Thursday

My alarm went off at 4:30 and after a half-hour on a heating pad with a game I set to the last of my packing. I spent a little time with my daughter before I headed off at 6 with the promise that once she was home from school she could message me. And promptly at 6 I was on the road. I made good time and only stopped once for a stretch break in PA, and once more in NY near Buffalo to fill up on gas and an early lunch. Getting across the border was even easier than last year and by 11:30 I reached my friend  Fulminar's place. We caught each other up on everything we'd been up to the past year on our way to the hotel where we hit slightly heavier traffic than normal for that time of day. It was about 1:00 when we arrived and thank goodness I'd grabbed a bite earlier as I'd have been starving by then.

I was delighted that they had valet parking again; trying to park in their lot last year had been scary as heck - I've never seen a lot with tighter spaces or turns before. And check-in turned out to be pretty easy too as there were only a few furs in line. And they were definitely all furs! We couldn't get a luggage cart this time, but the porter's assured us that if we left our stuff with them they'd get it to our rooms. I feel a bit weird trusting my luggage like that, but they were reliable and only a few minutes after getting into our room (all the way up on the 31st floor of the South Tower; no stairs for me this year!) our luggage arrived.

After checking out the room and stowing our stuff we meandered to the convention space, bumping into  CatMonkShiro in the process. Plenty of other furs around but few I knew by name. At the convention center we waited in line to pick up our registration, making sure to get there early this year. While waiting in line my daughter called and we chatted for a good bit about all of the stuff she was doing. She showed off her crazy messenger filters and gimmicks that she enjoyed, and I was happy we could have that time. But once reg opened I had to tell her I'd talk with her again later. Registration was actually pretty seamless, but we did have to get into a second line to pick up our con swag.

The second line was into the FE section of the Dealer's Den and it wasn't quite ready for us but the wait wasn't too long. We picked up our stuff and then chatted a bit with  Pakesh who was monitoring one of the other doors for dealer's picking up their registrations. After we went back to the room to sort through everything. The mugs were astonishing and I was surprised they opted for something so nice even for those at Supersponsor level. The T-shirt is really cool but what kinda disappointed me was that the Furnal Equinox name wasn't on it at all, nor the year. That's the first time that has ever happened.

Fulminar and I went our separate ways for dinner. I ended up hanging out in the lobby for a while before being joined by  Alganbord and Noah. We went to Firkin's for dinner, a place we've hit every year since we came to the Westin. I'm not a fan of the decor there per se, but the Fish n Chips is quite good. Service was real slow that evening for some reason, but it did give us more time to talk and catch up.

Afterward we retired to our rooms. Fulminar was half-watching Con Air, a movie I had never seen but recognized, and so I settled down and we chatted while sort of watching it too. Once the movie ended we caught an episode of Murdoch Detectives that I hadn't seen and in the middle of this the final member of our party arrived:  Cobalt_K! It was a bit after eleven by this point and we were all tired. But we chatted for a while as he got settled in until the call of Morpheus was too great to resist!


Friday

Fulminar and I were up fairly early on Friday and so we went down to the hotel restaurant breakfast buffet. The selection was about as I remember which included plenty of grains and fruits as well as a variety of meats for the omnivores and carnivores. I recall not caring for the pancakes that much and did not like the artisan cheeses (time to turn in the Rodent card) but the fruit and granola I scarfed were more than adequate to get my day going. We saw a few other furries down there as well, but I cannot recall if any of them were furs I know.

We took our time migrating over to the convention space to see Opening Ceremonies. I chatted with the other furs in the SuperSponsor line as we waited, but once they let us in I settled toward the back. Last year I went right up front due to my excitement after three years without FE. This time I was more thinking about making sure I would be able to get into the Dealer's Den as quickly as I could since the Benefactors and those who needed Assistance would get access first.

Opening Ceremonies was enjoyable and very surprising. In past years all of the staff would get introduced and many folks would have a chance to address the con. Not so this year when the con chair gave an introduction in keeping with the "Tales from the Tavern" theme for the con, introduced the local charity the con was supporting, as well as the guests of honor. But nobody else from staff was given stage time and so Opening Ceremonies wrapped up in about 25 minutes. This meant I had more time than originally expected to wait in line for the Dealer's Den! Not that I mind. While again I don't recall who I was chatting with while we waited, it was an entertaining wait and everybody was in good spirits.

