obliviousally (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
obliviousally) wrote2024-07-09 01:44 pm
obliviousally) wrote2024-07-09 01:44 pm
stuff and THE BIG ANTHROCON RECAP
holy shit was anthrocon a good, chaotic time. this was our first year helping out on staff and it was a pretty good time!! also the longest we've stayed (wed-mon)!
before wednesday, i worked two days with andrew for some final extra cash. i took off from, like, the 29th (our wedding anniversary) to, uhhhh, today (the 9th), so i didn't really have any downtime between work and the con lol
i had finished packing up the night before and loaded everything into the car wednesday morning. our goal was to leave around 12-1, since tony's roomies (we were rooming separately b/c initially we weren't sure if we were both going, so tony was gonna room with friends cajun and kess) were gonna be in around 4. my roomies were in on tuesday or early wednesday b/c talyn is ops director and has a shitton of stuff to do anyhow
we planned to take state roads until PA and then, like, get on the turnpike or the highway since tony would PROBABLY have acclimated to the drive by then (he's been sketchy/stressed by highways since he had his trike accident on the towpath). so we planned on taking our time and getting there when we got there
we took a detour to east liverpool b/c there was a joann's there and we wanted to grab something for some casual cosplay we had packed. so we headed out that way and before getting to the area, the check engine light came on (the tire pressure monito sensor had come on earlier, this is not uncommon, the element is real touchy about these specific sensors and a lot of owners just outright remove them b/c of this). but the car was running normally, wasn't overheating, nothing sounded or was acting weird otherwise. so we pull into an autozone and get them to run code on it - something about it overtiming (the paper is in the car lol) and were were like 'well, she's acting normal in all other ways, could it possibly be all these hills and twisty roads?' and the guy was like 'well, possibly???' so we trusted what we know about the car and how she was running
we stopped at joann's and figured we'd let her rest a little while. found the fabric we needed. stopped at the get go in the plaza and filled the tank up and, boom, check engine light gone! she was being a drama queen, basically
we got down through shippingport (which has a nuclear reactor! - specifically a pressurized water reactor - it was pretty cool, we could see it as we came down into the town from real far away)
taken by an intersection on the north side of the ohio river from the power station
we were gonna take river rd/ohio river blvd down into pittsburgh, since it looked pretty manageable for tony, but we missed a turn at a fucky intersection and ended up going through aliquippa and had to detour down a BARELY TWO LANE HOLLER ROAD called ewing hill road with no barriers and twisty curvy and slanted and another car came a little too quickly around the corner at us and we were very glad the element is compact
nightmares
we then, later, had to cross the ambridge-aliquippa bridge and tony almost had a panic attack with those two back to back and we pulled off for a little bit right when we got off the bridge
but once we got on the boulevard it wasn't so bad aside from a little traffic and i think we got turned around once taking the wrong turn. but otherwise it was primarily north north shore residential and city streets before we got to the yellow bridges which were a cakewalk in comparison
messaged talyn and asked if he'd at least keep an eye on our stuff at the westin (tony's hotel was across the street at the courtyard, so i was gonna ferry stuff over later) and he just took it up to the room instead which i was eternally grateful for. had to circle around the parking garage behind the westin twice b/c we were unsure of the correct entrance but once we parked and had a moment to catch our breath, we were happy to have finally arrived!!
in my room, i was staying with talyn, one of talyn's old friends jaymee (tho i think she went by another name) and her kid, cat (kat? badge name was 'knyght' which was purposely butchered lol). tony got on with them REAL quick, which was great to see. i barely had a braincell to work with lol
but we had a nice corner suite at the westin with a fold out couch, so it was like i had my own little room
when we took stuff over to the courtyard with tony, he was crashing with our old friend cajun, his partner kess, and, mabs! (remember all those early web furry website rating buttons? they made them!). we also popped down to the waterfront with cajun to bullshit for a little bit and decompress from the drive
eventually, we dispersed to our hotels and crashed for the night
what the fuck even happened on thursday
tony and i got up and grabbed breakfast buffet (okay for a tenner each) at the drury
we went and grabbed our badges, got our staff swag (mug, t-shirts), discovered the envelope with our badges had drink coasters, coupons for food in the convention center (it wasn't great, but it was free!), and for pizza parma ('furryland'). i had a shift in ops at 11, and tony had a DD shift at 12, so we parted ways for a couple hours
con ops behind the scenes isn't a whole lot different than being at the library lol - i did a LOT of volunteer ops shifts and it felt SO much like the summer reading program that i had things down to a fine art real quickly
thursday was the only day i got to draw a bit on my ipad lololol a lesson learned
did not get to see the fireworks, tho!! but got some nice city pictures
it rained almost right on the dot at 9PM and i was so thankful i was inside at the time! sad to miss the fireworks, but we did see a couple shot off elsewhere in the city before the rain started, at least
after our shifts, we stopped at the liquor store and they HAD MY BANANAS BOOZE!!!!! then went back to the westin and drank a little with roommates and tony got did a tarot spread with jaymee and i went and grabbed pizza and then i think we wandered around a bit??? like i said, thursday was so far away from today lol
more work! i acquired a free rock!
