SlyCat's Journal

Monday is officially the last day of the con, but to be honest, for most it's the day people leave. For this reason, I made sure I had something else to do other than sit around in the hotel watching people leave, getting upset. As such, after helping Arakin pack up and check out (after moving my stuff up to room 558), arakinuk, badgerguy, lycrawolf and I went off to California's "Great" Mall. I put the great in quote marks because it's called The Great Mall, but to be honest, I found it somewhat underwelming. Not as big as they'd like to make you think, nor are there really any decent shops that I wanted to visit. We did go to Hot Topic, a place I like to make sure I go to when in America to pick up funky t-shirts but even they didn't have anything on offer which inspired me so I left the mall somewhat disappointed I couldn't find anything to spend my money on other than Arby's... which was less than fantastic (the food court offerings were also a bit crappy). Ah well, maybe go to the other mall next year, if I go to FC that is.

After coming back from the mall, I hung out with avon_deer and alohawolf near the bar chatting, waiting for the Dead Dog Party to get going. Ended up having a meal in the hotel restaurant (not the posh one) and had a half pounder which I couldn't finish due to being so big and me having Arby's earlier. Then went to join the Dead Dog Part as it had finally gotten going. To start off with, I was feeling a bit weird having been shivering while still wearing my hoodie inside but then felt rather warm so wasn't so keen on fursuiting, however after Arakin had got dressed up and I saw all the suiters there, I thought I couldn't pass up the last oppertunity to suit up at the con and so dragged Arakin back to my room to help me suit up (after having much grief getting my contacts in). I'm very glad I did suit up as I had a lot of fun dancing about, met a lot of folks and just had a great time. Stayed until the dance wrapped up at 11pm.

Now the convention has officially wrapped, I can't help feeling I should have done more. I spent a lot of time, well too much time in the hotel room when I could have been down in the lobby meeting random people. Of course my time old problem is that I can't just talk random people, I have to be introduced as I can be a bit shy. I would have liked to suit up more but I think I'll need to get a new revision of my suit or a new suit altogether if I want to suit more. This is mostly due to the deign of the head. Externally, it looks great but interall, there's a big chunk of foam in the mouth and a bit of material over the lip which is loose which is very annoying when sweaty. I'd like the muzzle to be hollow to increase air fow, but that's the downside of the way my head was designed, based on a balaclava. Well we'll see, I've lots of debts to pay off before gettng another sut...

Anyway, I really enjoyed myself, met some great new people and am sad to be going. Next con will be EF. Still uncertain if I will be going to FC09, but I enjoyed it more than AC so it's a maybe at this point in time.

Today, I'll be getting picked up by Arakin and have a bit of a touristy day in San Jose before I have to get my flight back down to Bob Hope/Burbank at 6pm to meet up with Hunterkitty again. Was a real shame he couldn't make the con. Tomorrow, I need to figure out what I'm to do with my day if Hunter can't get the time off work, although I have made arrangements to meet up with Stego and Kat tomorrow evening. Nothing planned for the time on Thursday before my evening flight either so will need to work something out...

Yesterday, I finally got round to fursuiting and I felt much better for it. Thanks to lycrawolf I was able to get a suitable undersuit for the fursuit which meant no soggy t-shirts to worry about. I got suited around 2pm for the parade which as always took forever to get going (it was scheduled for 2:30 but seemed to be at least 3pm when it started. Lots of photos were taken so I hope to see those online later. The end of the parade seemed to be somewhat disorganised as I figure people were expecting a group photo but it never happened and people just seemed to randomly disperse. I followed some people but when I realised they were just going to the elevator, I circled back and joined the queue for fursuit badges before chilling out in the headless lounge before going back to the room. Allegedly the parade was in excess of 380 participants which would break the record set at AC of 353. I'm proud to be part of both :)

Elsewhere during the day, I also got a new badge made by an artist going by the name of Balto (I think) who did great toony stuff. Was good to get another badge as I couldn't find any of my old ones when I was packing at home other than the one done by Spunky which was only a pencil sketch, done at AC. Joined arakinuk and emejn for dinner at Denny's before helping Arakin pick up a box of Brawndo (The Thirst Mutilator) soda which had been delivered.

As the evening progressed, I tried to mingle in the second floor parties but kinda failed, and so I went to see what was going on at the official dance but wasn't so fussed by that either so I did end up going back to my room on my own and effectively feeling sorry for myself. I was no longer feeling jetlagged, just demotivated... Then Stego came in and gave me the pep talk I needed to get suited and join the dance at around midnight. Had fun dancing away until I burned myself out needing to chill out in the headless lounge. I went out for a bit more but realised I was totally exhausted and so made the trip back to my room, only to ind I was locked out. Not because I had forgotten my key, but because the room was "in use" and the latch had been moved over so the door wouldn't open. I was still in fursuit at this stage, physically exhausted, dripping with sweat. One of the residents of next door arrived and saw I was stuck outside so took me into his room and offered a seat and a chat which was nice. This was until I heard Grant, one of my roomies also trying to get in. About 5-10 mins later we were able to get in and I was able to get my shower before collapsing on the bed and sleeping until around 9am. Some time during the night, another bed had appeared in the room, which I presume was to allow Grant to sleep as it was his bed which was in use but Grant had fallen asleep in the armchair until morning so never used it :P.

So far, totally managed to avoid any kind of con-crud. Must be due to eating regular meals and getting a decent amount of sleep. Today, assuming the weather holds off, I'll be watching the Critterlympics at 1pm and also Furry Night Live. My roomies Stego, Grant and Vircoo are leaving around 6pm so I'll have the room to myself for the night and then I got a whole lot of nothing to do tomorrow before Tuesday when I'll be hanging out with Arakin before getting the flight back to Burbank to be reunited with Hunterkitty.

Took the flight up to San Jose at noon from Burbank/Bob Hpe Airport after having a crappy breakfast from Carl's Jr and saying goodbye to my host hunterkitty. The flight was pretty quick and problem free, as was the shuttle bus to the Doubletree hotel. Bumped into lycrawolf and arakinuk while checking in. Joined the impossibly massive queue for registration which was delayed an hour. I moved to the sponsor line to get registered quicker and upgrade my registration but once I got to the front they said hey had no means of taking my mone so effectively, I just got registered before everyone else. After that, just spent time loitering about saying hi to people I reckognised before going out o Denny's with Arakin and some friends of his. Now, I'm back in my room, vircoo's just arrived and stego_s_aurus will be arriving imminently. I feel really knackered however so will be planning to sleep soon. Laters!