Thursday

I got up at 4 AM Thursday morning, showered, checked email and FA messages one last time, and then took my coffee in a travel mug, packed my SUV, and started off for Furnal Equinox about 5:45. This year I was only picking up  Fulminar (my usual driving companion and dear friend  Salvestro could not make FE this year due to work) so I had a long drive on the interstates ahead of me. I love that my new car has cruise control so the drive was actually quite pleasant. I listened to music, said my Rosary, and just enjoyed the morning, sipping my coffee, sucking on cough drops, and the like. I made my usual stop at the last rest area in NY before I get to Buffalo, grabbed some breakfast from McDonald's, filled the gas tank, and then drove the rest of the way to the border.

I got to the border about 9:45 and was surprised to see a half-dozen cars in each open lane. It took about fifteen minutes to get up to the border guard, and to my delight he only asked a few questions before letting me through. Woohoo! I gave Fulminar a call to let him know I'd be at his place by eleven and proceeded on the QEW to Hamilton. I arrived basically when I predicted and after a brief chat with his Mom we packed his stuff into my SUV and headed into Toronto. We chatted and caught each other up on how we were doing and what had been happening lately in our lives. I sucked another cough drop (I bought a fresh bag for the trip).

We ran into some heavy traffic going into Toronto, but not so bad that it delayed us more than a half hour. We were at the hotel a little after 12:30 and were able to get checked-in immediately. Heck, our bags almost beat us to our room. This was a huge difference from last year when it took a couple hours just to get a room because they'd overbooked everything. And this time we did get the room we paid for. We got our stuff sorted in the room which had a city view in the north tower with two Queen beds; we could see the lake off the to right too; not much floor space, but it would do. We decided to go hang in the lobby to see if we could find any of our friends so we could invite them to the Old Spaghetti Factory that night.

One weird thing that happened was that the TV was on in the room and we searched in vain for a remote or a button to turn the thing off. In the end we asked one of the housekeeping staff to help and she promised to find a remote for us. By the time we got back to our room later that afternoon the TV was off and a remote lay there on the dresser.

We found a place to hang out in the lobby where we could easily see the front doors. We chatted for a bit as we waited until we saw our good friends  CatMonkShiro,  Nyomi, and  Dan_Raccoon and some of their friends come in. I waved them over and after we all shared hugs and some basic chit-chat, I mentioned the dinner tonight and repeated the invitation I sent them over FA notes, but they had to decline since the only time they would have for Dealer's Set up was that night. We also saw the lovely artist ladies  hbruton,  SandySchreiber, and  Xenotropos and invited them but the story was the same. Ah well.

Since we struck out at inviting friends to join us for dinner, we headed on down to the corner market store across the street so I could buy some flavored creamer for my morning coffee like I did last year. Only this time I struck out again as they didn't have any of the dairy flavored creamers this year. I opted instead to buy some Frappacinos (sp?) and an Aero Bar. We then headed back to the room and after getting our groceries put away, Fulminar showed me a fan-made twenty minute documentary preview for a Star Trek movie about a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. I was blown away by how well done it was and really wish they could make a movie out of it; I'd definitely see it. I don't recall the name, but I'm sure Fulminar or others who know what I'm talking about can remind me.

The whole time I was doing this I was trading text messages with our other roomies,  Cobalt_K and his non-furry friend Greg, and a young fur coming to his first furry convention  ApplejacK47. Cobalt was running a little behind but would definitely be there in time for dinner. Applejack was exploring the city for the day but would also be there soon. Fulminar and I decided to wait for them to arrive while we waited in the line to pick up our pre-registrations. And that's exactly what happened too. While we were in line, Cobalt showed up (Greg stayed down in the lobby with their stuff) and I handed him two room keys so they could get their stuff sorted. Applejack showed up just a little bit later and he hung out with us until the registration line started moving. Fulminar and I picked up our Supersponsor perks which included a Furnal Equinox backpack, penant, graduation cap, cup, and some bonus dollars for the con store, as well as VIP lanyard and badge.

