Well, if I learned one lesson at MFF this year, it's "don't go to a con if you're still trying emotionally to get over a breakup." Because, yeah. After breaking up with my GF of four months, seeing all these couples throughout the con sharing the experience with each other was a dagger to the heart. Even though my GF was a normie anyway and I never would have told her about the fandom and my involvement with it, it just really rubbed it in that I'm single again now and all those people aren't. Because of depression I also weighed significantly more than I usually do during a con so I felt yucky and just not in the right headspace. I was this close to just leaving on Saturday, but couldn't go through with it (and was better for it).

I don't want to dwell on the negatives for too long, but wanted to contextualize my con experience for those of you who may have seen my tweets during the con or heard me be a little equivocal when asked how the con went.

But this year it was just Covah and I staying at the Embassy Suites. We had a conference room suite on the second floor, which was awesome. First off, you get a large room when you walk in that's great for parties, as well as setting up tiny cities to knock down in photo shoots (*cough*). Second, you can avoid the slow-ass elevator. Third, you can stumble out of bed and into the free hot breakfast, as well as two free drinks per day. I think this'll be my new go-to hotel for MFF. The five seconds you have to walk outside to get to the skybridge is fine. Covah will still fight for his Hilton, though :P

The con was outstandingly large. If you weren't waiting in a line for an event, you were getting clogged in the strangely humid skybridge with...apparently hazardous levels of CO2? I think they need to hire a logistics consultant as they start to touch 20k attendees, because in many ways they're doing exactly what they did when they were under 10k and it's not working anymore.  KuiPaws had a great point on Twitter, that it makes sense to pull more out of the Hyatt and bring it over to the convention center. Start to deemphasize the "main hotel" more over time. Put more casual tables/chairs/gathering spaces in the convention center, that sort of stuff.

I've been a huge fan of Animal Art Crimes for years, and this year they sold out..jk jk...made it big, we'll say instead! By having a table front and center at the dealer's den. Picked up a super cool sign, but more importantly I wanted to give a shout out for a unique sales system. They didn't just throw everything out at the beginning of the day and have it sell out in five seconds, they left some things NFS, then added prices and sold it as the day went on. That way, everyone gets a chance at something! Vendors, take note! That's actually how I got this sign, because we were turned away from the DD at first as it was at capacity XD But on the other hand, they sure do charge what they're worth, meaning that I really couldn't buy anything else at the con! Worth it, though. Oh, wait, I did pick up a furry Playboy homage in the Artist's Alley...what a hottttt idea!

The macro meet was in a good sized room this year and hosted tons of peeps. I met one of my bucket list suits,  remmyzee's Cholla,  as well as  orpbus's Eve suit,  golderoug's suit, and plenty of other long-time friends. Eve later rearranged my guts...wait, that sounds wrong.....I mean, stood on me with their full weight at a paw party later, which was....really something, if you ask anyone who was there. Those were grunts of pain, I swear!
Let's see what else...oh,  Sylox threw a room party that was a blast, and I got to know  krazzy, a fellow MD fur, a lot better as a super cool guy!  Sovrim helped me out big time at the macro meet with photos, and I repaid in kind with stomps. Got to enjoy breakfast with  Sofia.exe and discuss life and chocolate.

Covah and I went to a local pizzeria that changed its name to Little Nero's for the night and had a whole Home Alone tribute night going, and the pizza was pretty damn good! Also a good opportunity to hear some more of Covah's impeccable playlist on the way there and back, it's soooooo good, I Shazam half of that shit without shame.

So what's the verdict on this con? Any opportunity to spend time with a good friend like Covah or take your pick of everyone I ran into, I hugely value. That being said, there were plenty of close friends who weren't there either, like Bronze, or Argent, or Von, and not really because they didn't want to be. I guess you always think about people who want to go to a con you're at but can't be there for whatever reason, and it just kinda causes this "damn, what could've been" feeling. 
Well, I'll wrap it up there. And please remind me to learn how to dance for the next con (FWA, perhaps??) because I'm dragging Covah down at this point, come on!