Once Dealer's Den opened I headed straight for  Anyare where I picked up my updated badge. She did this badge for me as a take home from FE last year ( https://www.furaffinity.net/view/48124842/ ) but my Zebra form has only two fingers and a thumb on my hands like the WoW Tauren or the Turtles from TMNT. She digitally corrected it and printed off a new one for me and so I layered it with the original for the rest of the con. I also secured a sketch slot for her in my new sketchbook!

I stopped on by several other good friends next.  SpiderDragon and I exchanged hugs and tales of how we'd been doing before I snagged a sketch slot from her. I also popped on over to my other usuals and filled up my final two slots with  hbruton and  SandySchreiber. Of course there were hugs, questions about how I and my family were doing, and questions about why the third member of their trio (  Xenotropos ) couldn't make it as well as how they were doing and so forth. Always good to see them and I hope the cons they've done since have been a blast!

I chatted with a few other artists including Shiro,  Nyomi,  Pyat and  Rafferty. From the latter two who were running the Sanguine Games table (with Rafferty being one of the Guests of Honor), I snagged an Ironclaw supplement (The Book of Corals) which is the first new Ironclaw product I've bought in a couple decades. They assured me that they could help me find a group to game with online but sad to say I know I just won't have the time for it. I'd love to play Ironclaw again though. At the least I'm enjoying reading through this supplement and the other I snagged on Sunday.

I looked around for things to buy for my daughter but nothing really jumped out at me just yet. Nor did I see anything else I wanted for myself as I scanned the rest of the Dealer's Den. I headed back to the room and dropped a few things off and then after having a quick snack I got into my fursuit. I didn't really have a plan for suiting; mostly it was just me trying to see how well it would work out. Last year I'd really struggled because they required we wear the masks beneath the fursuit head and I just couldn't breath. This time it was recommended but not required and so I hoped I'd be able to manage it better. Little did I realize the lack of air conditioning in the convention space would overwhelm what little benefit the cooling vest provided. It didn't help that the hotel rooms only have a fridge and not a freezer so the ice packs were already not as cold as they should have been.

I lasted barely a half-hour in suit before I was heading back up to my room to get it off. I did manage to tour the Dealer's Den and give a few of my artist friends ratty hugs. Bu after that disappointing experience I was convinced that my days of fursuiting were numbered and that number was pretty small. But I learned later about the AC issues and I'd have more luck suiting on Sunday. More on that for Sunday of course.

After getting back out of suit I went to the Data Structures and Algorithms panel. This was an unusual panel to see at a furry convention but I had a blast and learned a few interesting new data structures that took advantage of binary addressing to automatically calculate sums and ranges of the data in the set. Almost everyone at the panel was actually a student still and only a few of us were working in industry. I was able to provide some of my perspectives having been in the field for two decades and I think a lot of folks appreciated that, but I did try to let the guy running the panel shine and share with us his knowledge.

Once the panel wrapped up, and we were crammed in the room to the point it was overflowing, I headed up to the Game Room to enjoy the simple pleasure of board games. I ran into  Alganbord and we ended up giving The Game a try. It's a simple game where you have to get the numbers 2 - 99 in order in four separate stacks but you cannot tell each other what numbers you actually have. First time we played this a number of years back we were destroyed. This time we managed to successfully play all the cards and win the game!

Cobalt and another fur joined us for the game but I fear I do not recall who it was. But before we could get started on another game one of the fellows from the Data Structures panel found me and started asking me math questions. I used some of my scrap paper to show him how to solve the 1D Wave Equation using the Separation of Variables technique and also showing how to develop physical intuition about the terms in a differential equation. We discussed several other areas of Mathematics including the beloved Axiom of Choice and how it makes a total mess of things. We then branched off from Mathematics to discuss philosophy and the problem of consciousness. He didn't quite realize that he was picking topics that would get my heart racing and I fear my exuberrance to pose questions and help illuminate several aspects of the problem, all the while trying to avoid declaring firm solutions to the problem (the problem of consciousness changes depending on other metaphysical assumptions one makes, some of which are theological in nature and that's a touchy can of worms I wasn't quite ready to get into with somebody I just met). And that branched into general life discussion as he was a student and had an uncertain future ahead of him and here I was with almost twenty years in industry to draw upon. I hope that I was able to give him even a nugget of wisdom in all of that he can hone and grow from. Still, horse that was such a fun conversation and I really appreciated the opportunity he gave me to discuss so much with him.