We then returned to the room and caught up with Cobalt and met his friend Greg. Greg had once been a Brony and was curious to see what went on at a furry convention. I do hope we left a good impression on him. Applejack joined us in the room just a bit later and we discussed his particular situation. He was still underage and could only spend the one night with us, but would have to head back to his home the other nights. He also had to head out and make one more stop before he could join us for dinner. With introductions out of the way, we let Applejack head off to do his chore, while the rest of us chilled a bit longer.

When it came time for dinner, we squeezed into a cab -- Fulminar in front with Greg, myself, and Cobalt all snug tight in the back. They had our table ready right away and it was all the way in the back so we got to walk past all of the different variety of crazy places one could sit. If you've never been to the Olde Spaghetti Factory you should definitely give it a try, even if just to admire the crazy amounts of stained glass and other oddities there. We arrived a bit early, and Applejack arrived a little late, but we all did assemble and had some fantastic food. I decided to Factory size my entire meal and managed to eat all but a portion of my pasta. The tiramasu I had for dessert was so soft and melted in my mouth. I took my leftovers back to the room.

While Applejack headed off to his bus, I took Cobalt and Greg and got their names added to the room so they could get their keys reset if they demagnetized -- we had a problem with this in previous years but it never happened this year. We did a quick sweep of the new con space in the hotel including the game room where we chatted some with the first con chair and a good friend  Pakesh; he was running the game room that year and I would chat with him several times there; often he'd regale us with some crazy con story from years past (and some not so past). Great guy.

We ended up back in the room and Cobalt broke out the game "Betrayal at the House on the Hill". This game is becoming a running tradition for us. We managed to explore the upper floor and the roof quite a bit before the haunt was revealed; nobody had gone to the basement by the time the haunt was revealed -- heck, nobody found the coal chute into the basement in any of the games we played, quite weird! Our first haunt had me as the traitor; I was an evil fairy who stole the heroes voices and now hunted them down to kill them. I rolled some crazy unbelievable attacks on both of them and it was over. After we got the games put away we chatted a little bit more before heading to bed.

Friday

Friday morning began with snacking on some snack bars and before heading down toward the convention space with Fulminar. I stopped to pick up my panelist perks and while in line there I met up with  Seadog_driftwood who shared with me some music I look forward to reviewing, and then  DaiCymru who regaled me with the tale of his travels to and from FE last year and this. Once I finally got my panelist sticker and my extra con store dollars, Fulminar and I headed over to the main ballroom (Frontenac, I believe) for opening ceremonies. As Supersponsors we had early access to Opening Ceremonies and so we got in a half-hour early. While there waiting for things to get started I chatted with  Mad_Ferret who sat next to me. Also a little chatting with CatMonkShiro and Nyomi once they arrived, as they were our GoHs for the year and had reserved seating right up front.

I confess I don't recall much out of Opening Ceremonies; they mentioned the Guests of Honor and the local Charity they were supporting. It was a Cat Rescue Shelter who needed an extra ten thousand dollars to finish building an expansion for their facility so they could rescue more cats, bring them back to health, and give them a fun room to explore and play in. I am not a cat person, but I was moved and planned to give something at some point during the con.

Once opening ceremonies wrapped up Fulminar and I made our way to the line for the Dealer's Den. Again, that wonderful early access as supersponsors allowed us to get in early. I headed straight for CatMonkShiro and then Nyomi to secure sketches from each of them. I also picked up my copy of the graduation YCH scroll that Nyomi did with  o-kemono (which you can see here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/30788562/ ); I normally don't go for that level of cute, but this is in celebration of Furnal Equinox X by one of my good friends, so of course I had to get in on it.

