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Back from (my first) MFF! (edited, more info added)
12 years ago
General
Wow, MFF was a blur of activity.
I arrived on Thursday night on a flight taken after work. CM, Regi and I left the hotel and walked towards the theater, where we found a Mexican-themed bar/cafe/restaurant. I had an excellent meal but everyone else complained that the food was only OK and the music in the bar was way too loud.
heartlessfang presented 
chocolatemuscle and I wonderful matching con badges!
I shacked up with my hubby, heartlessfang and 
reginho for the night.
I spent Friday just walking around the con, trying to get a feel and a layout for what to expect. Relaxing and getting into the jive, mostly. We were in the Hilton and moved to a separate room, had a miserable night's sleep last night. We must thank Chicago for the skywalk between the hotels and convention center: if it wasn't for that skywalk the overflow hotels would be useless, it got down to below freezing outside! WOW it was cold!
Went out with
SchreddedWolf and ChocolateMuscle for our workouts at 4 at Lifetime, then came home and changed for the rubber party, put on by 
rubber-furs. Had a nice time, I/we got a cheer from the crowd
Saturday I fursuited, first in the fursuit parade (fur formal). While standing around for the parade to start I met a most amazing fursuit, a black 6-eyed spider with moveable mouth parts. Not enough insects in out community! We did the parade in the hotel and then marched outside for a group shot. Holy crap it was cold! I bumped into
spottacus and we talked and caught up while we waited around; they took some photos but I bailed after a while because I was simply getting too cold. After finding Nugget, I then went back my the hotel room, was extracted from my suit, cleaned up and went for a workout with SW and CM. After the workout I suited up in fur casual and walked around the hotel.
I caught up with
ClefWolf and FINALLY met 
areitu!!! YAAAAAY!!!! We have known each other probably 10 years online but have never met...until Saturday. I met up with Areitu in the hotel lobby with his boyfriend and we all sat down to talk and catch up. areitu is really a great guy IRL and I'm happy that I got to meet him in person. :hugs:
Did the Dead Dog, my first time, thanks to a x-invite from ChocolateMuscle. What a zoo I sat and had a lengthy conversation with a fur named Paradigm.
The first part of Sunday I went to the convention center next door, where I had passed frequently via the skywalk, and went to the muscle car show! Thinking of
toro all the time, hoping to find something that might interest him. Later, back at the hotel to hang, not in costume, so that I could spend the rest of the day taking photos.
I met so many people!! I do remember
Maximus-Ursus the wonderful couple from South Carolina, and many other furs that I can hope will find me here on FA - as I was in rubber or fursuit almost the entire weekend, I pretty much had little to no ability to take contact info.
I have con photos from Friday and Sunday, as Saturday I was suiting myself, and also some car show photos as well. Lots of great photos! Will post but it will take time, I'll have to do it in segments.
As this was only my 3rd time suiting, I've discovered some things about me and suiting. When at a con I usually go through 4 to 5 clothing changes - fursuit formal, fursuit casual, [optional] fursuit rubber, human latex, human neoprene and maybe human street casual for relaxation - plus extra visits to the room that everyone always does anyway like before or after food, in my case picking up my gym clothes for a workout, etc.
When I'm out in an overflow hotel, that's a hell of a lot of walking in gear. It's really tiring, actually.
Because the suiting and / or "costuming" (rubber isn't costume for me, but I wear it as much as possible anyway) I didn't get to see the art show, only barely saw the dealer's room (Sunday, actually), didn't do a single panel, only visited the Zoo at midnight for a short time, saw Kage's show only for 2 minutes, visited the main ballroom for all of 4 minutes during the entire con, missed both the opening and closing ceremonies, etc, etc, etc.
So, lesson: In future, if I'm not at the con hotel, I'm cutting down the fursuiting. Maybe casual only, as I can get in and out of it myself at any time. It took me 1 hour 10 minutes to prep and get into my formal this time (is that getting better? I don't know, haven't timed myself before).
Also, more figured out more mods to the suit to allow me to get in and out a LOT faster, I think. Will do mods ASAP.
The strange and amazing thing from the con? Food. The Hyatt had plenty of access to some OK vegetarian options and, before/after the workouts, we hit ProteinBar who also had veggie options on the menu. STRANGE is that I just ate more quinoa in Chicago than I've EVER been able to find here!! After a frustrating search in the airport for just about anything veggie, I later found a quinoa salad! So Chicago fed me more veggie options than I find here, and this is supposed to be the "Capital of the World"! WTF??!
