What a difference three months and 10,000 fewer people make! Furnal Equinox was exactly the experience I was hoping MFF 2022 would be. Last weekend went very well, and a lot of fun was had. I understand that it was unrealistic of me to expect MFF to feel like FE. AnthroCon doesn't even feel like FE, and I've been to that one several times. But MFF was pretty much me jumping head-first into the deep end of an Olympic-sized pool when I hadn't encountered anything so much as a puddle in three years.

The anxiety and real-life worries that plagued me at MFF were barely felt at FE. For one thing, work has been going a little more gentle on me lately, and I didn't have to take planes to get to this con. I was able to drive, thereby following my own schedule, no rushing required. And once I got there, greeted by dozens of familiar friendly faces, it was the easiest thing in the world to slip into the convention atmosphere and truly enjoy the festivities and the company.

Without further ado, let's recap.

THURSDAY

With an expected 7-hour drive to Toronto, I played it cautiously and slept in on Thursday so that I could travel safe and alert the whole way. I sort-of overdid it on the sleeping, though, as I slept the entire morning away and woke up around 1pm! When I finally got on the road, it was closer to 3. It all worked out, in the end, because the drive was quite smooth and traffic congestion was trivial. I was most anxious about the border crossing, but even that turned out to be the smoothest I've experienced in the four times I've made this trip.

Finally pulling into the Westin around 11pm, I made it up to the hotel room and found  MatthiasRat and  Fulminar . They invite me to stay with them every time, and they're exceptional roommates. We briefly caught each other up on the four years since we last saw each other. Fulimar gifted both of us with thematically appropriate, handmade wooden mugs with our names etched into them. (The theme of this year's con was "Tales From the Tavern.")

FRIDAY

Getting through registration took a while, not the least because I had to run back to my room to grab my vaccination card. I ran into my MFF roomie,  Fireboy224 (Taya), and we talked in-line for a bit, making plans.

Deciding to ease into the weekend, I looked for a low-key area to hang out in. There wasn't a place like that at MFF. I didn't need the Quiet Room, just an area with chairs and tables where I could chill out, chat, sketch, suggest a board game or two with people, where we weren't crowded shoulder-to-shoulder. The Gaming Lounge at FE was very nicely laid out for this. This year it was in a cozy room in the Westin, with windows overlooking the water, a game rental table, a VR corner, and another corner with an automated photography setup for fursuiters. The tables were spread out and plentiful. I parked at one and started sketching.

I missed sketching at cons so much! The atmosphere at MFF never felt right for it. Here, it was a breeze to chill out, put a blank piece of paper in front of me, and let the mind flow. During this time,  MicrophoneUnderground and  LilacOunce came by and we chatted for a while. After a bit, we were joined by good friends  Angrboda ,  Abe_E_Seedy ,  Therian , and  dorintf . In the middle of all the conversation, it occurred to me that I had felt overwhelmed by a group this large at MFF. Here, it was no big thing. I was happily vibing on the two or three chats going on at the table, while making little touches to the sketch I was drawing.

After a while, we split off to do various things. I eventually found myself in the sprawling Dealer's Den, scoping out wares and seeing who I knew at the tables, but only got through one and a half aisles before I ran into some folks who invited me to lunch. I didn't realize until then that it was well into the afternoon and I was starving. We walked to Jack Astor's and I had my first proper meal in two days, a nice big Thai chicken stir-fry bowl.

Following on from that, I had finally made up my mind to buy a SIM card I could put in my phone so that I could have data service in Canada. It was painfully clear that, if I was going to have any hope of keeping up with all of the people and activities this weekend, I needed to be reachable on "the socials." One member of our group, and dear friend,  TFProxy , helped me search the area for a cell phone store. We navigated by his phone's map app, which gave us several false promises of a phone store that kept turning out to be red herrings.