I spent some time after that wandering the Dealer's Den, bumping into various friends and chatting them up left and right. Lots of fun to catch up with everyone, pretty much all of whom I had last seen at either Furnal Equinox or Anthrocon in 2018. One of my first conversations was with  ManuKoa and  Scani right around Nyomi's table. It seems they were both a little disappointed that the panel scheduling was so packed, the avian panel was at the same time as Scani's FE retrospective panel so the gryphon was going to have to miss out on his birds! I had a similar panel conflict that would keep me from attending the main transformation panel this year which was disappointing but that's how it goes. Better luck next year!

I made sure to stop in and check on  SpiderDragon who was working on our Roomies sketch again this year. In preparation for it she made me a separate sketch of my new Zebra fursona and it looks fantastic. (That's right, Zebra Fursona, I'm now a Zebra as well as a Rat and Triceratops; my daughter gets the credit for it!) I spent some time catching up with SpiderDragon who is a great friend, and while there,  Dragoniade showed up in his awesome Bear costume that I fawned over so much last year. We hugged and chatted for a bit at her table, and then, we both came to the rescue when her shelving collapsed. Dragoniade reacted first, grabbing the shelving pieces at the top and then I moved in to support him along with another fur who I didn't know. As we steadied everything, SpiderDragon recovered her fallen art while we put the pieces back together one by one. In the end we fixed it up together; a little bit of extra excitement for the morning.

I then bumped into  Lukaryo and a friend of his whose name escapes me now. We had a nice conversation, but the thing I most recall was that he mentioned the deadline for panel submission for AC was today! I hadn't submitted my Rodents! panel for AC yet! ARGH! What was I going to do!!!! I resolved to ask if I could borrow an iPad from one of my roomies that evening since the browser on mine just crashes if I try to do anything anymore.

Afterward I continued to browse. I stopped by  BushyCat's table and admired her really neat clear violin which she played a few notes on, as well as picked up a wolf carving/painting for my friend  WolfFriend who could not make FE this year. We chatted briefly but she kept getting customers so I pushed on. My browsing continued mostly uninterrupted at that point until I got to Heather, Sandy, and Xenotropos. I showed off pictures of Angie and caught up with all of them to varying degrees. I assured them that I would get sketches from them tomorrow once I got my book back; all of them were quite eager to see it and help me get it a few more pages close to being done.

I circled around to the final aisle of the Dealer's Den -- it was twice as big as the last FE -- and was startled when I saw an artist I had not expected to find at Furnal Equinox,  SilentRavyn. I usually saw her at Anthrocon and many moons ago I got a Badge and Sketch commission from her. Her art is really nice and so I decided to get a Badge commission from her of my new Zebra fursona. She remembered me too and apart from business we caught up a bit on both our lives. I look forward to seeing her again at AC and I hope she's able to make it to more FEs in the future.

It took a lot longer to go through the Dealer's Den than I expected. By the time I was done I didn't have a ton of time before my Rodents! panel. So I went back to my room to relax for a little bit. Fulminar was there and I asked him to check the AC website to confirm the panel submission deadline. It took him a few minutes to find it, but yup, today was the last day. I asked him if I could use his iPad later tonight and he said sure. With that secure, we chatted about how many pages we had left in our sketchbooks, and I spent a little time re-reading the "So you've become a Taur" informational comic by  Cervelet that he brought. Hilarious stuff.

I also did a little reading from Cobalt's comic book UTC ( read it here: http://www.catomix.com/utc/archive ). He'd given me book one a previous FE and now he gave me book 2. I enjoyed reading these at his website back in the day, and it was great to see it and read it again now.

I got suited up for my Rodents! panel, and found my way down there about a half-hour early. The room was off in the far corner of the hotel, furthest from the main convention space, but we Rodents are used to that sort of treatment.

Waiting for me there was  Alganbord who has become a regular attendee of my panel. To my delight he even had a laptop with him. I asked him if I could borrow it long enough to submit my panel and the good Mouse said yes. I got my panel submitted in time and breathed a big rat sigh of relief. Alganbord is a good friend. He told me about a VR game he had where the main character is a mouse exploring through a forest. When I think of VR I immediately thought that meant you saw the game through the mouse's eyes, but that's not quite how it worked out. I didn't have time to try it just then but I assured him I definitely wanted to do so at some point that weekend.