generally busy day, we got to browse the dealer's room briefly iirc, and popped into the macro/micro meet briefly and ran into a couple folks we know and that tony knows!
a couple fursuiter pics!
opossum unknown | DracesLW | FionaMaray
tony finally met joaquin baldwin and got a signed copy of the wolf of withervale and went to the panel later on and got photos in the mask joaquin got made!
that evening we went to the art show artists and dealers reception and had good snackies and fruit. we did very casual genderswapped drifteris cosplay as 'dress up' and then went and took some photos...............
some little detail shots
a series of unfortunate events
some single drifter shots that are okay but the lighting was tough to get what i wanted
we're sweaty and hot in most of these b/c it was hella hot in pgh all weekend, but they were fun!!! literally taken in the alleyway directly across from the westin next to where the kwik-e mart used to be lol i propped my phone on a dumpster and set the timer on it and we played it by ear
it was disconcerting how many times i caught my reflection and thought 'goddamnit this is shocking accurate for both what i think drifter would wear as a broad and also how my mental image came together' dflkghdlfkghdlkf
a beautiful morning
![](https://i.postimg.cc/nVjLpY4F/image.png"")
i acquired a fucking gigantic frozen s'mores coffee before my shift
fursuit parade day! i wore jokull b/c i'm still procrastinating on making my suit b/c i'm lazy
lineup for the parade was a mess - the way the parade route was reserved inside the dlcc, and then people grabbing their spots along the route meant that there was a bit of bottleneck getting to hall C, since it was at the far end of the dealer's room (we used to line up in hall A, but that's being used for dealer's now!). the line into hall C got cut off just a couple people before us b/c of capacity/fire marshall, but it ended up working out b/c they merged us a bit at a time into the parade as it began, so we were pretty close to the beginning and didn't have to wait forever to get going
when we got to the end room (whatever the vaxx check hall was last year, near west lobby) we de-suited and got some water and headed back to the westin and discovered that tony dropped his wallet. so i ran back down (badgeless!! completely forgot it) and retraced our steps/checked in the parade ending hall and eventually checked with con store b/c they could check the lost and found sheet and someone had returned it to con ops with everything in tact!!
THE PARADE WAS TWO HOURS LONG
i had to pop down to the block party to drop off some badges and each time it was just STILL GOING i was in disbelief tbh 3k+ suiters! i didn't get to do much of the block party, but that's okay
afterwards, we both had time free before late afternoon/evening shifts, so we hit up the dealer's room a little. after that, we went to the pup meet and greet panel! we took jaymee along with it b/c she'd never been to a pup event (tho she's familiar with leather/kink in general). tony moshed a bit and then socialized
pubby | tony with daddycharlieee
afterwards we poked into the dance for a little bit, but then headed back up to the room to decompress (tony started crashing in my bed at some point during the weekend - i think it was saturday night - b/c the only time we really got to chill out and spend time together was at night!)
so usually we're leaving the con on sunday, but BECAUSE WE WORK NOW, we were working lol
stopped at sbux for food and a frappe and doodled on their sticker paper, spotted tony busting ass during dealer's teardown
we DID make it to the ohiofurs meet panel, though! which was HUGE and very cool to see so many folks. i handed out meet brochures and stickers and a couple remaining fursonapins cardinals (i have a secret-y little surprise for folks once i get an update............... :3c) and socialized a little bit with folks who knew OF me but had never met me b/c i'm just lazy about going to meets or have other things happening (job, d&d, etc lol)
but it's so great to see the community thriving and seeing something i help with explode in population like it has
tony + i almost hidden lol
later, we went to the staff dinner up on the roof! food was VERY good - i think i had two of those flourless chocolate cake things lol and there was some very good herb chicken and mustard pork
we turned in a bit early, just to get some pre-packing done and condense our stuff (grabbed the rest of tony's things from the courtyard) so we could easily load the car on monday morning (tal had a 2pm checkout, thankfully lol)
LORDY WE SURVIVED
woke up earlier than i really wanted, but got a quick bath and then started dragging things over to the parking garage (i had to walk around the entire thing b/c i didn't realize it was split in two and couldn't get to our spot from the front entrance closest to the westin lol). came back, went and got free breakfast pizza at pizza parma, then walked over and hit up eide's and acquired!!!
