Last weekend was Furry Weekend Atlanta 2015. I attended again this year, making it my 4th year at this con. This was the first year in a new hotel, which is good but it can be a bit rocky.

I go to FWA specifically to attend a con where I am not staff. Fiesta takes a lot out of me and I need a con I can go to and just have fun.

Once more,   StarGazer79 and I drove out on the Wednesday before the con. It's about a 12 hour drive with an unhelpful timezone change, but it's not too bad. Parking is always an issue in Atlanta and always adds serious expense to this trip, but my truck allows me to bring costumes and lots of stuff, as well as not having to worry about how to get stuff home if I purchase anything.

Thursday I went incognito. No steampunk attire this day. I discovered that my phone wasn't getting text messages, a problem that would persist all weekend. I was able to meet up with   Piston and   Tristwolf . These two are a lot of fun and I'm glad to name them friends. I spent some time in the Board Game Room, meeting up with   Kamatz ,   DekoPuma and   ArcTheCollie .

After lunch I finally broke out the fursuit. This was my first time fursuiting and the debut con for my fursuit. I had received the fursuit at Furry Fiesta 2015, but as I was a bit busy, I hadn't had a chance to wear it. The previous weekend I had attempted to wear the fursuit at Havencon, but I broke the zipper. I wandered around for a couple hours and blew the minds of fursuiters showing off the drinking talon. The fursuit was made by   Ino89777 (Telephone) who is an incredible fluffsmith. The suit is awesome and I had a lot of fun. I can already feel the desire swelling within me to get another suit. I was able to talk with her briefly this con, but both of us were so busy that we didn't really get to chat long. Her car and trailer were stolen during the con.

Thursday afternoon I went to Registration. Being God Level, I was able to skip the line and immediately pick up my stuff. The God level gift was a tea set including kettle, strainer, and two mugs. I also picked up the matching Sake set. I noticed an issue almost immediately that the schedule said that the God dinner was Friday, but the tickets said Saturday. I brought it up with staff. They did their best to correct the issue and get the word out, but I know several people missed the dinner because of this. That evening was spent hanging out with friends and having fun. Stargazer and I hit the Irish pub for dinner. After returning from that, I got in suit once more. It may have been a bad idea to eat Shepard's Pie before suiting, but that's the kind of madman I am. Two more hours of wandering around and being bird. Every bit as fun, but I was more tired and wasn't as expressive and animate. I need to work on performance art more. Still, a total of 4 hours in suit this day was plenty.

Friday I wore the red Steampunk weapon merchant outfit. Friday was quite the busy day. Breakfast in the God lounge, meeting up with RocRolDis and Jamaris . Prowling the Dealer's Den where I got to hang out with AnimeCat and Nut-Case far too briefly. I ended up picking up 3D paper art of a Gryphon as well as the Snowmew from Bad Dragon. I had intended to fursuit during the afternoon, but I ended up hitting lunch late, going to Gyro Madness (or whatever they are called this week). By the time I got back, I was worried I might miss the God dinner if I suited. This led to lots of hanging out and having fun, barely seeing   StarAllon ,   TheDK and   CubBruin .

The God dinner was amazing as always. Once again it was at Fogo De Chao, an excellent Brazilian steakhouse. This is always a lot of fun, with wacky conversation and being constantly plied with finely crafted meats. This year they also allowed us to get a dessert, so I finally got to try flan. It was amazing. I had to engage the auxiliary dessert stomach to manage it, but it was so worth it. By the time we returned, I was too full of meat to fursuit. I shall plan better next year.

Saturday I wore my Sheriff outfit. Once more, breakfast was in the God lounge It's such a useful place. Today was the day scheduled for the X-Wing tournament as well as just being a far too busy day. I spent the first part of the day flitting between friends and places, trying to hang out with too many people. I finally met up with @@HungRider, who I had been hoping to see. By the afternoon, I was in the game room for the X-Wing tournament. I took the following list:

Boba Fett (Scum) — Firespray-31 39
Veteran Instincts 1
Tactician 2
Inertial Dampeners 1
Seismic Charges 2
Seismic Charges 2
Engine Upgrade 4
Andrasta 0

IG-88B — Aggressor 36
Veteran Instincts 1
Advanced Sensors 3
Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Autothrusters 2

The tournament started 90 minutes late because most of the players had signed up and never played before. Lists had to be created and rules taught. This was generally fine, but would be have been nice to build into the timeline. We only played one round, before postponing the rest of the tournament to the next day.   Kamatz was running the tournament and it was his first time. Lessons were learned and a lot of fun was had, which is what was important.

I had just enough time to get to the room and get into fursuit once more. This let me get downstairs with enough time to wander around a bit before attending the Skypro furshoot. Yay pictures. Afterwards, I wandered the Artist Alley and generally harassed the artists. I was hitting them with wings and pushing innocuous things off their desk. One intrepid artist attempted to sell me something in suit by pointing to his price list, so I took it briefly. I was a lovable jerk. :>

As I hadn't had dinner, I finally got out of suit and we went to High Velocity, the hotel restaurant. I was pretty exhausted, so I wasn't the greatest of company, but I was able to talk at some length about how to find a fursona and what one should look for. It was a good evening.

Sunday I broke out an old outfit, my British Explorer. This is always a fun outfit, but I haven't worn it in a couple years. It was quite loose on me. After breakfast, I went to the X-Wing tournament once more. I won my games this day as well, leaving me the champion. I ended up pushing all my prizes down a level, so that others got things I already had. For the second tournament in a row, I couldn't bring myself to take any of the prizes.

I would spend the rest of the day hanging out with friends and having fun. I didn't suit this day due to exhaustion. I was plumb tuckered out. I had offered to help Skypro transport goods, but my phone being finicky with texts and tweets meant I wasn't able to. I still feel terrible that I let her down.

We drove home Monday. Once more a long drive, but not too odious. Overall it was a good trip and a fun time. I'm glad I went and I plan to return.