The Rodents! panel started on time and we had about 12 -- 20 people show up total. We had five fursuiters including Alganbord, Lukaryo and  PrincessGustopher and at the end of the panel we had a group photo as usual. We also had one fur who brought her service rat with her and showed the cute little fellow off. I was in my rat suit petting a real rat. It's as adorable as it sounds.

The panel was the usual mix of introductions followed by everyone bringing up some favorite bit of Rodent media out there. Everyone really enjoys hearing about all of the different movies, comics, TV shows, games, books, and the like which feature Rodents as the heroes. I always wonder if I should try to force us to ponder certain topics, but letting the panel flow organically like this seems to make everyone happy because they can all contribute more easily this way. So while I might introduce some other ways we can talk about Rodents, such as ideas about what life as an anthro Rodent would be like (big or small), it seems best to me to just let everybody take it whereever it goes.

After the panel I tried to wander around a little bit while in suit, but I was still struggling with my cough and so decided it was best to take it off only a few minutes in. After getting the suit stowed away, I believe I went back down to the game area and chatted with Pakesh about what games there were, but I didn't have time to try any just then. About seven I and my friends gathered for the Transformation Dinner organized by  CheasyDino. This time we were going to eat at Jack Astor's. I hadn't been there in quite some time so was really looking forward to it. Again we took a cab, with Greg, myself, and Cobalt squeezed in the back. Because of that we arrived well before everyone else and so dropped by the three-story Michael's across the street. I admired some of the colored pencils they had there, before wandering around with Fulminar. We met up on the top floor with Cobalt and at one point found a Golden Girl's activity book; I always hated that show as a kid, but it did get us talking about Betty White and all the hilarious roles she's been in since (who could forget her performance in Lake Placid).

By the time we got back to Jack Astor's most of the group was already seated. I ended up across from two furs whose names have since escaped me, with Greg on my left and Cobalt across from him. I had the Fish n Chips (Lent and all) and it was delicious! We ended up talking some politics in between more enjoyable furry stuff. Sadly there was very little in the way of transformation. We'll have to police ourselves better next year!

On our return to the hotel we decided to play another round of Betrayal. This time Cobalt was the traitor and we had to find scrolls with the letters to the secret name of the bad guy. Greg took a wrong turn and got killed by Cobalt, but I managed to stay far enough away to decipher all of the letters and figure out his name. When Cobalt found me, I said the name and won the game. Not long after that we went to bed. A full and fun day for all!

Saturday

My cough was finally starting to get better by Saturday. Thursday I'd taken ten cough drops, Friday I only took four, and Saturday I'd only need one when I went to bed. While it still seemed to be there on Friday, I could tell it was getting better now. I was able to talk without hacking every few minutes and I wasn't spitting up mucus anymore. It felt great!

Fulminar and I went down to the Dealer's Den when it opened at Ten and I made sure to pick up my con shirt first before the con store line became insane, and then I went to pick up my sketchbook. I was overwhelmed with delight when I saw what both Shiro and Nyomi drew for me, and I'm sure you will too when I get to posting it. My badge wasn't quite ready from Nyomi so I decided to wander about chatting with friends in the Dealer's Den for a bit. I didn't have anything to do that morning until the Fursuit Fandango at 3, so I wanted to have a quiet morning. I did stop by Heather, Sandy, and Xeno's tables to drop off my sketch book for each of them to dazzle the pages.

About Noon I started to feel really tired and while I continued to chat for a bit longer with friends, including  Soba who had only been able to arrive that morning, I was definitely feeling really worn down. By 1 o'clock I was back in my room just trying to relax. Fulminar had picked up the book "Mighty Tiny" which featured anthro mouse and rat characters in a Victorian / Steampunk setting and I resolved to buy a copy myself because I was enjoying it so much. Not long after Cobalt and Greg returned to the room so Cobalt could put his prosthetic goat costume on. While he was working on that, I decided to just take a nap. I told Greg to wake me at 2, which would give me a half-hour. It went fast, apparently I really zonked out.