Unfortunately Alganbord and the others who were there to play games could only listen in awe as I waxed poetic on these and other issues. Eventually we wrapped it up and my new friend went to grab Cards Against Humanity so we could all play. I hadn't touched the game in over ten years but I was willing to give it a go. Sadly they didn't have it so I went up and found Fluxx instead. My new friend and the friend who'd brought him to the con had never played, but Cobalt and I were familiar with it and helped everyone get used to it. But we knew the rules a bit too well and were able to exploit them to their full. At no point though did either of us do that in order to win; we did it to try and keep the rules simple so everyone could have fun. But we may have scared them off. Still, I think they all had a fun time.

But after the game was done so too was the day. I headed back up to my room where Fulminar, Cobalt and I discussed our day and did a bit more catching up before the call of sleep claimed us.



Saturday

I must not have had enough to eat on Friday because I woke up feeling a little out of it. Not to the level of being sick but enough that I checked my temperature every now and again just to be sure. Thankfully it always came back as normal and once I had something good to eat the lethargy and off feeling I had would go away and I'd be back to my usual energetic self.

There wasn't a whole lot to do first thing in the morning at least. I went to the Dealer's Den to check on my first sketch from Anyare but it wasn't quite ready. She did show me the scratch page she had used before transferring it over to my sketchbook and I was and still am very delighted to see what she was crafting for me. I hope to get the sketches posted to FA within a week of getting this journal up. Watch your notifications!

Since I wasn't going to be able to pass my sketch book along I headed over to the Supersponsor Brunch with Fulminar. Normally I see a few other folks there but as I was feeling off I was grateful for some peace and quiet and lots of food. I don't recall what I ate but I know bacon was involved and two cups of coffee and at least one cup of orange juice. Not long after I finished I felt great and was ready to conquer the con!

By the time I returned to the Dealer's Den Anyare was finished with my sketch which I thanked her profusely for. She did an amazing job and if I can manage it I'll be adding her to my usual lineup of artists I try for each year.

I delivered my sketchbook to SpiderDragon and then got both Fulminar and Cobalt over to Heather Bruton's table for the Roomies sketch. We all pretended we were holding mugs aloft like we were at a tavern to fit the theme of the con.

Cobalt and I headed over to the TF Meet and Greet at that point. The room was super crowded and both of us were astonished that they'd think it okay to hold a panel that was always packed in such a small room. Everyone was happy to be there though so we made the best of it. Like last year they broke the room up into small groups based on certain TF types or triggers. I ended up at Barn Animals again and unfortunately it's been a bit too long so I don't remember the names of everyone I chatted with, but  astrosnax was one of them. We chatted about the kinds of TFs we liked, introduced ourselves and what we do in the fandom, and in general just had a nice time.

I had to leave a bit before the panel ended because I wanted to hit up the Reptile Meet and Greet too. The room for this panel was full as well but it didn't feel like it was about to explode. This panel was handled more like I handle my Rodents! panels with everrybody involved in a general discussion at once. Almost everyone there was a dragon. I had by Triceratops and Alligator sides to represent me and I think it surprised a lot of folks when I told how both of those forms were in a way given to me by my father so I in a way honor him by expressing them. There was a lot of good discussion about various dragon related media and a little on dinosaurs and all, but it was so dragon heavy I didn't get as much out of it as I'd hoped. Not to say I didn't have a good time, just was hoping for more dinosaur and reptile friends to make but twas not to be.

I headed back to the Dealer's Den at this point and after shopping around some for my daughter I settled over at SpiderDragon's table to check on my sketch. She was working hard on it and invited me to sit down and chat with her while she did her work. This is the sort of thing I love about Furnal Equinox is that we can just sit down and chat with artists for hours on end; this would never happen at Anthrocon. I had been afraid FE was starting to get too big for it, but not quite yet at least.

