Wanted to unwind and take a break from school shit. SO, here comes another con report, just like always! Let's see how long this one ends up being.

Thursday

Met up with  rykahuskypup after class in the afternoon and the two of us headed on our way to Arizona! I got to do homework doing the six hour drive so I wouldn't have any to work on during the actual convention. XP Wasn't too bad and the drive itself was long, but fine. Got to see mountains and desert and stuff! We arrived in Tempe around 9pm, but instead of checking out the convention for a few hours, we thought it would be cool to meet up with a bunch of Ryka's friends and kick off the weekend by eating out at the local Buffalo Wild Wings! I got to meet  thunderroo,  chubs,  nifes, and a few other people that I'm not sure even have FAs! I know atleast two of them weren't furry. XP But yeah! We played Cards Against Humanity and I attempted to not die on hot wings because they were drenched in sauce. I am masochistic. X3 Afterwards a few of us head to Chubs and Nifes' place to hang out for the rest of the night. They have such a cute dog, oh my god! He was so friendly! I love dogs. X3 Anyway, we chatted about random things throughout the night, mainly furry stuff. X3 Then Chubs was awesome and offered to let us stay at his place for the weekend. :0 So once everyone cleared out we got everything ready for bed because it was getting laaaate and I wanted to not be sleepy for the convention. The others played magic for a bit and I slept on a floor mattress! Miller, their dog, was adorable and came to lay next to me. X3

Friday

Tried to get up fairly early so we wouldn't miss too much. Ryka and I left for the convention at about 10am. We picked up donuts for breakfast on the way because we are fatties! We get there and it's a lot less crowded than I thought it would be. XD Not a bad thing. Went and got registered for the weekend and then I was supposed to meet up with  neevipanda because he agreed to be awesome and let me keep my stuff in his hotel room in case Ryka ever needed the car for stuff. Found dat panda and grabbed my stoofs and hauled it up to his room! Kiiiind of wanted to fursuit right away, but Neevi wanted to take a break and I didn't want to do it by myself just yet. X3 So we explored the con space instead! Hotel hallway con! Wandered aimlessly and found where all the rooms were, including the Dealers Den. We looked at what they had in there for a bit and then bumped into Ryka in the hall. I got to meet  kahluafennec! After that I wanted to fursuit! Yup! Was totally happening, first time suiting at a convention. So went back up to the room and got fuzzified with Neevi, then roamed around all cute! Basically we wandered around the same areas we did before. X3 Peeked in the headless lounge every once in a while because Ryka was volunteering there and I could go in with my fursuit and not feel like I was breaking any rules! :0 I loved hearing peoples' reactions to my fursuit though! I would say cuteness has been achieved and I'm so happy for that! It really made fursuiting awesome. Anyway, we were in desperate need of a way to kill time. XP Eventually bumped in  hemmsfox and he decided to suit up and keep us company. After that we all hung out around the front of the main ballroom. Hemms made a new child friend that would not stop randomly hugging him. XP I got poked by  triss and then hugged! Chatted with him and the girl he was with(who I feel like a complete ASS about because I don't think I ever got her name), but they were both totally cool! They were waiting for the fashion show and Hemms was going to participate, so Neevi and I decided to watch as well to kill time before the dance competition. It was interesting to watch while in fursuit, I'll tell you that much. X3 After that we went back up to Neevi's room and defuzzified ourselves for the dance competition. Still had some time, so we just chilled out in the room for a bit. Then dance competition! My first time watching one all the way through. XP Was definitely pretty cool! Then we finally got food because we were all starving! McDonalds! Yeah! Since I wasn't dead anymore when we got back, I wanted to fursuit more! And it was also dance time! I was gonna go to the dance in my fursuit! Oh my gosh, one of my biggest highlights from the convention, I had so much fun that night. Tried spinning in fursuit a bit... which is a lot harder for me because my fingers are webbed. XP I was still able to do a few things, but it was pretty awkward just placing the loop around my fingers, heh. Was still totally fun and Neevi eventually joined me with his own poi! Though he used them mainly as glowsticks. I traded off between spinning and stomp "dancing" like a retard to the music and waving my poi around. Didn't care because I was in fursuit. XP Everything became a blur and I got totally into it. Two hours passed and I noticed that the dance room was getting pretty empty and I instantly got tired. XD Although, once I stopped and caught my breath I felt totally hyped for some reason. XP Wanted to run around the con in fursuit for a bit longer, even though it was kind of empty at that time, but Ryka was dead tired from staying up too late before! Also I realized I was dehydrated! lol whoops who would have thought!? So I got water and we headed back to the house for the night, planning on being better rested for Saturday. X3

