Hey all! With Matt and myself back home it’s time for – dun-dun-dun – the con report.

Whoo, where to start? Well, as the Mad Hatter and the March Hare said, start at the beginning and when you get to the end… stop. So, here we go.

Mon, Nov 17th
Matt and I drove up to South Station in Boston to drop off the two large, and very heavy, duffel-bags filled with our clothing and four boxes of comic books. Unfortunately, we didn’t know about Amtrak’s weight limit of 50 pounds for checked luggage. The bags were too heavy! But, the gentleman at the luggage check was very nice and helped us transfer things around. In the end, we had three checked bags instead of two.

We headed back down to Plymouth to rest up for the next day.

Tues, Nov 18th
Matt and I left the house really early in the morning. While the train wasn’t due to leave until around mid morning, we wanted to beat the commuter rush into Boston. We dropped the car off at Matt’s work, took the T into South Station and waited for a few hours in the nice, private waiting room Amtrak sets aside for its sleeper car passengers.

Once on the train we had an easy ride to Albany, NY where we had a slight layover as the sleeper cars were attached to the train. I was unfortunately feeling a little nauseous from the ride so far – I’d never ridden on a train for such a long time before. We had a light dinner at a sandwich shop in the Albany station then hopped back onto the train and into our sleeper compartment.

I really should have taken a picture of this but, didn’t think of it at the time. Neither of us had ever ridden in a sleeper car before so, we were unsure what to expect. It was cute! Just the right size for me though Matt, being a little taller, felt a bit cramped. It even had its own sink and toilet! Neat! Unfortunately, we found out that sleeping on a moving train is a bit tricky if you’re not use to it. Matt, at a little over six feel tall, kept banging his head against the wall every time the train slowed down. I, on the top bunk, kept feeling I was going to fall off whenever the train jolted or took a turn.

The end result, no sleep that night.

Wed, Nov 19th
But, the benefit is we got to the dinning car early for breakfast! I’m still amazed at how the lady working the dinning car could get around a moving train while carrying hot food and coffee. One passenger was right, that lady should be a ballet dancer.

We met up briefly with Frostbite (We should get together for dinner sometime. Just let us know, we’re not that far away.) while coming out of the dinning car. Turns out he had the sleeper room right next to ours. Unfortunately, we were so wiped from little sleep we ended up heading back to our little room. I don’t know about Matt, but I slept for a bit in the chair.

We arrived in Chicago at around 10:00am or so. Getting our duffels of doom was easy. I waited with the bags while Matt went to check how to get to the hotel. We met up with Frostbite and together we all found the Metra (much nicer than the T) which dropped us off near the convention center. Takaza met us all at the Metra drop in a Westin shuttle. Then it was a quick ride to the convention center, a whirlwind of check-in info and we were dropped off in our room.

Now, we were expecting a nice, average room. Our idea of classy is the Country Inn and Suites. This room floored us. Let’s put it this way, the room was roughly the size of the downstairs of our house. The bathroom alone was the size of our kitchen. Crazy! Duncan and crew had left a care package for us as well. Thank you! After standing in shock for a moment… the need for a shower took over.

After getting clean (Yay, clean!) we headed back down to the lobby to track Duncan and Takaza down and see if there was anything we could do to help out. We helped unload some of the con packet material then, with nothing much more we could do until the bad stuffing later, went to find food.

The Claim Jumper near the hotel was very good. A little heavier than we were expecting, but good. We then sat in the lobby for a bit before wandering down to help stuff bags which was fun. I know, I’m weird. I like putting things in bags. I don’t have a problem! I can stop at any time. *twitch*

By the time we finished it was late and we were feeling tired. No sleep the previous night, after all. So, we went back up to the room for a bit then decided we should probably eat. It was then we realized a small problem, something neither Matt or myself has had to deal with in quite a while… we didn’t have a car! After panicking for a bit, we ended up trying the Ram across the street from the Westin. It was good, but loud. Too loud for us. We decided the next day to see if we could pick up the car we’d reserved for the Iowa trip a bit early.

Thur, Nov 20th
Countdown to con-time and everyone is freaked. Since we weren’t needed anywhere, we thought it’d be best if we were out from underfoot and tracked down our rental car. Thanks to Takaza (sorry for being a bother that morning) we snagged a taxi and headed into O’Hare. I forgot how crazy O’Hare is. But, we made it to the rental station and, after some confusion, managed to pick up our rental. The funny thing is, we’d have to “return” it Monday before taking it right back out again. Don’t ask. *laughs* Armed with a car and our GPS we were mobile again! But, still not needed yet. So, we went looking for lunch. We found a small, family run restaurant that has some of the best burgers either of us have ever had – TeddyFabz. Truly awesome burgers. I was also able to watch the Hawkeyes on TV for the first time since leaving college.

