stuff and furrest city recap!

[wheeze]

WE HAD OUR SECOND YEAR OF FURREST CITY FUR CON THIS YEAR AND HAD 591 ATTENDEES!!!!!!!!

which is a 3x increase from last year, where we had just under 200 attendees! we were in a much smaller space last year and really had to limit the bodies in that space, but between general convention promo, anthrohio shifting their picnic so we didn't both fall on the same day like last year, all the meets throughout the year furrest city does in cleveland, etc., etc., it's no surprise our numbers jumped so drastically!

we were held at cleveland state student center, right near playhouse square, so the theme was broadway or-- ~on pawdway~

i rode up to cleveland with delusionaldeer (and their friend who's name i don't remember now), since my original ride (kovrick) had a schedule change that worked out well for him, but i was NOT gonna have him drive down to akron and then back up to cle when he could use that to get an extra hour of sleep (night shifts). drive was nice (chatted a lot), but rainy, and thankfully parking was not too much of a pain

we did a very fun little skit for opening ceremonies where i played a time-traveler from the 1996 confurence east convention (that was held in cleveland!) - i was, coincidentally, dressed pretty period accurate, too lol (wide leg jeans, crop top, flannel lol)

some screencaps from opening ceremonies - video taken by thegothbear

the venue was pretty nice! spacious enough for us to accommodate people well, plus some balconies we were able to use, and the student center was MOSTLY empty all weekend, so folks could hang out on the first floor - also where we did the fursuit photo

downside of the student center was absolutely lame-ass food options (chick-fil-a and sbux and an all-you-can-eat campus place that everyone said was mid at best) with sucky hours (the sbux wasn't even open on saturday!), but there was an indian place everyone raved about cattycorner across the street (i didn't make it over to it all weekend lol), a subway in the other direction, and some other food places scattered around within, like, a 10min walking distance, so it wasn't too bad to find something to put in your belly.

the cleveland weather fought with us a bit - it was forecast to be rainy, so we did end up nixing the outside walks (at the advice of our weather skunk, mezo) and the fursuit parade, but around the time they were scheduled, the weather would let up and it was mainly just cloudy! something, something, if you don't like the weather just wait five minutes

i spent a lot of time just zipping around and being out on the con floor and catching up with people and yapping and stuff (ESPECIALLY about world of darkness and some destiny stuff with satre!!!!). we established con ops this year, so kezl and i swapped out as needed with that. i threw a lot of little notes in my keep for stuff for next year for con ops to possibly have on hand - fursuit repair supplies, pads/tampons (there were NONE in any of the restrooms in the student center OR the one nearby hall i went looking thru!!), folders or something for paperwork (volunteer forms, incident reports, minor forms, etc.). easy things to acquire throughout the year that aren't pricey, as well

i also finally got to meet and chat with ajahli and devillo!! we've been following each other online for awhile now and have chit-chatted between bsky and discord and stuff before, but haven't crossed paths in person. ajahli showed off their sketchbook to me and i gushed over it - everything she draws is so cute and i love the way they do kinda collage-y/scrapbooky kind of vibes. it was so nice to yap with her lol

at some point saturday there was discussion about getting smoothies, which was axed b/c i went to check pulp's website to see what they had and discovered they CLOSED AT THREE PM????? and it was, like, 6pm when we were closing up reg, so that was a no-go. HOWEVER, there's a ben & jerry's right down the road, so we made the little trek there and i got a delicious honey graham latte scoop and i wish they sold this in pints b/c it's SO good

saturday night i crashed at socks + buzz's place (iirc lol names are hard sometime) on a super cozy couch and got to meet and play with their ratties for a bit!

i didn't go to hardly any panels, but on sunday i DID go to recess (run by staticprisms and halfofacat or y2kute) and had a BLAST playing parachute games with folks

we DID make it to pulp (before 3pm lolol) on sunday and i got a pumpkin pie thing (pulp pumpkin blend, new coco whip, soy milk, yogurt, and bananas), which was ALSO delicious lol

i didn't buy too much, but i got a lot of stickers and a zine trade (and left a lot of zines and stickers around!) plus two plushes from mint (BAB ocicat kitty and folkmanis ant glove puppet)! - my big purchase was the 'squeak-o-ween' possum from zero remnants and i snagged a patch and sticker from deartigerco. thankfully for my wallet there wasn't anything aside from the possum i desperately needed to come home with me - but the vendor selection was A+ again this year and the room was always bustling when i popped in

before kovrick and i left for the evening, we popped in the dead dog dance and ke$ha pulled me onto the floor and then, as we were heading out of the dance, i heard the beginning to 'shake it off' and taylor pulled me back in from the hallway lol. feral about pop being played at furcons b/c it's so fun to dance to and sing, but so many furries want techno of some variety instead [insert eyeroll emoji here lol]

before we left cleveland, we hit up barrio nearby (i hadn't been) and i had a very good taco bowl and queso and salsa and we ended up being there longer than expected b/c kovrick's second taco never arrived??? and then the kitchen took FOREVER to make another??? AND THEN WHEN I LOOKED IN MY TAKEOUT BAG (got stuff for tony) IT WAS IN WITH MY SIDES??????????????????? so now i have a shawarma taco to eat lolol

but, yeah, the con was good. i had a lot of people come up to me to thank me for the work i do with the ohiofurs social media/meets calendar, to ask me about zine stuff, to just be like 'hey i appreciate what you do and i like seeing you around online it's great to finally meet you', which just feels good, y'know? it feels good to be part of a community

my ONLY weekend gripe was that i bounced over to koko bakery (the asian bakery in asiatown, which was SUPER close) TWICE over the weekend and they were WIPED OUT of buns and pastries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i got two buns on saturday and stopped at tink holl and got some other snackies (salted vanilla pocky, spicy shrimp chips, chicken & herb pretz, scallop soy sauce pretz) and on sunday i got a whole THREE buns, but stopped at park-to-shop and got some other stuff (pumpkin pie pocky, peppermint pocky, my beloved sponge cake with the thin layer of butter in the middle, etc). so i was pretty bummed about not being able to bring home a big bag of buns from koko's. but i also went at weird times, which didn't help the situation lol

and, finally, a couple pics from my outings