The nap did help a ton though, and after eating some of the jerky Fulminar bought for the room, and drinking some soda and eating a snack bar, I felt good enough to get into my suit and head to the Fursuit Fandango. Fulminar arrived while I was snacking so he could get into suit too. I was still a little woozy so I waited for Fulminar to finish suiting up before heading back down to be safe.

While waiting outside Frontenac for the Fandango to begin Dan Raccoon found us and we chatted for a bit. I also saw  1gagaga1 (also known as Knaw) in his suit and made sure to give him a hug and greeting; sadly that's about the only time we had to chat this year; hopefully we'll connect better next FE.

A few minutes before they let us into Frontenac Fulminar had to excuse himself to take care of something. Dan and I waited there for him for a few minutes while one of the volunteers handed out fursuit badges. We then checked the headless lounge because it looked like that's where Fulminar went but he wasn't there. We then checked inside Frontenac all over, back out in the hall, the lounge, and then back in Frontenac to find a place to be in the picture. We never did find Fulminar, despite the fact he was apparently on the opposite side of the room the whole time.

During the picture I started to feel great again and decided to stick around for the small group photos. They started with fursuits by color, but didn't have Brown as a color! They then did location and I got in the American fur photo shoot. After that was fursuit maker and I was in the home-made photo (not that I made my own, but it was the closest that fit). The next round was a species round that wasn't me, so I wandered around. I chatted with Dragoniade a bit, and also met up with  Leo.The.Ninja.Lion and we got some pictures in suit together. Cobalt arrived in his costume about then and it looked fantastic! Quite realistic and well-done (and when he used the hooves which he bought that day he was crazy tall and impressive).

I got into the Rodents and Raccoons picture with Alganbord, EikoFinal (who was very sorry he missed my Rodents panel) and Dan and then knew it was time to call it quits. I headed back to the room, got out of suit, commiserated with Fulminar about how we got separated, and then ran back down to the Dealer's Den to check on the status of my badge. My Zebra badge from SilentRavyn was done so I thanked her profusely then clipped it on in a prominent place to show of my striped equinity, then popped on over to pick up that Mighty Tiny book. SpiderDragon called out to me to give me the Roomies sketch which was done and I gushed over that too before begging their pardon since I had to rush all the way back to the other side of the hotel to get to the Guest of Honor Dinner.

The dinner this year was a total disaster unfortunately. They had one salad option, one dressing option, one meal option, and gobs of dessert options. The salad and dressing were good and I wish I'd gone back for more of it. The main meal was a ravioli that they just tossed whatever veggies they had lying around into it (or so it seemed). I found it very unappetizing and just didn't eat any of it. I did have two cups of coffee which was good, and a little bit of dessert, but that was all. Also, the room was the same room I had my Rodents panel in, and it was too small for us. By the time I got there, there was no more room at the table Fulminar had picked out for us, so I sat off by myself at the only empty table (the small table at the front for speakers). ManuKoa, MadFerret, and a few others did join me a few minutes later and we had a good conversation about the fun we were having at the con and about the horrible meal.

I met up with Fulminar in the Game room and I suggested we try something out. We ended up playing Raccoon Tycoon, a resource building game with awesome Victorian era furry art done by non-furries. Quite realistic looking so it was right up my alley artwise. The game play was pretty straightforward though definitely it required some strategic thinking. With just two players it was pretty easy to see who was winning though; I had more railroads than Fulminar and that sealed the deal for me.

After returning the game, a few minutes later, another pair of furries wanted to give it a try. I asked if I could join them. While they read the rules I set up all the pieces and card decks. This time I was sure I was getting creamed. I bluffed my way into buying a railroad I didn't need at way too high a cost and spent the remainder of the game with way less money or resources than either of the other furs. To my surprise I still eked out a win because I had the most towns and that netted me an extra six victory points (I ended up winning by three or four points). While the others had more money to buy stuff, the money by itself didn't contribute that many victory points. Good game and amazing art. Hard to believe it wasn't made by furries.