We came back to the convention center to find that the quiet of a few hours ago was gone. Suddenly everyone was arriving. Cool! We hung out in the lobby for a bit, set up the table quick, then went up to get dressed for dinner. Duncan had plans. Evil, evil dinner plans. We’ll leave it at that. A gal’s got to have some secrets. *grin*

Fri, Nov 21st
Countdown is over. The con is on! Noon was the Opening Ceremonies which was fun. Since we’re normally at cons as a business (I admit it, we’re not very social people) we usually don’t catch the Opening Ceremonies. That was only the start of our wild, fun and amazing weekend. Right after that was the Meet the Guest of Honor panel. I’m still not sure why we were up there next to Foxfeather Zenkova, one truly awesome artist, and Lucky the Evil Dog, mascotter extraordinaire and a really cool guy. We were all answering various questions Duncan was asking when suddenly, this adorable ox named Orvan showed up with deliveries from ACME for Foxfeather, Lucky and both Matt and myself. Being Wyle Coyote fans, Matt and I weren’t sure what to expect from a package marked ACME, but he was so cute you couldn’t help but trust him. Thank you for the box of goodies, Orvan Ox!

We sat in the Dealer’s Den for a bit. It was while in the Den we ran across someone I’ve known for a bit but hadn’t been able to meet before, Sabertooth Kitty. Cool! It was nice meeting you Saber! We also saw Jouster but never got a chance to hook up and hang out. *pout* I want a repeat of Houlihan’s, dang it!

At 4:00 our first panel, the heroes one, was due to happen. If there was one downtime to this weekend, this was it. We flopped it. Neither Matt or myself are good at public speaking. While we know our stuff, we know it in the context of doing, not explaining. We also don’t see ourselves as experts. In other words, we’re not comfortable telling others how to do something, especially in a group. Or, maybe we’re just not fond of talking about heroes. (Seriously, villains are more fun. You ever notice how they always seem to get the best musical numbers?) Either way, it was embarrassing. Still, only a few people left. Most stayed. Weird that.

I don’t remember much beyond that (shame, shame) until Uncle Kage’s Storyhour and 2’s show that evening. Again, we’ve never experienced much in the way of con activities before this weekend. We come to vend and, after sitting a dealer’s table for eight hours straight we’re usually frazzled, tired and headached out. But not this time! We finally got to see Kage and 2 in action. Dear God, I haven’t laughed so hard in a while. By the time we got out it was late and we were hungry. So, we left for food. We tried to get back to TeddyFabz – the burgers, they called to us! But, they were closed. (But the burgers! I want! *cries*) So we headed back to the convention center and ate at the Claim Jumper again where I found out that yes, I am still very much allergic to onions. After that, we called it a night.

Sat, Nov 22nd
First thing at 10:00am we had our villains panel. Now, after the previous day’s panel I was very nervous. But this one went much better. First off, there were only a few of us there. Excellent! We all gathered around the table (this is a discussion, not a lecture) and just chatted about villains for an hour. Cool! I think with us, smaller groups work best. At least until we gain the confidence to say, we know what we’re doing dang it! I need to stop deferring to Matt though. I have stuff to say as well, but always feel I shouldn’t unless it’s here online. I really need to work on that somehow.

Right after was the Sponsors’ Brunch, which was very nice. If you go to MFF and can afford to do so, purchase a Sponsor membership. It helps the con and gets you a lot of nice extras, including a yummy brunch.

We then popped back into the Dealer’s Den for a bit. I like the Dealer’s Den in short intervals (too long and I get fidgety behind the table). You get to meet new people and chat with them for a bit. We had free posters available as well as our standard bookmarks, so hopefully a few people were happy when they left our little area. We also saw Sabertooth and Jouster again, then it was time for the fursuit parade. Some of those suits are so cute! There were a lot more suiters than we were expecting!

After a bit, we got antsy and decided to check out the Charity Auction. I’m glad we did! Not only was it a blast – as well as, I’m a bit ashamed to admit, an ego boost (we offered all the originals of Issue 1 to the auction and watched them go for $250 – Soba you’re one crazy dude, we love ya) – but if we hadn’t gone, we’d never have known about… the Kage/Hamtaro Incident. Someone bid a $1,000 to see Uncle Kage wear a cute (yet oddly terrifying) Hamtaro costume. So, later that evening, Uncle Kage promised an impromptu storyhour in the outfit.

