The drive to FC was fun. Jurann's big shiny Pontiac Vibe was filled to the brim with mine and Wicked Sairah's stuff. We drove for 13 hours across two days, passed a vanload of Vancouver furs and waved hi, fishtailed through treacherous black ice (and watched another vehicle spin out and fling itself across the road into a ditch a few hundred yards ahead of us), and stayed in a motel with no shampoo. :P Fun times.

We got to the con and I got my dealer table all nice and set up the night before. I wound up seated right next to XianJaguar and this wonderful fellow named Sudonym. He's a fun guy, draws some seriously fantastic musculature, and even helped me with this one badge I'm working on right now. Jace was right down from him, and then Pirates' Row (the old ladies of the fandom, H. Bruton, Dark Natasha, Terrie Smith, DH Stein, etc.) was on the other side of Xian. Jace is a hoot, I had a brief chat with DH at the art show, and of course XJ has been a total sweetie the whole time, but the rest of them, well... They're not real approachable. I'm sure they're jaded by all the years and all the fans, so meeting people isn't their thing. Blotch, on the other hand, they're both sweethearts and what little I did get to talk to them, they seemed very nice and friendly. Tani's a sweetie too, though we only chatted very briefly, and I also got to meet Matrices, again, briefly. I've seen LOTS of people here, I'm sure I can't begin to list them all.

Friday night, I hung out in the Creators' Lounge and harassed Meesh mercilessly. He's fun to harass. Something about his cute boyish charm and meek uncertainty triggers the cat-mouse instinct in me - pounce, torment, torment, repeat. I'm sure he thinks I'm psycho by now. But we swapped sketchbooks and chatted a tiny bit, so hopefully he won't slap a restraining order on me. I finished all my badges for the night, and I'm so pleased with most of them. I wish I had scans, they're such a major improvement over my previous works. I'll scan the one I made for myself when I get home.

Friday night, I got called to Jurann's room because he had a fever and chills, so bad he couldn't get out of bed, and his roomie Chrono (another total sweetheart) didn't know what to do. So I got him some water and medication and helped nurse him back to health. He's been very sick since then. And so have I. Early this morning, I just started to feel like I'd been hit by a truck, and then my voice started to go out. Now I'm constantly coughing and it's hard to breathe deep. XJ has been taking good care of me, she gave me snacks at the Den today, and when a guy came around with Goldfish crackers, she gave me her share. (Jurann was too sick to cover my table for me to get any real food today.) Sudo's been great too, letting me use his hand sanitizer so I don't spread any more germs than I have to. I lucked out with my tablemates, they've been wonderful.

It's looking pretty bad for the forecast for the drive up. Snow, snow, and oh yes, snow. Unlike the "all clear" forecast we had for the way down, which resulted in black ice, snow, and rain. I'm hoping the forecast is totally wrong this time, too, but knowing my luck, I'm glad we brought the snow chains. I'm hoping Jurann is well enough to handle the drive back. We're taking an alternate route to try and avoid the worst roads, but it will still be pretty hairy.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, hopefully the last day sales will be booming. So far, they've been pretty eh. But I'm sure there will be a lot of disappointed bidders from the art show with money to spare, Jurann tells me the selection was poor and the competition was high. My FurBuy auctions haven't moved much, either, since the con, and the Closeup piece, which I had high hopes for, is still completely bidless.

So here I am, both me and Jurann feeling sick and sore, dismal sales, anticipating a long hard drive home...

- To Be Continued -