Last month, I attended the Anthro New England convention in Boston, MA for the first time, and had an absolute blast of a time! Over the next week, I'll be doing my usual post-convention summary by sharing a photo a day from my time away, while recounting the events of the day on which the photo was taken, exactly two weeks ago (well, a couple of days late, in this instance):

I got up at about 7, and paid a visit to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. It was as I was walking down the street to get there that I realised I'd been to that exact same shop in May 2019, when I visited the US and Canada with my dad. In fact, I further recalled that on that trip, I had stayed in one of the other convention hotels - the Aloft - where I took this picture - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/31974955/.

After nomming and supping in my room for a bit, I headed for the lobby and waited for JoeBear and Anthrocoon to arrive from the airport, and in the meaning chatted with a couple of attendees, whose names I regrettably didn't catch. When Joe and Anthrocoon arrived, I accompanied them as they got checked-in and registered, and then departed for the pre-opening ceremony all-staff meeting. As you can see from the picture, they were still setting up for the ceremony when we arrived.

The opening ceremony was good fun, short, and sweet. Perhaps my favourite part was the announcement of the opening of the convention, which was read by the actual man who reads the actual station announcements for the actual MBTA. After that, I accompanied Joe and Anthrocoon back to their room for some good conversation, before starting my staffing duties.

Today, I had three panels to staff for our Guests of Honour - Meet the GoHs (obviously), SFW Sketchbook Swap, and Cartooning 101. All of them were very interesting, and very entertaining. I recall the Sketchbook Swap particularly fondly, given both its creative content and size - we had 80 people in the room at one point! This meant not only that we ran out of Post-It notes with which to identify sketchbooks, but that near the end I had to stand in front of a room of talented artists, and ask "Can somebody please give me a number 69?". Hahaha, funny internet number, hahaha. After Cartooning 101 ended, I headed for the staff room for some very welcome and very filling refreshments, which saw me through for the rest of the day.

With the rest of the day ahead of me, I also visited the Dealers' Den as I always do at conventions. Not only was this to flit about and get my paws on some lovely art, but also to greet a few fantastic people on behalf of my good friend Soba, who sadly wasn't able to room with me this year. I picked up some prints, a couple of commissions, and a copy of "Spatial Anomalies" - a comic by K-9/ArtMutt, that I highly recommend you pick up if you can (*cough* by going here - https://www.fenrispublishing.com/order.php *cough*).

Later in the evening, I headed for the board game room to meet AethanBear, his husband, and a few friends of theirs, all of whom were spiffing fellows and who seemed to enjoy my Welsh cakes. We talked for a good while until it was time for him to head to the "Convention Horror Stories" panel (which I now regret not attending myself). I instead used the time to seek out a light dinner, have a couple of drinks, and chat with JoeBear for a while, before heading to bed.

Hope you enjoy!