Wait, it gets better…

Now, we were wandering off yet again to find food a bit later – hey, food is important – when we ran across Uncle Kage. We offered to take him out to dinner, but he had a panel coming up before we’d be able to return. But, he did have a request… if possible, could we pick him up some wine or maybe, sake? We said sure and headed out. We found the wine he wanted and, on the recommendation of the nice fellow at the packy, also picked up a good bottle of sake. We dropped them off at our room then went to hang out with Duncan and Takaza for a bit at their room party. (They both looked so wiped out. Seriously, if you were at MFF and haven’t thanked Duncan, Takaza, Tango and the whole of the staff yet, do so. Now! They busted their butts to put that con on.)

After a bit, we left to deliver Kage his supplies and see the hamster chaos that was sure to ensue. If I thought I’d laughed hard the previous night, it was nothing compared to this one. Uncle Kage, 2 and Jibba had way too much fun goofing around with that suit. They also raised even more money for this year’s charity that evening. After a bit, Matt and I realized we saw the bottle of wine but not the sake, just that Kage had a bottle in a brown paper bag which he was taking drinks from often. It wasn’t until he offered some to Jibba that we realized he’d been downing the sake! I about died! I’m thinking, ‘he’s going to drop over on the stage! Dear God, what have we done?!’ But it didn’t seem to phase him. They went on until midnight after which Matt and myself, lightweights that we are, went to bed.

Sun, Nov 23rd
Sunday and the last day of con already? Whoa! How did things move so fast? We had a bit of time in the Dealer’s Den again in the morning before heading off to do the extra characters panel. That was also a lot of fun. Merrick and Major met us at the table after the panel. We chatted for a while, then they wandered off while we held down the fort for a bit. 3:00pm was final closing time for the Dealer’s Den but also time for our last panel, the one specifically on ‘Hunter’ itself.

I wasn’t sure what we were really going to talk about, but it all went well. There were a lot more people there than I expected. Thanks to everyone who stopped by! It was nice to just talk about the comic. Most of the time I’m a little worried I’m bothering people by gabbing about ‘Hunter’. But you guys chose to be there. What are you all, mad? Just kidding.

After that came the quick, and rather sad, process of packing up the table and saying goodbye to friends who had to leave early. The only regret I have about the con is we didn’t get to spend enough time with friends, new and old. Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up and spend more time together next year.

Next year? Yep. At Closing Ceremonies Duncan announced the guests of honor for next year… all 24 of them! (For the full list, visit the MFF site.) We’ve been invited out again next year and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone once more. Because… something odd happened that weekend.

Due to some rather nasty negative experiences in the past (some only within the last year or so), I’ve been uncertain about the furry fandom for a while now. I’ve never been sure what to think of the fandom nor what the fandom thinks of me. After that weekend, while I’m still not sure what the fandom thinks of me, I know now how I feel. That weekend has done more to brighten my outlook of the fandom than anything else in eight plus years has. Not because people treated us differently because we were guests (most people didn’t know who we were and still don’t I’m sure). No. It was because we had the opportunity to see and actually experience the con and fandom firsthand, not through the sometimes cold anonymity of the net. We saw friends having a good time together. We saw a group of people working hard behind the scenes to ensure things ran as smoothly as possible so everyone could have an enjoyable con. We saw amused cops taking photos of the suiters. We saw this con and its goers raise over $15,000 for a small area charity that trains dogs for therapy work. And, to any skeptics out there no, I didn’t see any sex going on.

A little over a week later I’m still a bit stunned. I have ideas I’d like to try for next year. Matt and I have already talked a bit about some possible plans. But mainly, I’m hoping we can be of some help to the con next year. We’d also like to find a way of gathering readers together and meeting up. And we really need to find a way of hanging out with friends more.

Jouster, I now understand what you mean, man. It’s an odd feeling when the con’s over.

Everyone, thanks so much for everything! It was truly an amazing experience. We met so many people, I know I’m not mentioning everyone. There’s no way I could. My mind is still a buzz. And Duncan, if there’s anything we can do to help out for next year, please let us know.

Mon, Nov 24th
Monday and the con is over for another year. Everyone can rest up and recharge. While sad, there is a bright side for us. We’re off to Iowa to visit my parents for the first time in four years…

“The world’s a roller coaster and I am not strapped in. Maybe I should hold with care, but my hands are busy in the air.”
– Brandon Boyd