Pacific Rim Man Machines & Monsters
Star Trek Blueprints
Monsters in the Movies: 100 Years of Cinematic Nightmares
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures (1989 series) #34
Revell-Monogram Pro-Modeler The Relic Kothoga Vinyl
NECA Pacific Rim Ultra Deluxe Kaiju Otachi Flying Version
all for REALLY good prices, too! if you're in pgh and have never been to eide's, GO. it's such a cool place
we then decided to grab the car since we were across the street from the parking garage and find a spot in front of the westin to load in our stuff - i figured it was close enough to noon that most folks would already be filed out (b/c i am the kind of person that loads things out early if possible) and it was just chaos lol - we grabbed a spot to wait and load out, but there was so much congested traffic it took awhile for us to be able to get back around the pull thru and out to the road
then, we traversed up through the north shore and GOT ON THE HIGHWAY!!! big step for tony, but after wednesday's nightmare, it was worth the risk for him - and it was easy peasy! took 379 up to 79 and then onto the turnpike/76 and 76 all the way home. we hit a little road work, but it wasn't too bad overall. tony said he definitely felt like once he was on the highway it felt more familiar
we stopped at meijer to get some groceries b/c we knew we were LOW on stuff before we left for for the con. i briefly misplaced my phone/wallet in a cart and spent about 20~ minutes retracing my steps and digging thru bags before my second third trip into the building and found out someone returned it to the customer service desk!
came home, hung out with my mom for a little bit (she stayed and house/pet sit for us!) and unpacked a little before she departed back to warren and since then i've been trying to rest/chill out lol
definitely feeling more human after a nap today (so glad i took today off) and glad that i have two evening shifts in a row this week and then off for friday
as for negative things about the con? i have some Opinions™ (especially regarding the way i saw someone on dealer's staff BARKING orders at other staff) on stuff and general suggestions, but those are getting saved for the post-con survey. it's primarily a lot of 'could this be done differently?' and 'disregard if you've tried this, but...'
but those are back end things! the con itself, for me and tony, was pretty great. we'll learn how to manage our time better next year to hit up stuff we want and still put in good staff hours, but the stuff that i missed out on this year isn't too painful haha
but looking forward to returning next year!
i ended up coming home with a lot more stuff than i expected!
this is just stuff that i bought, traded, or was gifted to me by friends! there's a whole bunch of freebie stickers and things we acquired throughout the weekend, as well, but i don't have a table big enough for EVERYTHING. animal art crimes had a box to drop stuff in and take a free sticker, so i put a handful of zines in. also got to see divi again! and finally met katusedcharm!
zines i traded for!
animorphs zines, werewolves of austin - https://www.liamgarnerportfolio.com/
two bite comics - https://whatatinybug.storenvy.com/
gender is so fake, sketchbook - https://catboyriot.net/#books
lauren ipsum - https://laurenipsum.thecomicstrip.org/
cryptids - https://korybing.com/
goals for next year: zine trading panel, destiny furs meetup!
a very happy finn, happy that we are home
before wednesday, i worked two days with andrew for some final extra cash. i took off from, like, the 29th (our wedding anniversary) to, uhhhh, today (the 9th), so i didn't really have any downtime between work and the con lol
WEDNESDAY
i had finished packing up the night before and loaded everything into the car wednesday morning. our goal was to leave around 12-1, since tony's roomies (we were rooming separately b/c initially we weren't sure if we were both going, so tony was gonna room with friends cajun and kess) were gonna be in around 4. my roomies were in on tuesday or early wednesday b/c talyn is ops director and has a shitton of stuff to do anyhow
we planned to take state roads until PA and then, like, get on the turnpike or the highway since tony would PROBABLY have acclimated to the drive by then (he's been sketchy/stressed by highways since he had his trike accident on the towpath). so we planned on taking our time and getting there when we got there
we took a detour to east liverpool b/c there was a joann's there and we wanted to grab something for some casual cosplay we had packed. so we headed out that way and before getting to the area, the check engine light came on (the tire pressure monito sensor had come on earlier, this is not uncommon, the element is real touchy about these specific sensors and a lot of owners just outright remove them b/c of this). but the car was running normally, wasn't overheating, nothing sounded or was acting weird otherwise. so we pull into an autozone and get them to run code on it - something about it overtiming (the paper is in the car lol) and were were like 'well, she's acting normal in all other ways, could it possibly be all these hills and twisty roads?' and the guy was like 'well, possibly???' so we trusted what we know about the car and how she was running
we stopped at joann's and figured we'd let her rest a little while. found the fabric we needed. stopped at the get go in the plaza and filled the tank up and, boom, check engine light gone! she was being a drama queen, basically
we got down through shippingport (which has a nuclear reactor! - specifically a pressurized water reactor - it was pretty cool, we could see it as we came down into the town from real far away)
taken by an intersection on the north side of the ohio river from the power station
we were gonna take river rd/ohio river blvd down into pittsburgh, since it looked pretty manageable for tony, but we missed a turn at a fucky intersection and ended up going through aliquippa and had to detour down a BARELY TWO LANE HOLLER ROAD called ewing hill road with no barriers and twisty curvy and slanted and another car came a little too quickly around the corner at us and we were very glad the element is compact
nightmares
we then, later, had to cross the ambridge-aliquippa bridge and tony almost had a panic attack with those two back to back and we pulled off for a little bit right when we got off the bridge
but once we got on the boulevard it wasn't so bad aside from a little traffic and i think we got turned around once taking the wrong turn. but otherwise it was primarily north north shore residential and city streets before we got to the yellow bridges which were a cakewalk in comparison
messaged talyn and asked if he'd at least keep an eye on our stuff at the westin (tony's hotel was across the street at the courtyard, so i was gonna ferry stuff over later) and he just took it up to the room instead which i was eternally grateful for. had to circle around the parking garage behind the westin twice b/c we were unsure of the correct entrance but once we parked and had a moment to catch our breath, we were happy to have finally arrived!!