Fulminar and I crashed back in our room at that point and even after Cobalt and Greg returned, it took Cobalt quite a long time to get out of his prosthetic costume. I was zonked by the time he finished, so no more games that night. Before I went to bed I took my one and only cough drop for the day!

Sunday

I got up about 6:30 so I could get dressed in my nice suit and head to Mass at St. Michael's. I waited for Lukaryo down in the lobby, and together we headed on over. St. Michael's is the Archbishop of Toronto's seat so it's a spectacular Cathedral with amazing art everywhere you look. The 8:00 AM Mass was decently attended for an early morning Mass, and the congregation knew the Latin Mass parts which always delights me. Lukaryo stayed for Confessions afterward while I returned to the hotel. A good healthy twenty minute walk in the cold, but it was refreshing.

Once I returned to the room and changed back into my normal con clothes, I headed do to the FE ten year retrospective panel hosted by Scani. It was awesome to see so many of the folks who have poured their heart and soul into FE over the last decade there to remember how it all came about. Pakesh was there of course, as was BlindSight and Shane who I hadn't seen in a few years, Arc who I've known since my days helping run Technicon the decade prior, Heather who was our first guest of honor, Shiro and Nyomi our current guests of honor, and lots of familiar faces who've been coming as long as I have.

They also had a selection of the shirts and a huge selection of the buttons, room keys, and so forth that have been such delightful conswag from the beginning. I oogled that at first while they got the projector set up; the projector had a nice slide show of pictures from FE's past. Scani did talk a little bit about his involvement and memories, but mostly just acted as an MC. He first let BlindSight and Pakesh regale us with how they ended up being the first con chairs, and then one by one brought others up to tell their own stories. I volunteered not long after he opened it up to the floor and I talked a little bit about how I came to attend FE (everyone before me was either staff or a guest).

I was personally invited by mwbard (AKA Morgan) that first year, who had also invited some of my other friends from the TSA including Fulminar. I had been staffing a con during that time slot (Technicon), but all of my friends who used to staff with me had moved on, and I confess I lost interest in it, so I decided to give FE a try. I roomed with Morgan and one other that first year and was blown away by how much fun I could have at a small con. I got to chat with the guests of honor, spent hours sharing life stories with Shiro while we hunkered down in a hotel hallway, and marveled at how small a dealer's den we had. Poor Morgan got a stomach bug during the first day of the con and spent most of the time in bed. We all caught the stomach bug in the days that followed. But a week after the con, Morgan had an anuerysm and died.

*bows head in silence*

I'll never forget him. That made my return to FE in 2011 necessary, and while it is no longer what brings me to FE, it's always a part of it, as he was a dear friend in those last few years.

I also talked about the silly little things I remember doing over the years to brighten the mood after that depressing story. But I ended with saying how FE has always felt to me like my con and I thanked the staff for all of their hard work, and let them know we who come back year after year deeply appreciate it. We are in your debt.

A bunch of others gave their retrospectives after me and I stayed for all of them. Once the panel was done I headed back toward the dealer's den but was intercepted by Faclan who had been to my Rodents! panel and wanted to know if I wore my glasses in my fursuit. I was happy to explain how the eyes of my fursuit are actual prescription lenses, but I doubt the trick will work again because they're really big pescription lenses!

I then returned to the Dealer's Den to pick up my sketchbook for the final time. I gushed over the art that Heather, Sandy, and Xeno did for me, thanked them profusely, showed them off to my friends nearby, and then continued to wander for just a bit more. I forget all who I chatted with in this time, but I recall at one point chatting with Lukaryo and three others near Shiro's table for quite some time. I kept thinking about going to try the Dark Bunny Sauces, but I never could quite make myself do so. Hopefully next year.

