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Furcationland 2025 Report, Day Two (Sat. April 12)
6 months ago
It was not so fun night as I spent it cleaning out my guts making multiple trips throughout the night to the bathroom—something must have been contaminated in that salad I had for lunch on Friday. And I know it was the salad ‘cause I could feel the Thai still in my stomach at that point. I know, TMI. Being nearly as diurnal as my squirrel fursona, I’m awaken/give it up at 5:45am, again later than usual for me. As I sit up, she wakes up. I’m not sure if she woke up at that time on purpose or due to my stirring about, but it is what it is. We open the shade to heavy snow. Check the NWS website and there are winter weather advisories just west of Portland. It’s sticking to cold surfaces, but not the roadways. I get coffee from the lobby and reheat pizza for breakfast ‘cause I’m not going to go out there in that snow for a hot breakfast. And the hotel restaurant was closed for renovations as I previously mentioned. It turns out the lounge was open in its place, which I was unaware of at the time. The staffer roommate goes there for breakfast. After breakfast, I head down to the lobby, peak in on the game room and put up my best game I can ever recall on Police Force: 13 million, second highest score at that time for the weekend on said machine and it would stay there until sometime that evening. I haven’t played that well in a long time on any table as I don’t play pinball much when not at the con.
I check in at the help desk at 8:30 ‘cause the volunteer table doesn’t open until 9am and I head-up to registration. Very little line, but there are a few parents with kids. I explain the registration process while we wait for the reg director or assistant director to arrive and unlock the room. Something I would do time and again through noon. I learn that another staffer has sent people on their way from the reg line reassuring them that they won’t wait long once reg opens-up.
Both the director and assistant are a little late. The poor staff directors are scrambling to rearrange the schedule due to the snow. There had been multiple outdoor events planned for that afternoon. Fursuit parade, scratched. The plan for that had been to march out of the hotel and over 3 blocks to take over Monument Square for the afternoon. So, obviously hanging out at Monument Square is also out. There are too many fursuiters registered to conduct the parade within the hotel. The fursuit photo is still on in the main event room. The con theme is Fuzzytown Fair. There is a street fair planned in the parking lot across the street from the hotel along with a beer garden, food trucks, and a car show. The fair is relocated into Maine Events. Canopies are set-up so the beer garden could go on out in the, then cold rain along with the car show. Food trucks are moved up next to the hotel. Other events on Saturday are jumbled about to accommodate all this.
As mentioned, I spend a lot of time not just line wrangling, but reassuring parents they aren’t going to get charged the weekend rate by clicking that on the website. It’s the only way to get to the account set-up page. I reassure them that many are going to let the staff know this is a bad web design that needs to be improved for the following year. I hand signal the assistant director to bring over his laptop to assist one set of grandparents register themselves and their grandkids ‘cause their phone is giving them issues. We had two laptops dedicated for this, but upon set-up Thurs eve, both had issues. Both were probably a decade old or more so, it was just their time to give up the ghost. Despite all this, noon arrives quick. With the parade cancelled, I rush back up to my room, grab a quick bite and then peak in on the volunteer desk again. They could use help fursuit wrangling for the upcoming photo. So down to Maine Events and I find myself assembling badge clips onto specially 3-D printed fursuiter badges for the event: Furcationland Fuzzytown Fursuiter # with a different number on each, shaped like a hot air balloon. Picture is shot with over 400 fursuiters in said photo. When the official photo is posted, woot! I’ve photobombed it with my “human mech” easily visible near one of the exits. (chuckle)
Check back in at the volunteer desk. They could use someone doing badge checks on the second floor for an hour. I’m fine with that as there isn’t anything I want to see prior to 5:30. And I must keep checking back with the volunteer desk due to my antiquated phone. No way can I install Telegram or Signal on there, which is how they’re communicating with most of the volunteers. So, an hour of that and checking out, they ask if I could help with registration again on Sunday morning. Sure. I peak in briefly at the fair to see several cornhole games in action, giant Connect Four, some other game and live DJ playing tunes with several furs on the dance floor. The DJ was originally planned for the beer garden.
I peak into the supersponsor lounge, grab a snack, run up to my room, change shirts, and get down to the greymuzzle panel. Depending on who you talk to, I’m either really a “silver muzzle” or nearly such as some define that as 50+ and others 60+. Good panel conducted by Wolven Terror, the assistant reg. director. Now, the reason I changed shirts was for the panel after that in the same room run by Running Red on Therians. The shirt: Reject Humanity, Become a Squirrel with a red squirrel on it and a spilled potion bottle. We had a really young fur show-up with her parents just outside the room. The parents opted to stay in the hallway while she attended. She sat in front of me. Watching her, she was a bit bored but stuck it out as the discussion shifted about as this was more of a meet and greet session along with some peeps experiences. Still interesting. I hope that young fur wasn’t too bored.
After that panel, I head back up to my room, take a very quick shower, switch back to my previous shirt, throw a few more layers on and then I venture out into the weather. Fortunately, the rain has let up a bit, but it’s still windy and miserable. Oh, and though it’s now 8pm, the food trucks are still there. I guess they’re doing a brisk trade thanks to said weather. So, why am I going out? As the hotel restaurant is closed for renovations, the supersponsor dinner is off-site. Just a block over on the other side of the parking lot the car show and beer garden were held in. This little building you don’t think could hold the group, but it does. Very tasty plated dinner (Beef short rib or salmon depending on what you chose in advance), but my one qualm with a plated dinner over the buffets in the past—it gets stretched out to two very long hours. I don’t get back to the hotel until after 10pm and I’m semi-zombie as it’s well past my bedtime.
