Thursday morning came and it was time to head out to AnthroCon! I checked what I'd packed one last time and headed out the door at 9:55am, steeling myself for a five-hour drive. I did not anticipate that traffic would be awful just outside of my neighborhood and proceeded to freak out as every road I needed to use to get to the Pennsylvania Turnpike was closed, but once I made it onto the Turnpike, it was smooth sailing for four hours until I got near Pittsburgh, where a car managed to break down smack in the middle of a two-lane tunnel. I made it eventually, though! The hype was high! It was 3:15pm and I was at AnthroCon again! I checked into my room, where  Kurrikage and  OreoCakes were already waiting. We proceeded to sit around telling each other raunchy stories until  BlurTheFur arrived in the room as well. I was starving by this point, so the group and  Marshtomphappy went out to Bill's Bar & Burger, a restaurant attached to the convention hotel, the Westin. It was every bit as delicious as I remember last year. The remainder of the night wasn't super active. We walked around the convention center a bit, after which Oreo split away from the rest of us and Kurrikage and Blur went back to the room for drinks. Marshy and I proceeded to wander around for a while.

Friday was a more eventful day. Bruegger's Bagels became the most common breakfast stop for all of us sans Oreo, who spent the entire con with her own group. After some brief wandering around the convention center, Marshy, Blur, and I went out shopping to get Blur some alcohol. It was quite nice to wander the streets of Pittsburgh again. I live in the suburbs, so I don't often find reason to walk to places; being able to walk through Pittsburgh with purpose is an amazing experience that I already miss as I type this journal. Once Blur got his booze, we headed back to the room, and the reality of having two people whom I care about so much in the same place as me hit us hard. We were all a lot more affectionate with each other from that point forward. We went to the Macro/Micro Meetup later in the evening, which was more of a social mixer this year, and then went to the macro/micro room party. As I'm not a drinker, I spent a lot of my time in a side room playing Jackbox games, which was still a blast. Most of last year's shenanigans repeated themselves, what with  Nommz stealing badges and Kurrikage having drunk fun.

Saturday was the most important day of all because it let us fulfill our memetic dreams: in honor of  ChaosDunk and to fulfill Blur and me's guilty pleasures, several of us went to McDonald's and had a burger for breakfast. From that point forward, though, the days were pretty same-y, and not in a bad way! We spent plenty of time in the con zoo, had delicious dinners, and (between Blur, Marshy, and me) were very affectionate with one another. We were invited to  Jevin's dinner at Le Lyonnais via  mega-emperor, which was delicious and very much appreciated. Blur, Marshy, and I hung out with  mega-emperor and  Sparky_the_chu on Saturday night and played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. On Sunday, I went to the Whose Lion Is It Anyway panel with Blur and Marshy and then attended the panel on how to be a better D&D roleplayer. Later that night, I had Kurrikage, Marshy, Blur,  Deriaz, and  Goolashe join me for dinner on the first floor of Sienna Mercato, Emporio, which gave us a sub-par poutine according to Blur. After a stop back at the hotel room, I sat in the end-of-con zoo until it closed, taking in the finality of everything.

Monday morning hurt. It of course wasn't pleasant to have the con end and see everybody off, but it especially hurt to let Blur and Marshy go home. Walking Blur to his early-morning bus left me tearing up and with a lump in my throat, but I had to see him off and that was that. There was only so much time for goodbyes. I met up with Marshy one last time for a quick breakfast, and because I had to make the conscious decision to leave him instead of having a set time, it hurt even more the second time. I broke down completely and hugged him for a while, and happy tears flowed from me a few times on the way home.

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There are so many names I didn't mention in that summary, and those people did matter to me.  LuchaLibreLibro,  SyLoX,  Shimmer,  GatesFox, and others did little things that made my con experience that much nicer; thank you all. Anti-thanks to the guy who bitched at the security lady in the elevator line in the Westin for his own mishearing; that was the single most immature showing I saw at the entire con.

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On a closing note, I cannot emphasize enough how much it meant to me to see Blur and Marshy in person. While I teach community college classes as my day job, there's a big part of me that never grew up after high school. My style of humor still involves ribbing on people and expecting to be ribbed on in return, with all involved knowing that no offense was meant, and that doesn't translate into this fandom well. It's also the case that I feel as if I'm less emotional than many people whom I know, and there are days when the strong feelings of friendship or love for me that others have reach me but I fear that I'm not capable of having those feelings myself. Having Blur and Marshy next to me and realizing just how much I valued their presence and the physical contact we were able to have, and seeing just how happy I was that I could get so sad over needing to leave them, helped me get over my fear and made me acknowledge just how strong of a connection I do feel with them and others online.

If you two are reading, know that I love you so much for everything this past weekend and forevermore. To all of my other friends in the fandom, thank you for everything you do for me. I'm trying really hard to restrain myself from impulsively scheduling a trip to MFF now because you're all so special and I can't wait to see you again.