Saturday

Got up a little bit earlier this time because Ryka had plans! Though Chubs made us breakfast and it was soooo awesome! Even though it made my balaclava smell like tamales for the rest of the day. XP Got to the convention and met up with Neevi again! We decided that today was the day to buy things. XP So went back to the dealers den and checked out stuff again. I set on getting one of my pictures, the Plague headshot from Neltruin, turned into a metal badge. I thought it came out pretty cool. Also ordered a badge from someone who I forgot to get a business card from! Dunno who she is yet! I'm an ass! Anyway, sat near the pool after that to kill time before the fursuit parade. Then  lockford showed up! He said he was going to fursuit ALL day, so I said I was going to do the same thing! Got into fursuit and wandered again, looking cute for people. X3 There was still some time before the parade, so we wandered into the gaming lounge and started playing New Super Mario Bros WiiU or whatever in fursuit! It took a little while to figure out how to properly hold the wiimote while wearing paws. XP Our failures were pretty damn amusing though. Once we finished with that, we hung out in front of the main ballroom and bumped into Ryka with his "wife" Bunnie. She gave me all the head pats and rubs! Haha, probably more than I've ever gotten in fursuit from all times combined. XP Then it was time to head in! Took a seat while waiting for everyone to file in, then we all had to get organized for the group photo. The stage was proving to be too small and too much of a hassle to get everyone up there, so everyone had to bunch up in the center of the room for the picture instead. I thought I had an ok spot, then a big blue guy stood in front of me. >:C Was too late to try and find a better spot, so I tried my best to get my head out there, maybe you'll see an ear or something in the official photo. XP Oh well. Then we filed out! Oh my gosh, are there always that many cameras during the parade? I was totally blown away by how many I saw when I came walking out, it seemed crazy. I did my best to wave to anybody I thought was recording and I also waved to anybody who called my name. X3 I had a blast though! First time in the fursuit parade. I was actually debating on whether or not to participate since I only have kind of a partial, but I'm so glad that I did. X3 After those shenanigans it was totally time for food! Neevi and I got out of suit for it, but Lockford was standing by what he said and went to Subway in suit! Got back afterward and lost Neevi! Hung out with Lockford for a bit before deciding to get back into fursuit. We were going to play some more Mario, but he left without me and there were no open controllers! D: So I watched a bit before just sneaking out. Bumped into Triss again in front of the masquerade room. Chatted with him and watched him "spar" with  leotsubasa. I flailed a bit as well. XP Then they disappeared for the masquerade and I stalked  psylence for a bit before heading to the headless lounge to bug Ryka! Triss invited me to play DnD since he was hosting it for the night. I joined because I had never done it before and I thought it might be interesting. X3 Aaaand in the end I felt really bad. XP Everyone at our table was either quiet or wanted to do completely nonsensical things. So quiet that even I was compelled to try and start something! Me! The quiet guy! Though it was difficult to initiate anything because my character was support. XP We hardly got anything done before our time was up. I legitimately felt bad, and I wanted to try again. D: Oh well I guess. :c Headed back up to the room to get out of suit, since I wanted to spin poi at the dance "for real" this time. Ended up taking a longer break than expected while trying to comfort a friend, but eventually went back down. BUT I was stopped by Ryka and his boozed up friends. X3 I missed out on drinks! D: Giggled at them for a little while before pulling myself away, I really wanted to spin. XP Got to do that for a little bit, then my batteries died! And I forgot to bring my spares down with me like an idiot! I was going to head back up and get them since there was still time left, but I ended up being stopped by Ryka again and played watchdog for a bit while things got situated with his friends. Once I was able to get back up to the room, Ryka came up to check on me. XD I was going to spin outside for them since I couldn't do it at the dance, but I decided to just get back into fursuit instead. XP Checked up on Ryka's friends and once things were cool, Ryka wanted to leave! Whaaaaaaat? It was barely past 1am! Fiiiine, you can use the fursuit games in the morning as an excuse. XP I like wandering in fursuit, especially at night when it's cool. Also fewer other fursuiters so more people to notice me! :0 Kind of, heh. Oh well, headed back and got some rest for the last day. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that as I was heading back up to the room in fursuit to grab my things... I tripped over someone laying down across the hallway. She said she was fine, but I was totally embarrassed and still felt like a giant dick. Bleh, didn't feel too hot after that, glad it happened at the end of the day, if it was going to happen at all...

