It's over now, and I'm getting depressed... I spent most of it as I usually do, running back and forth between panels and trying to maintain a decent blood alcohol level. In fact, the level intensified in the evenings to not-strictly-healthy levels, so I've been going dry to detox. Not. Helping. My. Mood.

I met so many people there! Many I remembered, many I should have remembered, and many who I was meeting for the first time. I could barely manage names when my social circle involved 6 or 7; this is completely overwhelming my fragile social memory system! Sorry if I couldn't recognize you, don't take it personally. The alcohol certainly didn't help in this regard.

It did help my poker skills, though. I managed first place in the qualifying round and second place overall, which I'm really happy about since I wasn't exactly at my best the morning of the qualifier. I knew I played better inebriated; apparently it also helps to play early in the morning with a hangover and sleep deprivation, who knew? In the end, I lost to an otter with an inside straight-- who sadly I do not recall the name of. I want to say it was Skip, but I might be confusing him for another otter. There were lots of them in attendance this year, which is lovely. Hopefully it means the fandom is getting more species-diverse.

At any rate, I won a free commission from  syber, who is a great artist and the first one I've met in some time who actually gets excited about drawing reptiles! She made me an awesome con badge, which promptly got eaten by the laminator. She agreed to make me a new one, which I can't wait to see! In the mean time, I'm going to attempt to piece the old one together and scan it, but I'm not certain how well that will work.

I also put together a scalie panel at the last minute thanks largely to  omegawolfie's help--  ianthegecko usually puts these on but from what I understand he had to move at the last minute. So I got to spend a full hour in front of an audience wearing a vague smile as my brain screamed for help. I am not a very social animal by nature... I should be a bit more prepared next year.

Now it seems that I am in the initial stages of some sort of con crud. I've got a headache, chills, and a sore throat. I prefer to blame it on Country Buffet, since it was filled with screaming kids throwing food everywhere when I went there, but who knows? I just hope I didn't give it to anyone else.