Since I had no plans until closing ceremonies, I decided to get into my suit one last time. Once I did so I returned to the Dealer's Den which is where most folks were so I could show off my suit. I got into a few pictures that way but mostly just walked around and chatted. I forget who it was now, but while I was on the exact opposite side of the dealer's room from Shiro's table, one of my friends mentioned to me how Shiro was having a really rough day, that his art piece in the auction never got a bid, and that somebody had dumped their trash on his table. I did my best to get to Shiro's side once I heard the news, but I kept getting stopped by various folks who wanted stuff.

I forget how long it took me, but I did make it to his table and he did look pretty rough. I gave him a hug and tried to do what I could for a few minutes, before Dan and some other of Shiro's friends also arrived. A different raccoon suiter whose name escapes me and I gave Shiro a big three-way hug that lasted a good minute or two and we got him to talk it out and we just stood nearby for a good fifteen minutes being there for him to make sure he was holding up. I know we cheered him up by doing so, and it still infuriates me that somebody would leave their trash on one of his art books.

Of course we did have to move away from crowding his table in the end, but we kept on chatting nearby while Shiro talked to one of the Security staff to make his report. It just proved to me how good most folks in the fandom can be. I think in a lot of ways in our day to day lives we are starved for friends, so we treat our furry friends ever better. I have a hard time thinking of anybody in my day to day life outside of my family I would have done that for so quickly.

A short while later, still indignant, I decided to go back to Shiro's table and I bought a cool werewolf TF sticker and his werewolf Transformed T-shirt as an extra way to give him some support. Great shirt and sticker too; wearing the shirt right now and it's cool and comfortable, my non-furry gaming group loved it. The sticker is at my desk at work and makes for a great little dose of TF when I need it.

And to show that my friends are awesome, Fulminar delivered to me a beautiful Zebra magnet made by Xenotropos which was a gift from her. Fantastic! I also have this at work now so I've another great reason to smile and whicker in delight. I carried all of these around in my fursuit paws since I'd left my backpack in the room to keep from sweating through my shirt. I managed it without any accidents and I'm pretty pleased with that.

I eventually made my way back to my room, got changed, organized my stuff, and then headed back down with Fulminar for closing ceremonies. We sat in the same place, I still took up two seats despite not having my tail on, due to the way folks were sitting next to me. Nobody complained so there ya go. MadFerret was next to me and we chatted a little about how the con went for each of us, but we didn't get to chat for long before the regular attendees came in and it get a little too noisy. Closing ceremonies had a few great moments, such as Shiro's art item going for $250 in the final auction and the craziness as they auctioned off a Don't Hug Cacti feline fursuit (it went for $2700 after BT got badgered into putting it on to demo it). This allowed us to give the charity (the place that helps cats) a check for over ten thousand which was enough funds for them to finish their extension. There were many tears of joy and gratitude and much cheering from us!

Eventually they announced the theme for next year, Retro Rewind, and then we all filed out to get our buttons. Being small, I squirmed to the front to grab one for each of my Roomies too. We proceeded directly to the hotel lobby to assemble for the Mandarin run. Soba took Fulminar and CaiCymru in his car, the rest of us made the walk to the next nearest subway station (one of the lines was closed that weekend). I split a day pass with Dragoniade and chatted with SeaDog about Museums along the way there. I didn't have the courage to stand between the trains to feel the weird turning, but Dragoniade did.

Soba and co naturally beat us there, but we all got our seats and once everyone had their drink order, we savaged the buffet. I ended up with three plates and some ice cream; not my best, but I was quite stuffed when it was done. Good friends and good conversation about the con and what we were going to be doing in the weeks and months ahead. Dan and Shiro both raised toasts to another successful convention and to our awesome guests of honor. I am still so delighted for them to get this honor; Nyomi and Shiro deserve it and every happiness!