Of course there were still a good number of customers who came and interrupted us but I just smiled each time. It's great seeing her get such good business because she is such an amazing artist. I would feel wounded if I could not get something from her each FE. We did chat quite a bit about how things are in our lives and our hopes for the next year and all. I showed a few pictures of my daughter and heard the usual, "She's getting so big!" comment and the "I remember when she's was just a baby!" Amazing to think that so many other furs and I have been friends all this time that they've been able to get updates from me the whole while my daughter has grown.

Not long before the Dealer's Den closed for the day SpiderDragon did manage to power through and finish my sketch. Another amazing piece I am eager to share! I thanked her profusely both for the sketch and for the wonderful company for the full two hours we sat together talking. And hugs were offered and received! I then handed my sketchbook off to Heather and Sandy for their contributions and bid them a good night.

After depositing my tail and all my goodies in the room, I waited with Fulminar and Cobalt in the lobby for our dinner crew. We were joined by Alganbord,  DaiCymru and his friend  UrsusArctos. I'd bumped into Dai several times already at the con but cannot recall exactly when so we'd had some time for chatting and catching up on things since last year, but it was great to meet his friend Ursus for whom this was his first convention even though he'd been around the fandom for a good long time. He had some great stories to tell of his work and adventures too! And what blew me away was that Ursus is from Pittsburgh originally and was wearing a Pittsburgh jacket, but because those are so common for me, it didn't dawn on me that it was not normal for Toronto until he said something about it!

We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner and as always everyone loved the decor and the menu and the food was simply fantastic. I factory-sized my meal, but wasn't actually able to eat all of it. I took the rest back and had it for lunch on Sunday at least so it wasn't wasted. During our meal there were three birthdays near us and the servers invited folks to sing happy birthday so we all did with gusto. It was actually quite fun and so much better than those cringe custom birthday songs you usually hear the servers do at other restaurants.

After eating too much food and feeling very satisfied, we noted that the place was pretty empty so we went around to see some of the crazy decor and take a few pictures before heading back to the hotel. It was quite cold out and I was wishing I had my winter cap with me and not just the stetson. But it wasn't that far of a walk and soon we were saying good night to each other.

Alganbord and I went to the game room to see if we could get in some more games before sleep came for us but all we managed was another round of "The Game" (which we won). I know he wanted to play one of the larger games he'd brought but we both knew it just wasn't going to be. We headed back up to our rooms and while I'm sure I chatted a bit with Fulminar and Cobalt in the room, I am also pretty sure I crashed pretty fast at that point.


Sunday

I rose early on Sunday by convention standards and headed off to St. Michael's Cathedral for Mass. The Cathedral is truly beautiful and even if you aren't Catholic, or Christian for that matter, it's a beauty I think most would be able to see and admire. After Mass I returned to my room, got changed out of my dress suit, and had my Old Spaghetti Factory leftover for brunch. By that point the Dealer's Den was open so I picked up my final two sketches and then continued looking around for gifts for my daughter.

I then settled down with Shiro and chatted with him for a good long time about all that's been happening in our lives; struggles, triumphs, hopes, etc... Eventually I did have to take my leave because my Rodents! panel was coming up! I got into my fursuit for the second and final time for the convention and headed down to the panel area. I was a bit early it turned out so I spent the time on the balcony enjoying the cold end-of-winter air.

The Rodents! panel was decently attended this year with a half-dozen suitors. To my surprise a full third of the folks there were at there first FE and for about half of those it was their first furry convention period. No cats in disguise this time sadly, but we had a great time anyway. Lots of good discussion on various different rodents including capybaras of which we had at least two in attendance! Rats and Mice dominated of course, but the variety was better than the reptile panel at least. We got some good pictures of the fursuits and I hope to share those soon.

After the panel I took my suit off and headed to the Game Room to see if there was any fun to be had. I joined Cobalt,  tfProxy, and another pair of furs whose names I don't recall now in a few rounds of a game caled 'Codenames'. I'd never played it before but had a blast. The idea is you have to get your partner to pick certain items on a board by saying a related word and hoping they can make the connection. The other team has their own set of words to aim for, and there's one space you absolutely do not want your partner to pick because it's the assassin and you immediately lose if it's chosen. I am not sure whether I prefered being the one to give the clues or to guess the words; both were really fun challenges.