Apparently, my roommate tried to text and call me while at the meal. I never felt nor heard my phone over the music and conversations. I let her know I’m back. She didn’t want to head up to the room until I was back despite the fact she’s got a key. Then another call. She’s dealing with an emergency and will be up when she can. I let her know I’ll just leave a light on for her, blindfold myself and goodnight. Right after that call, the emergency, whatever it had been, was resolved and she was up in the room about ten minutes later.
I check in at the help desk at 8:30 ‘cause the volunteer table doesn’t open until 9am and I head-up to registration. Very little line, but there are a few parents with kids. I explain the registration process while we wait for the reg director or assistant director to arrive and unlock the room. Something I would do time and again through noon. I learn that another staffer has sent people on their way from the reg line reassuring them that they won’t wait long once reg opens-up.
Both the director and assistant are a little late. The poor staff directors are scrambling to rearrange the schedule due to the snow. There had been multiple outdoor events planned for that afternoon. Fursuit parade, scratched. The plan for that had been to march out of the hotel and over 3 blocks to take over Monument Square for the afternoon. So, obviously hanging out at Monument Square is also out. There are too many fursuiters registered to conduct the parade within the hotel. The fursuit photo is still on in the main event room. The con theme is Fuzzytown Fair. There is a street fair planned in the parking lot across the street from the hotel along with a beer garden, food trucks, and a car show. The fair is relocated into Maine Events. Canopies are set-up so the beer garden could go on out in the, then cold rain along with the car show. Food trucks are moved up next to the hotel. Other events on Saturday are jumbled about to accommodate all this.
As mentioned, I spend a lot of time not just line wrangling, but reassuring parents they aren’t going to get charged the weekend rate by clicking that on the website. It’s the only way to get to the account set-up page. I reassure them that many are going to let the staff know this is a bad web design that needs to be improved for the following year. I hand signal the assistant director to bring over his laptop to assist one set of grandparents register themselves and their grandkids ‘cause their phone is giving them issues. We had two laptops dedicated for this, but upon set-up Thurs eve, both had issues. Both were probably a decade old or more so, it was just their time to give up the ghost. Despite all this, noon arrives quick. With the parade cancelled, I rush back up to my room, grab a quick bite and then peak in on the volunteer desk again. They could use help fursuit wrangling for the upcoming photo. So down to Maine Events and I find myself assembling badge clips onto specially 3-D printed fursuiter badges for the event: Furcationland Fuzzytown Fursuiter # with a different number on each, shaped like a hot air balloon. Picture is shot with over 400 fursuiters in said photo. When the official photo is posted, woot! I’ve photobombed it with my “human mech” easily visible near one of the exits. (chuckle)
Check back in at the volunteer desk. They could use someone doing badge checks on the second floor for an hour. I’m fine with that as there isn’t anything I want to see prior to 5:30. And I must keep checking back with the volunteer desk due to my antiquated phone. No way can I install Telegram or Signal on there, which is how they’re communicating with most of the volunteers. So, an hour of that and checking out, they ask if I could help with registration again on Sunday morning. Sure. I peak in briefly at the fair to see several cornhole games in action, giant Connect Four, some other game and live DJ playing tunes with several furs on the dance floor. The DJ was originally planned for the beer garden.
I peak into the supersponsor lounge, grab a snack, run up to my room, change shirts, and get down to the greymuzzle panel. Depending on who you talk to, I’m either really a “silver muzzle” or nearly such as some define that as 50+ and others 60+. Good panel conducted by Wolven Terror, the assistant reg. director. Now, the reason I changed shirts was for the panel after that in the same room run by Running Red on Therians. The shirt: Reject Humanity, Become a Squirrel with a red squirrel on it and a spilled potion bottle. We had a really young fur show-up with her parents just outside the room. The parents opted to stay in the hallway while she attended. She sat in front of me. Watching her, she was a bit bored but stuck it out as the discussion shifted about as this was more of a meet and greet session along with some peeps experiences. Still interesting. I hope that young fur wasn’t too bored.
After that panel, I head back up to my room, take a very quick shower, switch back to my previous shirt, throw a few more layers on and then I venture out into the weather. Fortunately, the rain has let up a bit, but it’s still windy and miserable. Oh, and though it’s now 8pm, the food trucks are still there. I guess they’re doing a brisk trade thanks to said weather. So, why am I going out? As the hotel restaurant is closed for renovations, the supersponsor dinner is off-site. Just a block over on the other side of the parking lot the car show and beer garden were held in. This little building you don’t think could hold the group, but it does. Very tasty plated dinner (Beef short rib or salmon depending on what you chose in advance), but my one qualm with a plated dinner over the buffets in the past—it gets stretched out to two very long hours. I don’t get back to the hotel until after 10pm and I’m semi-zombie as it’s well past my bedtime.
Apparently, my roommate tried to text and call me while at the meal. I never felt nor heard my phone over the music and conversations. I let her know I’m back. She didn’t want to head up to the room until I was back despite the fact she’s got a key. Then another call. She’s dealing with an emergency and will be up when she can. I let her know I’ll just leave a light on for her, blindfold myself and goodnight. Right after that call, the emergency, whatever it had been, was resolved and she was up in the room about ten minutes later.
