Oh wow, it took me two days to recuperate before I was able to write this journal. It's overdue.

On November 24 I flew out to the US of A to finally see  neonoae again and spend some amazing two weeks with him. We had a great time together and even went to Chicago. There we went all the way to the top of the "Tower Formerly Known As Sears" and had the bad luck of it totally being surrounded by white fluffy clouds. Dang! When we got there it was still sunny and clear, but all those clouds formed while we were at the Hard Rock Cafe and afterwards when we were waiting in line for the Skydeck of the tower. So yeah, no great view of Chicago from above, but it was still funny, standing on a ledge 103 floors above street level. ^.^

Also, while I was there, I got to experience my first real Thanksgiving. Noa prepared a delicious meal with turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie for dessert - it was sooo good! My woliger is an excellent chef <3

Of course, another highlight was MFF 2014. It was great seeing so many furs again. Special mentions go out to  maximus-ursus and  weaselzero with whom we had a very nice dinner and bumped into them repeatedly over the three days we were there.  makaio was always fun to hug when we ran into him.
I got some great sketches from  donryu and  cooner which I will post here on FA later. We hung out a lot with  xids, ran into  dineegla and his husband  musclewolf and I met one other European furry,  stripekazama
Of course, no journal of MFF 2014 should leave out a mention of "The Incident".
Noa and I had just seen the Uncle Kage and 2 the Ranting Gryphon Charity performance, which was over at 1 am on Sunday morning, and we were talking to Terminotter (I don't know his FA username), when all of a sudden a member of the con staff ran in and told us to evacuate the hotel because there was a fire alarm. We walked outside, murring and grumbling, because many people including me and Noa were wearing t-shirts and it was about... oh, I think 36 degrees Fahrenheit? Anyway, we were freezing! Outside, we watched as more and more people poured from the hotel onto the sidewalk area and were asked to move across the street to the convention center there. We ran into Maximus and a few other furs again and decided to cuddle up close against each other to keep warm. After half an hour or more we were finally let inside the convention center to warm up. Luckily, it was more than large enough to fit 4,000 attendees in there. Meanwhile, word spread around the chlorine gas got released in one of the staircases, and we saw more and more firefighters and a hazmat team arrive at the scene.
We found a spot in the back of the area and settled down, prepared to endure the night there. Some people were lucky and had their coats with them so they could use them as pillows on the concrete floor. After a while,  holliehyena found her way to us. Poor gal was evacuated from her hotel room in her jammies, but she was being tough about it. It was admirable! Hollie and I had a great talk and found out that we're both huge M*A*S*H fans!! Not many of those around, so I was quite happy about it! :-D
At around 4 in the morning they finally gave clearance for us to move back into the hotel, so we made the procession again through the cold, across the street into the warmth of the Hyatt Regency. When Noa and I finally returned to our room, we could still smell a faint odor of chlorine in the air.
The next morning a lot of tired faces were roaming the halls, understandably. I put on my Predators jersey and headed to the team photoshoot, which luckily was pushed back to 1 pm (I actually nagged Maximus about it the night before, because we all wanted more sleeeeeeep and not already be downstairs at 11 am like the original schedule intended us to).
The rest of the Sunday was mostly spent socializing as well as some quality "alone time" with my Woliger, before I had to return the rental car and leave for the airport. For the first time in three years, Noa was able to accompany me there, for which I was very grateful.
Unfortunately the plane back to Copenhagen (my transit destination) was crowded and the seat next to me taken, so I had to hold back my tears all through the flight. I was feeling very depressed and lonely, because I had to leave Noa behind again.

After a day of recuperating, today I went back to work. Reality feels strange now after spending two wonderful weeks in the States. I am very much looking forward to the next time I get to travel to Illinois!