I've now been to twenty, count them, TWENTY cons! Wild that it's only been six years since I first went to Anthrocon, it feels like a lifetime ago. Anyway, here's the recap:

The drive into town was smooth and easy, and I arrived around lunchtime on Wednesday and immediately went to check in. This was my first time staying at the Drury; it's a neat hotel located in a former Federal Reserve building. The room was kind of small; there were five of us and five fursuits in the room, and that made for some VERY tight quarters at times, but we made it work. The free food was not all it was hyped up to be, but it was a pleasant enough stay otherwise, with responsive staff and comfortable beds. I also happened to run into  quinnauer and  kelixmalachite just as they were walking into the Westin, so I helped them carry stuff upstairs and get their room set up as well.

Much like past years at MFF, apprehension about catastrophically long lines at registration became a self-fulfilling prophecy; everyone got in line as soon as it opened. If I had known better, I would have waited until 3 or 4 in the afternoon to try it, by which point the lines were dying down, but with the same concerns as everyone else I ended up going right after lunch. The line moved fairly well, but the sheer number of folks trying to get through it meant that I waited about two hours anyway. Still, I manged to pick up my badge at a reasonable hour and had plenty of time to get dinner and catch up with  zackloup and  artbyhornbuckle before suiting up for the Sports Furs meetup that evening.

Friday was the  paciulofursuits family meet; got a lot of neat photos with my suit siblings (that I still need to track down). I also got to hang out with  strobes for a bit, which was great fun as always. Some evening plans got hit by speed bumps when dinner didn't agree with me; I think it was an allergic reaction. Still, I felt well enough by the time fireworks were getting started to head down to the waterfront and hang out with folks. After the fireworks, I popped up to the dance to catch Avichi's set, which absolutely blew the doors off the place.

After considerable debate and back and forth, I made the decision to skip the fursuit parade on Saturday. I was still feeling a little bit off from dinner the night before, and I hadn't really had a chance to go through the Dealer's Den yet, so I decided to take the time to do that instead of spending (what I expected would be) 3-4 hours going through the process of the parade. However, I was shocked to look out at about 3PM and see that the parade was already finished. I'm not sure what all the con did differently this year to keep traffic moving, but whatever it was, it worked. Still, I'm glad I took the time in the Dealer's Den; I got to pick up a daki from  shinigamigirl, reconnect with  commandercross, and chat with  toonfx, among others. After finishing up there, I headed back to my room and suited up for the block party, where I finally had a chance to meet up with  tofte. We ended up grabbing dinner together; he was really awesome to talk to and hang out with, and loves talking about furry history as much as I do.

I ended up suiting up fairly early on Sunday in order to make the Ohio Furs meet, which had a great turnout. I ended up staying in suit until dinnertime, mostly just running around, getting photos with folks, and generally being a foxy nuisance. After de-suiting, I made a trip on the shuttles with  shutterbear and friends out to Burgatory, which I'd somehow never been to before. I had an elk burger that was utterly fantastic. I just caught the end of  riroh's set and hung around the dance for a bit, before heading down to the riverfront to spend the rest of my evening. I hit up Primanti Brothers on my way out of town on Monday, and stopped for a couple of photos on Mount Washington before heading back to Columbus.

In addition to the folks I mentioned above (and so many more I can't even list/name), I also had a couple of brief interactions with two folks whose work I've adored since I first found the fandom:  foxer421 and  teiran. Though it was only in passing, it was really awesome to get to say hi to them and tell them how much their work has meant to me. I also got to talk for a while with Buddy Shepsky, which really meant a lot to me.

Despite the fact that my con crud turned out to be Covid, I had a blast at Anthrocon. There were a few minor hiccups here and there, but overall it was great getting to catch up with old friends and connect with new ones. I'd rank it as the 4th best con I've been to so far, and the second best Anthrocon. Special thanks to  sylox for setting up our hotel room, and to  Dialuca01,  JescoChee, and Xavier for being great roommates.

I have two more cons planned this year: In addition to the traditional year-ender at MFF, I'm also going to Megaplex for the first time! If I don't see you there, I'll be at plenty of local meets around town.