My experience attending the  cilfco meet this past Friday, the second ever for this local community group, was mixed. First, I’m an introvert and an Aspie, so where many others are energized by social interaction, I often tend to find it exhausting. It didn’t help that I was coming off the end of a week of OO/Java training at work, training which while it gave me quite a sense of accomplishment also left me feeling mentally tired, and less able to cope with social situations. On top of that I was (and still am) recovering from a cold which had left me feeling more drained and out of sorts than usual. It also didn’t help that probably just about everyone else in attendance except  HavenWhiteWolf and his wife were less than half my age.

There was some confusion about the scheduling of the back room at Denny’s, and we ended up sharing the room with a kid’s birthday party. Soon after the other party showed we spread the word among our group to keep the noise level down so as to be good neighbors to the other group, but one table of our group in particular seemed incapable of lowering the volume level, and we can only hope the birthday group wasn’t too upset with us. There was a moment when I thought it might be nice if any of the fursuiters in our group could provide a few minutes entertainment to the birthday group, but it wasn’t practical, as no one was in suit at Denny’s and there wasn’t really anyplace to change into one.

Noise wasn't an issue at the bowling alley, but it had a couple of quirks of its own. The lanes were set for league scoring (i.e. alternating left and right on a pair of lanes), which we had requested, and it became evident that some of the bowlers found this confusing. For future reference, anyone who prefers it can ask the front desk to switch a lane to open scoring (i.e. all bowling on a single lane). It was also evident that a lot of the bowlers in our group – most of them, it seemed like – are not familiar with basic lane courtesy. This is something that it would be good for anyone who bowls to learn and apply, whether you’re bowling with furries or bowling in general.

Overall, I felt somewhat able to connect with Haven and to a lesser extent with  captian_dammit91 and  auroraborealia. A couple of others I was acquainted with arrived later at the bowling alley, but by that time I was feeling too tired to interact much. If anyone felt overlooked or snubbed by me, I apologize. My mind wasn’t all there and my mood wasn’t the best for handling minor annoyances that I would normally be able to take in stride. I left a few minutes after finishing the final game, and might have left sooner if I hadn’t paid in advance for three games. Where I might normally have been better able to enjoy the company of some of my fellow furries, I was feeling overwhelmed and ready to get home.