Sunday

Well, procrastinated just a little too much and kind of scrambled to get out of the house on time! Got more donuts because they are amazing. Got to the convention and I was literally putting on my fursuit as I was walking up to the door because the fursuit games were starting right then. XP Proooobably looked really silly. Just barely made it though! Still felt kind of weird participating with only a partial, but I worry too much about stuff. XP Anyway, the first game was called Barreling, I think. XP You get a horse plush and you're supposed to "gallop" (think Monty Python and the Holy Grail X3) in a figure-8 around some cones. I had shoes so kind of felt like cheating, but I didn't win anyway. X3 Next was rounding up cows in teams of three! Just supposed to gather up all the cow plushies and put them in the basket as fast as possible. You get bonus points if you toss them into the basket. I got to be with Lockford and Psylence! Since there was no rule against it, we decided to sweep down the stage and slide all the cows next to the basket. XD Then Psylence and Lockford tossed as many as they could into the basket while I grabbed whichever ones didn't make it in. We got the third best time with that strategy, but made enough shots to pull into the lead! We all got ribbons. X3 The third game was interesting. Five fursuiters had to stand completely still and the remainder had to pick up a bunch of candy off the floor and place it on the "models." Then the models had to get the candy across the floor to the audience, but the catch was they had to play red light-green light while doing so. X3 I didn't model, but it was pretty silly gathering up all that candy. The last game was a pose off. I decided to sit this one out because I only had a partial and I figured it would be a cool opportunity for people with fullsuits to show off a bit. XP I dunno, I'm also shy, heh. Was fun to watch though! Overall the games were totally awesome and I'm glad I could participate! Gah, so many firsts for me! That was the main thing we, meaning me XP, wanted to do that day, so there wasn't much else after that, especially since we knew it was going to be a long drive back. I wanted to wander the con again in fursuit to see if anything crazy was going on or if anyone wanted to say hi. Not so much. X3 So I said good bye to a couple people that I had met at the con and got the heck out of there. Said our final good byes to Chubs and thanked him for being so generous, then drove all the way back to San Diego.

Oh man, first year or not, I had a completely awesome time at this convention. Maybe part of it was because I was fursuiting for the first time at a convention, but whatever! It was still totally great! The dances were fun and I loved being part of the fursuit stuff, it was a total blast. It was completely worth it, I thought. Glad I could go!

Also shoutouts to:





And more, of course! Like usual, if you talked to me, then you're awesome. Always cool to meet more people.

Aaaand that's most of what I remember. X3 If you made it all the way down here, then here is an obligatory congratulations. You win nothing more. :0 But seriously, thanks for reading, if you did. I have a lot of fun recapping. X3