It got time for the Dealer's Den to close so I headed back one last time to make sure I had everything I wanted. I picked out a cute T-shirt for Angie and I grabbed a second Ironclaw book for myself (The Book of Horn and Ivory; think Africa; it has Zebras and Crocodiles!). I went down to Closing Ceremonies after one last round of hugs with artist friends. Closing Ceremonies, like Opening Ceremonies, was remarkably brief. Of note was the fact that we went from a little over 2000 to over 3000 in one year! I was blown away by the number because it didn't feel like it was really that crowded.

After Closing ceremonies I spent time chatting with DaiCymru,  Seadog_driftwood, and  Leo.The.Ninja.Lion about the con and all the fun we had and our thoughts on the theme for next year (Under the Sea). They weren't ready with the swag when closing ceremonies ended, but we hung out just long enough for the con staff to start dumping the buttons for next year everywhere. I grabbed some for Fulminar and Cobalt just in case they missed them and then headed back to the room to remove my tail.

We met in the lobby with Shiro, Nyomi,  Dan_Raccoon,  Kokuei, Dai, Ursus, and a few others for the traditional Mandarin run. It was a smaller crowd than previous years because Shiro wanted to do it as a test run to see how comfortable folks were with the experience in a post-COVID world. I think everyone had a blast and we won't have any issues doing this in future years.

I spent a good bit of the trip there chatting with Kokuei on a variety of topics including some politics and our lament about the state of affairs in the US and how it's not even safe to have a conversation on anything anymore. It was refreshing to be able to say such things with a friend. But once we got to the Mandarin all thought of such things vanished and it was time for us all to stuff ourselves with great food! Of course we had our toast to another great con, and we had so many wonderful conversations about the fun we had, the things going on in our lives, and hopes for our futures. And of course all the crazy ways we were stuffing ourselves with food! Ah, I am so glad we were able to resume this tradition that I've been a part of since the second FE. Thank you, Shiro, for organizing this and inviting me every year.

The trip back to the hotel was fun but as always the thought that we were going to be saying goodbye soon was there. But after so many years it's not quite as bad as it used to be. More conventions will come and more stories and hopes will be had. More wonderful memories will be made! But goodbyes and last hugs were offered between us all, until finally Fulminar, Cobalt and I were back in our room for the last night. I think we stayed up for a bit and showed off the stuff we bought and shared more of the neat things we did together. But eventually we did succumb to sleep and let our stomachs do their darndest to digest that crazy huge meal.


Monday

The final morning came as it always does - too soon and right on time. Fulminar and I joined Alganbord and Noah for one last buffet breakfast. I was still a little full from the night before so I didn't eat too much, but I definitely enjoyed the coffee. We saw DaiCymru and Ursus there as well and so one last round of hugs was had as we discussed our travel plans and assured each other we'd let each other know when we made it home safe.

I got us checked out of the room around 9:00 because by then Cobalt was up and we were all essentially packed. About 9:30 I got my car back and we said our last goodbyes to Cobalt whose car was in another lot. I drove Fulminar back home and we did our traditional chat about upcoming trips and of course, he played "Try Everything" from Zootopia which has been a staple of our departure ever since we saw the movie at FE 2016. Once I dropped him off it was straight and clear the rest of the way home with only a delay due to traffic at the border. I made it home in plenty of time to spend a little with my wife and daughter that evening. Angie was so very happy to see me again. One thing I didn't mention was all the times throughout the weekend she did a Facebook messenger call with me. I felt bad because I had to decline her call a few times, but I did take most of them. I am sure the phone bill this month is going to be a bit higher than normal.

Overall it was a great second FE after COVID. I think the furry convention scene has found its footing after the pandemic and things are going to continue to improve. It's only a matter of time before we don't have to wear masks anymore either.

To all the folks I interacted with but didn't mention here, thank you also for helping make this a great Furnal Equinox! And to all my friends I look forward to seeing you there again next year!

Dominus vobiscum