Well, my first con is in the books. Woo. Can’t really do a recap without pointing out a few things.

My original intention for this con that I made many, many moons ago, was to look into getting the family car for the weekend and driving back & forth from home each night to save some money. But when my brother’s puppy came into the picture, I put that idea away, and practically put away the thought of going to the con at all.

When the days got closer to the con, I did begin to have enough money to go, but a new idea started brewing. I thought that since this was my first con, it would be better to get a room there so I don’t have to worry about leaving each night. (That, and to drink much, much more through the night without worry about driving, but I digress.) As luck would have it, I found a room like the week before, and I even got use of the car, if I should need it to leave the con during for any reason. Everything was looking perfect for a-con-goin’!

...and then there was a problem.

I was gonna leave Thursday afternoon to have some time to situate myself in my room, but then I got a phone call. Turned out that car borrowing plans had suddenly vanished. This would mean that I either needed to not take the car so the family could have a means of transport for Friday, or take it and fulfill their travel needs that day. I chose the latter, simply because I knew that I’d need the car to shuttle people places during the con.

So with that taken care of, I got to the hotel Thursday night and pretty much got comfortable in my room.  fuzzypaws &  CTH were lovely roommates, lovely people, lovely brownies. Other than getting registered and meeting  rukario71 & wandering around the con space for a bit, I returned to my room to sleep so I could wake up early to take care of my family’s obligations.

Friday went off without a hitch. Took care of family, went to the first con panel because it was pretty much mandatory for me, and wandered about, meeting some new people, and waiting around for those I really wanted to see to get there. Went to some writing panels that were informative and reactivated my urge to write. Met our other roommate  startide, got a burger, went to the driving range, met an  bigphin and others I can't remember, embarrassed myself with my golfing skills, got some drinks, kept going late into the night. It was all good, but there was this feeling at the back of my mind that I was forgetting something...

...and there was...

Got up Saturday at like 10 to a plethora of messages. Turns out that my bank card was used to schedule a payment a while ago for that day, and that drained all my con spending money. Left the con to return home to get as much of that money back as I could and returned to my day. Bought a tail, had a blast at the voice acting panel, took lots of terrible pictures of the fursuit parade. Satisfied the urge to do AYCE sushi with  simmer  bigfootcat  kartfox ...and many, many other con goers. Oh so many con goers. It got crazy in there. It was such a good time, and the night was still young!

...and then it happened...

I was leaving my room to head down to a room party, when I came upon an unusual scene. Down the hall, there were two people slowly walking my way, one on the phone walking backwards, talking erratically. I didn’t think much of it until I got closer and heard what they were saying. The one not on the phone was an older gentleman, calmly talking to the backwards-walking guy to try and end this before anyone else got hurt. I then noticed that the guy was holding some box cutter or a switchblade in his other hand, pointing it at the other. Took a few steps back and leaned against the wall, trying to distance myself from the scene. The guy did eventually let go of the weapon, then took off, running right past me with a look of feared confusion and down the hall trying to find the stairs I suppose. While I could have tried to stop him, that look told me not to. Intervening would not have been a good idea.

That decision may have been for the best. I turned back to the other person, and was gonna ask what happened, but then I saw two other people walk toward us, and I found my answer. There was a rather fat guy walking down the hall, holding up his shirt, clenching it around where his heart was. There were a few trails of blood coming from there. Beside him was an older woman, crying and pleading not to hurt him, that he didn't know what he was doing. The victim didn't want any of it, his anger at being shivved by her son was too much. From what I could tell, this happened just as the guy was opening the room door for the other. I was frozen in place while they passed by me. The woman looked straight at me, crying her eyes out, trying to get me to intervene, fearing for her son’s life. I really couldn’t. The son was at the end of the hall, probably long gone. I wanted nothing more than to be long gone out of there too.

I started walking to the elevators. The stair door opened, and out comes whom I believe was the head of security, or so I heard. He reached the victim and told him everything was gonna be alright and to just stay calm and wait for more help to arrive. The guy wanted nothing of it, insisting on getting his attacker himself. He began to push the security guy away, but security didn't want any of it and defended himself. After a moment, the victim was calmed down, although he remarked why he was being attacked by security instead of them helping him. At that point, it felt like the scene was mostly over, and I wanted no more part in it, so I hopped into the elevator and headed off to a room party.

I’m not sure how many know this, but I’m pretty susceptible to the emotions of others. That came into play now. By the time I reached the party, I was no longer in a partying mood. My mind was just full of what had just happened. While I did get a drink or two to dull the senses, I really just needed some air & alone time. After a bit of that, I returned, heading straight to the in-con bar, got some drinks, then I did something I didn't think was possible: I just danced. I was on the dancefloor for quite some time, much longer than even I expected or knew I could go. It was a great therapeutic experience, allowing me to forget about everything that happened.

Oh, and dancing with a tail was very fun too!

I left the dance sometime past 3 AM, getting into bed like at 4 after a shower. While I wanted to try to dance til dawn or close enough to it, I was just too out of it to continue for much longer.

Woke up at 8 Sunday, but didn't get out of bed until like 9:30. As much as I wanted mimosas for breakfast, it wasn't in the cards. Wandered around the con space for a bit, catching most of the people that were on their way out early. Did some go-karting, watched the dance competition, bought a few other things and ended the con on an interesting note when a sudden storm blew things up to our floor. Much sadness was had when I needed to leave.

...and just some quick little notes.

Kinda sad that I missed out on a few people while I was there. Reception down in the con space was just horrible, and that played into quite a lot of missed connections.

To the fur who talked to me shortly after the Saturday incident, thank you. I didn't catch your name, but the few words we exchanged were very helpful, much, much more than you though.

I can’t remember who it was that was with graycoyote and I, but I’d love to talk to you again.

That  mysteryotter scares me. He came out of nowhere during the dance. I'm sure he was staring at me when he sat down by the stage... >.>

It was great meeting you  hornetv2! Always a good time. Don't think I ever talked to you while you were sober though. :p

Great meeting you geo holms, kind of a strange circumstance how that happened. I’m sure we’ll talk again. Next time, press the elevator button! It was shiny! How did you miss that!? XD

To all those furs I met briefly while with others, sorry if I was a bit shy and/or dazed. Didn’t catch some of your names and time was pretty busy.

I posted a link to some pictures I took on Twitter. I'll get to posting some of the better ones on here a little later.

I may see if I can do a panel here next year. Although I was asked if I wanted to do one, I didn't feel like doing homework for my first fur con. XD

Like I said, this was all very interesting. Many good times, some down times, just all around interesting. I’ll never forget my first con.