I arrived on Thursday night on a flight taken after work. CM, Regi and I left the hotel and walked towards the theater, where we found a Mexican-themed bar/cafe/restaurant. I had an excellent meal but everyone else complained that the food was only OK and the music in the bar was way too loud.
heartlessfang presented 
chocolatemuscle and I wonderful matching con badges! I shacked up with my hubby,
heartlessfang and 
reginho for the night. I spent Friday just walking around the con, trying to get a feel and a layout for what to expect. Relaxing and getting into the jive, mostly. We were in the Hilton and moved to a separate room, had a miserable night's sleep last night. We must thank Chicago for the skywalk between the hotels and convention center: if it wasn't for that skywalk the overflow hotels would be useless, it got down to below freezing outside! WOW it was cold!
Went out with
SchreddedWolf and ChocolateMuscle for our workouts at 4 at Lifetime, then came home and changed for the rubber party, put on by 
rubber-furs. Had a nice time, I/we got a cheer from the crowd Saturday I fursuited, first in the fursuit parade (fur formal). While standing around for the parade to start I met a most amazing fursuit, a black 6-eyed spider with moveable mouth parts. Not enough insects in out community! We did the parade in the hotel and then marched outside for a group shot. Holy crap it was cold! I bumped into
spottacus and we talked and caught up while we waited around; they took some photos but I bailed after a while because I was simply getting too cold. After finding Nugget, I then went back my the hotel room, was extracted from my suit, cleaned up and went for a workout with SW and CM. After the workout I suited up in fur casual and walked around the hotel.I caught up with
ClefWolf and FINALLY met 
areitu!!! YAAAAAY!!!! We have known each other probably 10 years online but have never met...until Saturday. I met up with Areitu in the hotel lobby with his boyfriend and we all sat down to talk and catch up. areitu is really a great guy IRL and I'm happy that I got to meet him in person. :hugs:Did the Dead Dog, my first time, thanks to a x-invite from
ChocolateMuscle. What a zoo I sat and had a lengthy conversation with a fur named Paradigm.The first part of Sunday I went to the convention center next door, where I had passed frequently via the skywalk, and went to the muscle car show! Thinking of
toro all the time, hoping to find something that might interest him. Later, back at the hotel to hang, not in costume, so that I could spend the rest of the day taking photos.I met so many people!! I do remember
Maximus-Ursus the wonderful couple from South Carolina, and many other furs that I can hope will find me here on FA - as I was in rubber or fursuit almost the entire weekend, I pretty much had little to no ability to take contact info.I have con photos from Friday and Sunday, as Saturday I was suiting myself, and also some car show photos as well. Lots of great photos! Will post but it will take time, I'll have to do it in segments.
As this was only my 3rd time suiting, I've discovered some things about me and suiting. When at a con I usually go through 4 to 5 clothing changes - fursuit formal, fursuit casual, [optional] fursuit rubber, human latex, human neoprene and maybe human street casual for relaxation - plus extra visits to the room that everyone always does anyway like before or after food, in my case picking up my gym clothes for a workout, etc.
When I'm out in an overflow hotel, that's a hell of a lot of walking in gear. It's really tiring, actually.
Because the suiting and / or "costuming" (rubber isn't costume for me, but I wear it as much as possible anyway) I didn't get to see the art show, only barely saw the dealer's room (Sunday, actually), didn't do a single panel, only visited the Zoo at midnight for a short time, saw Kage's show only for 2 minutes, visited the main ballroom for all of 4 minutes during the entire con, missed both the opening and closing ceremonies, etc, etc, etc.
So, lesson: In future, if I'm not at the con hotel, I'm cutting down the fursuiting. Maybe casual only, as I can get in and out of it myself at any time. It took me 1 hour 10 minutes to prep and get into my formal this time (is that getting better? I don't know, haven't timed myself before).
Also, more figured out more mods to the suit to allow me to get in and out a LOT faster, I think. Will do mods ASAP.
The strange and amazing thing from the con? Food. The Hyatt had plenty of access to some OK vegetarian options and, before/after the workouts, we hit ProteinBar who also had veggie options on the menu. STRANGE is that I just ate more quinoa in Chicago than I've EVER been able to find here!! After a frustrating search in the airport for just about anything veggie, I later found a quinoa salad! So Chicago fed me more veggie options than I find here, and this is supposed to be the "Capital of the World"! WTF??!
http://www.vegsouthflorida.com/broward.html
There are, this year, other trucks coming in the area for the day but mostly it seems to be a waffle truck plus a few other transients, all serving meaty meats.
and it was a pleasure meeting you! <3
I was great to meet you. I wish I could have spent more time with you, actually both you and