afternoon, picked up my badge and con book, and also grabbed an N95 face mask to use for the day. The mask smelled a little strange and chemical-y, but I figured I could deal with it after using it for a bit.

In the back of the Main Stage as a performer sings for a crowd.

I had about an hour of peeking around in the Artist Alley before heading to the Main Stage to prepare for the Opening Ceremony. We encountered a lot of technical difficulties which caused a lot of delays, and since I wasn’t as experienced as everyone else and had temporary physical limitations, a lot of my involvement throughout the weekend was mostly seated and observing, and I did feel bad that I wasn’t able to be active in helping with setting up nor with putting out the fires. But I got to see a lot of familiar faces like Goofy, Francois, Kyla, and Larcis, as well as got to meet Rae (whom I shadowed for lights), Itrio (whom I shadowed for visuals), and Kumo (whom I shared the light board with in the following night).

After my shift, I realized the chemical-smell from the face mask hadn’t gone away and was seriously getting to my head, and I was actually feeling pretty awful. Part of my vision had gotten blurry, which I thought might have been from seeing the flashing lights on the stage, but that had never happened before. I tried eating some of the food in the staff room, but my body just wasn’t allowing anything to be appetizing. I headed to the low-sensory room so I could rest my head for a moment, until I ultimately decided I needed to actually rest in a bed, so SaladForrest helped me into the hotel.

Bad Guys 2 on pause.

After sleeping about 2 hours, I felt a lot better and also got to meet my roommates Benskii, Gabe, and Byte. Silva, the con’s Console Gaming Lead and the organizer of our hotel room, brought us snacks as well as ran a movie night, where we watched Bad Guys 2. I think the movie was pretty alright and entertaining (though I do prefer the first). When everyone was heading off the sleep, I was reviewing some information I had taken from my short trip to the Artist Alley earlier.

Saturday
(Artist Alley, Maid Cafe, Night Market)

Last year, I was not prepared for the Artist Alley / Dealer’s Den at all. I forgot that it was a thing because I never went to conventions prior. So I made it a point to do it completely different this year: Made reference sheets, browsed the list of artists online, and of course, set aside a hefty sum of money to spend. (I’m not by any means made of money, still just living month to month, but this is now the second year of being a mostly-employed individual. There are many reasons why I wanted to spend a lot on art commissions, but those thoughts warrant their own separate post, so I digress.)

I had also wanted to print out the map so I wouldn’t ruin it in the conbook, but since I forgot, I quickly sketched it out on some regular paper and made my notes there. I physically got through about half the artist alley the day before, so I spent this morning walking to every corner and finalizing who I wanted to commission. Since I was purchasing from a lot of artists, I kept a log of everyone through a spreadsheet on paper that I had the artists fill out. It seemed much easier viewing a sheet like this in my opinion, as opposed to fussing around with many message logs on my little phone screen. It was also just nice to interact with the artists this way—letting them handwrite the information I wanted, as opposed to having everything all be digital. I even printed out my reference sheets for me to flip through and present to them.

Preparation for the Artist Alley.

After I got almost all my commissions locked in, I had two shifts at the Furry Maid Cafe. Like last year, I was an auxiliary staff member and helped maintain the space. I had to sit a lot more this time and couldn’t run around as fast, but I did the best that I could, and I just loved being in the space with everyone—seeing Baxter and Allspice again, and a few other familiar fursuiting maids/butlers. I have been learning sewing off and on throughout the year, and I just so happened to make an apron, which I got to wear during my shifts. On my break, I got to partake in some of the food. I chose the baked parmesan chicken, which was delicious. The picture doesn’t do it justice, nor does it pick up how glittery the dessert was. Just one of those things that you had to have been there.

Baked parmesan chicken pasta meal and dessert from the Furry Maid Cafe.

I had another glance at the Artist Alley after that to pick up some finished artwork. I also placed three more commissions and successfully spent the rest of my allocated funds. But of course, I then had to run off to my next endeavor at the Main Stage: the Night Market raves. With Itrio’s help, I got to do a little of the visuals for DJ Ajax Pup, which was my first instance of ever doing anything with the projected visuals. After that set, I moved over to the lightboard with Kumo for DJ Hushpuppy.

There was one moment that the music was starting to amp up, and I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I hit the white strobe on this next beat for just a second,” and the exact moment I did, the DJ just so happened to hit this laser-y sounding noise in perfect sync with my strobe. The crowd yelled, and the AV team cheered, and I felt amazing (again, I’m pretty sure I’m the least experienced person on the team, so it felt great to do something very cool, even by accident). Never going to live that down.

The night went on after my shift, so I tried getting my fursuit partial on and being on the dance floor. I didn’t enjoy it that much since I’m not much of a dancer, nor do I fare that well in a crowd, plus I could really use a new and improved fursuit head, and I definitely prefer being backstage, so it was a short-lived moment. But I’m glad I tried anyway. The lines were incredibly long, and I knew some people who spent hours in line just to get in, so I’m thankful I didn’t have to wait just to experience something I wouldn’t have liked. I truly belong in the booth.

Sunday
(Classical Morning, Closing Ceremony)

In the morning, I woke up an hour before my alarm, thinking “Awesome, I can go back to sleep.” When I woke up again, it was 20 minutes before my first shift was about to begin. No recollection of ever waking up to an alarm or turning it off or anything. So, I threw on my things and rushed out the hotel door and got myself to the Main Stage again for the AFC Classical Morning event, where musicians performed. Some of them were even able to play their instruments in fursuit, which I found impressive.

Issun and Alton performing in front of a crowd.

In the afternoon, I picked up almost all of my commissions from the Artist Alley and got to hang with Forrest, Mike, and Quasi here and there. Then, I joined the Main Stage one more time for their Closing Ceremony. Since I had responsibilities the next day, I couldn’t stay long after (nor could I help with load-out on Monday), but I was very much satisfied with how my weekend went. I volunteered as much as I could and had the time and funds to support so many artists. I saved up and had a specific goal of spending $1000 on art commissions, and I managed to spend it all down to the last dollar.

11 of the 13 commissions I got at the con (will update the image when I get the last one in).

Thank you for having me again, Another Furry Con. I am looking forward to what’s in store for next year, renamed to Anthro SoCal. (I honestly liked the original name, but I welcome this new one too.) I’ve already got some ideas as to what I want to wear to actually relate to the theme, as well as how I might want to navigate the Artist Alley, but I shall keep such matters a secret for now.

Haul of all my items from the convention.