The trip back to the hotel was uneventful and I can barely rememeber it. I do remember lots of parting hugs in the lobby just in case we didn't see each other again before we left. I then made my way to the game room to meet up with Alganbord for the promised VR game. He had it all set up and got me hooked in. The opening screen was of some fictional loft apartment overlooking a fictional city. Several times I went to the edge and peered over and my acrophobia kicked in and I had to get away from it. I know it wasn't real, but dang my fear response thought it was!

The game he had me play was about a little mouse trying to find out what happened to their teacher. You were exploring through this forest realm, overcoming obstacles such as thorns, water, big blocks too large to climb, and so forth. You don't see through the mouse's eyes, but control the mouse in the 3D environment. The environment was impressive too, at one point a huge buck I hadn't even noticed, lifted it's head and stared almost right at me. Talk about making me jump! Beautiful game and if I'd felt I had a lot more time, I'd have played a lot longer. Alganbord, thank you for wanting to share that with me. It was awesome! You are a great friend!

I went back up to the room for one last night of sleep. Everyone else was already there. Cobalt, Greg, and I played one more game of Betrayal, and this time I was the traitor again, controlling a huge number of marionettes. They were all subdued to start, but if the players didn't do certain things on their turn, I would roll dice to see how many woke up and moved to attack that hero. Otherwise on my turn the subdued ones would all head toward the front door and escape the house. The heroes needed to get them all out, but they were in a bad way to start because they were right near each other. The marionettes all started to glom together in the same room which means they utterly devastated the heroes. While they did get over half the marionettes out of the house, there were too many left for them to stop and so one after another they got whacked.

It was almost 2 AM when we packed it and said good night. In 25 hours I'd need to be getting up for work Tuesday morning. Goodness!

Monday

I think I was up around 7:30. I packed all of my bags up and then laid back down on the bed to get just a little bit more rest first. Fulminar was also up and had his stuff packed not long after I did. Cobalt and Greg always slept in later than we did, so I did my best not to disturb them. But they were up early enough that I asked them if they wanted me to grab a cart for them too; Cobalt said no, he didn't want to hog them all which made sense.

I managed to snag a cart by hanging out near the valet parking and waiting until other furs finished packing their cars up. I recognized a few friends also up to check out and head home, but I didn't stop to say hi just then. Fulminar and I put our stuff on the cart, hugged Cobalt and Greg goodbye, and then head down. When we got to the lobby we bumped into Soba and DaiCymru again and while Fuminar chatted I took care of checkout. I made a goof up in that I forgot to put my own car on the room so when we went to the Valet parking I had to pay a little extra; but that's okay, since I accounted for it as part of the initial room budgeting anyway.

We saw several familiar faces during this time. I saw Alganbord at checkout and gave him a big hug. There was also Soba and DaiCymru I already mentioned. And we did see Heather and company one last time, and as I was driving off with Fulminar, Shiro flashed us a heart sign and I flashed a big thumb's up back.

The trip to Hamilton went smoothly. Fulminar made sure to play "Try Everything" from Zootopia again on the way, our little tradition since 2016 when Fulminar, Salvestro, WolfFriend, and myself went to see it the night before FE started. Ah, what wonderful memories! Fulminar and I chatted about all the fun we had, what we were going to be doing the rest of the year, and the like. I dropped him off at his house and spoke briefly with his Mom about the good time we had, then I was off for home.

I made it back into the US without trouble, and my drive was largely uninteresting. I listened to music and recalled all that had happened in my head so I could write this journal. I got home by 4 and gave my daughter a huge hug and spent the rest of the day playing with her. She missed her Daddy!

Well, this has gone long enough. The only thing I have to say is that it blows my mind that this was our tenth Furnal Equinox. It's been such a fantastic part of my life these last nine years, something I look forward to and enjoy every time. So many familiar faces and friends each year, some folks I miss even though we're both there, some I always mean to spend more time with but miss, and others I finally get that chance and it's great. You are all part of my Furnal Equinox family and it is a treasured time. I wish at times it could be longer but at the very least we can come back again next year. And I certainly plan on it!

I hope to see even more of my friends there next year!

Dominus vobiscum