We walked, and walked, and walked, covering blocks around the Westin, back to Union Station near Jack Astor's, and finally ended up at a kiosk outside of a Loblaw's, where two EXTREMELY patient telecom agents set me up with a reasonably priced data plan and swapped out the SIM card on my phone (which, as every single person who noticed my phone that weekend observed, is very tiny -- it's a credit-card-sized Palm Phone, and more people should know that such a thing exists).

Now that I was fully reunited with the 21st century, we walked back on rubbery legs to the convention center. It was too late for me to finish going through the Dealer's Den, as it was closed, so I hung out in the Gaming Lounge for the last few hours of the con, playing some rounds of The Game with  Alganbord . Then Matthias and I introduced a few people to Fluxx. I think the two of us got a little TOO into the game and scared everybody else off of ever playing it again. Still, I hope it was a fun time for everyone.

SATURDAY

Waking up, Fulminar informed me that while we were sleeping, an incident had occurred down in the Westin lobby and a shelter-in-place order had been issued and then lifted. I wouldn't understand what had happened until I was back home on the following Wednesday. But apparently no one was in any real danger. The inciting scare clearly had impacted everyone in the lobby and awake in the hotel at that time, and left traumatic scars. I hope that everyone who experienced this is okay and is able to get help to process what happened.

As I was oblivious to all of this, and there were no perceptible aftereffects of the incident, I went down to the lobby for breakfast with Taya. Following that, we headed to the Dealer's Den. Stopping for a bit to chat with  catmonkshiro ,  hbruton and  Spiderdragon at their respective tables, it was really good talking shop with them and seeing them doing well.

Soon it was time for the TF Meet-and-Greet, hosted by  zilepo and  Forepawz . I had passed up the M&G at MFF due to social anxiety issues, so I was doubly determined to go to this one. They divvied up the room by specific TF interests (farm animals, latex, hyper, etc.). One of the group topics, proposed by a member of the audience, was clothing TF. That was right up my alley! About nine of us talked about the use of clothing and accessories as TF triggers, vehicles for identity play, and all that sort of neat stuff.

The one big downside, felt across the entire panel, seemed to be that the room was too small and hot for the crowd that we had. Lots of people left about halfway through the scheduled 90 minutes. I bounced early too, as our group eventually ran out of things to talk about. It was nice while it lasted, though. I was especially thankful for the good vibes of the group, after having missed out on the M&G at MFF.

Slipping over to the Gaming Lounge, Proxy, Terry, Antifreeze, Matthias and I played a few games of Codenames. In the first two games, I immediately beefed it as both the code giver and the guesser. But things got better after that.

Dinner that night was at The Old Spaghetti Factory, where Matthias, Fulminar, Alganbord,  DaiCymru ,  UrsusArctos and I enjoyed some big, indulgent meals and ice cream. After that it was pretty late, and we were beat, so I reluctantly called it a night instead of trying to squeeze in another board game in the lounge.

SUNDAY

I slept in during the morning, and then spent almost the entire day in the Gaming Lounge taking every possible opportunity to chat with those still around, including  Caturnalia and  K-Libra . It was a wonderful way to wind down. Yet another reminder of the preciousness of the friendships that have been forged at this con.

The last thing was a spontaneous game of Lands of Galzyr with Taya. I had been lugging the game around during both MFF and FE, hoping to introduce some folks to this awesome furry adventure game, and the two of us had quite a nice time of it.

MONDAY

During my drive back home, Taya and I got to talk some more as I gave her a ride to the airport, and then I met some friends who invited me to lunch, which was a delight. It helped us stretch out the convention a little bit more, and probably helped alleviate some of the PCD.

I made it back home safe and sound... but then was greeted by some birch trees hanging very low over my driveway and mailbox. It turns out the nor'easter we had a few days before the convention dumped too much snow on them to handle. They had weathered some bad storms the past few years, but this time there was no bouncing back. But, this was something I could tackle Tuesday, fully energized in body and spirit from a wonderful convention. (And with Dad's chainsaw.)

Immense thank-yous to everyone I met at FE. Also, thanks to the staff and volunteers, who were clearly run ragged this time around. It can't be said enough -- you're good souls. I'm eager to see you all again next year!