Well, I think the entire thing can by summed up simply by saying, "well, that could have gone better..."

I had all of my plans laid out almost as soon as I could, but started cancelling things when I started a new job in January and found out I wouldn't have my PTO for 6 months. I was later reminded that I had a floating holiday I could use at anytime so I started making plans again. I decided I wanted to be there Saturday and Sunday so I booked a new room and requested Monday off planning to drive out after work on Friday. I figured that I'd only take one of my suits since I wouldn't have a lot of time anyway and it would be easier. Now that you know what I planned, on to the report.

Friday: Friday started pretty much exactly as I planned, I went to work in the morning with my car all packed up and headed out straight from work. I only stopped on my way out of town to top off my car's gas tank. Mostly the drive was uneventful, although I did have to drive through some pretty heavy rain/thunder storms. Anyway, I arrive at the GSR at about the time I had planned, 11:00 PM. I go to check in only to be told that they are severely overbooked and that they literally do not have a room to offer me. Because of this they call a cab for me to take me to the Circus Circus which was the only place in town that they could find rooms. The GSR paid for the cab ride and the room at the Circus Circus (Although I had to give them my credit card to cover any other things and it currently has the room charge pending on it). I figured I wouldn't try and fight the issue because they have no rooms anyway and I was tired, as you can imagine after 8 hours of work followed by an 8 hour drive. I leave all of my stuff at the bell desk and go crash at the other hotel. I had planned on picking up my badge and seeing about getting some hugs before crashing, but I hear that reg closed early anyway.

Saturday: I didn't sleep well at all. I was frustrated about the situation and just wanted to get back to the con to see everyone, but I had to wait for a supervisor at the front desk so I could get the cab ride back covered. I did get back and to the con early, but still had stuff to deal with, for instance the cab fare and pending room. They told me that my room was being prepared and it should be ready by 11:00 AM. I asked for a free meal at the Grand Cafe for the inconvenience of the situation and they happily wrote out a single use voucher for $40, but I still had no room and my stuff was still stuck at the bell desk. This of course makes it difficult to change clothes or get in fursuit. Anyway, I go down to the con floor and run into a couple friends and we go to get breakfast. Then I went down to pick up my badge, but registration opened late. After getting my badge I wandered into the dealer's den and looked around; I couldn't really buy stuff though because my money was, you guessed it, at the bell desk. I could have used a card, but I like using cash as it's an easy way to budget myself. I checked with the front desk about my room at 11:00 and it still wasn't ready. I was told that housekeeping was there right then and it would be about 30-40 minutes. I left my phone number and they said they would call when it was ready. At 1:00 PM I still hadn't received a call so I went and double checked...well, a friend tried to push me to go earlier, but I stopped and did the rewards promotion games I had and won a $50 single use voucher for any restaurant in the hotel. When I did check my room was ready so I went and got unpacked and relaxed for a little while. Another perk of the room situation was that I was upgraded to an Imperial Suite. You know those rooms behind the double doors at the ends of the hallways? Yeah, I had one of those at no extra charge, I really didn't need the space though. I finally got into fursuit after giving Chirou a good brush and made it downstairs probably about 3:00 PM and went to the dealer's den to show friends that I had finally been in my room before going to the Fur What It's Worth panel to hand out flyers for Furry Unlocked. After the panel it was time for the fursuit photo and parade...it was my first photo and parade in a full suit and I was dead by the end of it so I got out of suit and went to dinner with a bunch of people. After that I went to a party...things happened...and then I went to bed around 3:00 AM.

Sunday: I didn't sleep really well again, but better than at the Circus Circus. I eventually and reluctantly climbed out of bed and went to get food. I got side tracked and did some gambling instead...I eventually decided that food was more important and went over to the Grand Cafe again and ran into the host of the party and we got breakfast together and I used my $40 voucher to cover both of us. I mean, I don't get change, I might as well cover other people to use as much of the $40 as possible right? After that I went down to the dealer's den intending to buy stuff (hurray finally having my money!), but I only bought a BLFC dog tag because the books I was wanting were all sold out. I played a game of Adult Loaded Questions with some friends and mostly hung out in the con space. I was thinking I'd get in suit, but I wasn't able to hold character for the suit I brought on Saturday and I knew I wouldn't have any more success on Sunday so I didn't bother. My other suit would have been fine though, that character is pretty much me anyway. I had dinner reservations at 5:30 at Rim for a group of people from Utah. I had about 10 people say they were coming but only 3 of those people came and we happened to run into another person right there so of my reservation for 10 we only had 5. The restaurant was happy to accommodate us though and we had a good meal. I used the $50 voucher I won from the promotion to pay for myself and a couple of other people. Then we went down to watch closing ceremonies. By the end my stomach was upset. Someone suggested it was food poisoning, but I had had a bit of indigestion the night before as well. I find that I change my eating habits a lot at a can and it makes my body unhappy. So I stayed in my room the rest of the night, but I did have a couple of people come over while I started getting things packed. I went to bed at about midnight I think.

Monday: Once again I didn't sleep well...I finished packing and started hauling things out to my car. You see, there are some rules for using the bell desk that makes it more complicated when you're by yourself packing up to leave so I carried everything out to my car myself and it took 3 trips. On my way back to grab more stuff I stopped to cashout my gambling money and only lost about $15 in the casino, that's really good for me. I got breakfast and headed out. The drive home was uneventful, more rain, but mostly fairly light.

Long story short: The con didn't go as well as I'd have liked. It's not the con's fault, I was just put into a bad mood as soon as I arrived and struggled to pull myself out of it. The hotel situation made it almost not worth it to make the trip because I spent half my first actual day there worrying about that which is why I wasn't going to go without time off in the first place. I will be back next year, and I'll actually have my PTO so I'll be able to have a longer and hopefully better con. I love what BLFC is doing, I just had some things explode on me this year.