Well, I guess two weeks out is about the edge of relevancy for a con report, so I'd better post something if I'm going to. So, let's see...

OOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG that parade!!! Screw chronology--I can't write about anything else first. This was the first time I've suited at AC and the first time AC's parade has gone outside the convention center, so between those two, it was quite an experience for me. I've done con parades before, but AC's dwarfs the others in both scale and organization. Picking myself out of this insane photo was an exercise in itself--they really should let someone do a Waldo a cosplay for this. The important part though was when we walked outside and a throng of locals was out there cheering us on like we were rock stars. I high-fived so many kids I had to wash my handpaws when I got home. We do public fursuit walks around home sometimes too, and the reaction is generally positive, but this was orders of magnitude beyond that. Ever since I first went to AC when I was just getting into the fandom, I've said that this con is special because of how much the city loves the furries, but I really had no idea until this year just how true that was. This year's parade was an experiment, but the result was so positive that there is no question it will become a permanent feature of the con, and as word-of-mouth spreads among the locals, the response will only grow in coming years. I feel confident saying that this is one of those bucket list things every fursuiter needs to go do at least once.

And then, what else...

Oh yeah, the walk back to the Omni after the parade. Worth it.

If I'm not writing this chronologicaly, I guess I can go thematically. So, music! No, I'm not a musician, but it has been noted that AC's schedule is particularly rich with musical talent, and that's another element of this con that I look forward to every year. We got to at least a couple of the performances, including the jazz concert that I'd regretted missing last year, which I felt was a particular highlight. That one in particular is a lot of fun because it's not as heavily attended and the programming is more free-form.  foxamoore's mainstage performance was a treat as always, and I was pleasantly surprised to see  kyash-tyur take the stage as a guest--not quite a local, but I see him occasionally, and I'm always pleased to see a familiar face that far out. Then, of course, there was the piano gathering at dead dog. That one's not on the schedule, but it's become one of the elements of AC that I consider essential to my experience. Every year I've been to AC, several of the musicians get together at a piano in the Westin during dead dog and start leading the crowd in sing-alongs of the kind of mainstream music that one feels compelled to sing along to. Half of us don't know the lyrics (or just know the chorus), and some ad-lib creatively, but it doesn't matter because the atmosphere is more important than the content. There has been ongoing discussion about how we define furry music, but in my mind, this is the meaning of furry music. It's not the lyrics or the composers that make music furry, but the shared experience of it within the furry cultural space. The music can be anything and come from anywhere because it's really just the carrier that facilitates the experience; we make it ours by sharing it together. I've had this experience as a curious onlooker one year, a photographer the next, and now as a fursuiter; I wouldn't miss it for anything.

What else is there at a con? Socializing! I'm not real good at that :/. I hoped to bump into several people I didn't, but I did see at least a couple I look forward to. We had a great time hanging out with  werdna250250, and I got to enjoy AirportCon with Tane for the second year running. Southwest is where it's at for furry air travel (all the furries to the back of the bus!). Seriously, we rounded up like a dozen of us on the way out to the Chicago transfer. After that, we barely escaped Chicago thanks to a thunderstorm that kept us grounded until 5 minutes before we would have been cut off for the night, but we got home safe.

Photography was okay. Not as much time spent on it this year since I'm now planning my day around fursuiting. Dance comp didn't produce any shots as exciting as last year's, but we spotted this one in the 10th anniversary clipshow during the masquerade, which felt pretty awesome even though they didn't credit me. At least I found the laserfox again, if only briefly.

I met the San Diego Chicken and got a couple autographs. This was actually the first time I'd seen him, even though I live in San Diego since I don't really watch sportsball, but it's pretty awesome that a guy who essentially invented professional sports mascoting and is a local celebrity of ours came out to AC as a GoH.

I had my lasgna wrap, Vulpie had his jy-roh, and we both enjoyed our respective mounds of coleslaw.

On the downside, FedEx smashed my fursuit bin and lost about $600 worth of baselayer gear while TSA ransacked my equipment suitcase and soaked all my drying gear with Febreeze. Gonna be working on solutions for those problems before Rainfurrest in a couple months. Still worth it.

Photo by  vulpie from the balcony over the Westin lobby during dead dog. I'm seriously an inch away from falling on my ass from holding this pose, besides the exhaustion of the weekend. Good times, though.