in my room, i was staying with talyn, one of talyn's old friends jaymee (tho i think she went by another name) and her kid, cat (kat? badge name was 'knyght' which was purposely butchered lol). tony got on with them REAL quick, which was great to see. i barely had a braincell to work with lol
but we had a nice corner suite at the westin with a fold out couch, so it was like i had my own little room
when we took stuff over to the courtyard with tony, he was crashing with our old friend cajun, his partner kess, and, mabs! (remember all those early web furry website rating buttons? they made them!). we also popped down to the waterfront with cajun to bullshit for a little bit and decompress from the drive
eventually, we dispersed to our hotels and crashed for the night
THURSDAY
what the fuck even happened on thursday
tony and i got up and grabbed breakfast buffet (okay for a tenner each) at the drury
we went and grabbed our badges, got our staff swag (mug, t-shirts), discovered the envelope with our badges had drink coasters, coupons for food in the convention center (it wasn't great, but it was free!), and for pizza parma ('furryland'). i had a shift in ops at 11, and tony had a DD shift at 12, so we parted ways for a couple hours
con ops behind the scenes isn't a whole lot different than being at the library lol - i did a LOT of volunteer ops shifts and it felt SO much like the summer reading program that i had things down to a fine art real quickly
thursday was the only day i got to draw a bit on my ipad lololol a lesson learned
did not get to see the fireworks, tho!! but got some nice city pictures
it rained almost right on the dot at 9PM and i was so thankful i was inside at the time! sad to miss the fireworks, but we did see a couple shot off elsewhere in the city before the rain started, at least
after our shifts, we stopped at the liquor store and they HAD MY BANANAS BOOZE!!!!! then went back to the westin and drank a little with roommates and tony got did a tarot spread with jaymee and i went and grabbed pizza and then i think we wandered around a bit??? like i said, thursday was so far away from today lol
FRIDAY
more work! i acquired a free rock!
generally busy day, we got to browse the dealer's room briefly iirc, and popped into the macro/micro meet briefly and ran into a couple folks we know and that tony knows!
a couple fursuiter pics!
opossum unknown | DracesLW | FionaMaray
tony finally met joaquin baldwin and got a signed copy of the wolf of withervale and went to the panel later on and got photos in the mask joaquin got made!
that evening we went to the art show artists and dealers reception and had good snackies and fruit. we did very casual genderswapped drifteris cosplay as 'dress up' and then went and took some photos...............
some little detail shots
a series of unfortunate events
some single drifter shots that are okay but the lighting was tough to get what i wanted
we're sweaty and hot in most of these b/c it was hella hot in pgh all weekend, but they were fun!!! literally taken in the alleyway directly across from the westin next to where the kwik-e mart used to be lol i propped my phone on a dumpster and set the timer on it and we played it by ear
it was disconcerting how many times i caught my reflection and thought 'goddamnit this is shocking accurate for both what i think drifter would wear as a broad and also how my mental image came together' dflkghdlfkghdlkf
SATURDAY
a beautiful morning
i acquired a fucking gigantic frozen s'mores coffee before my shift
fursuit parade day! i wore jokull b/c i'm still procrastinating on making my suit b/c i'm lazy
lineup for the parade was a mess - the way the parade route was reserved inside the dlcc, and then people grabbing their spots along the route meant that there was a bit of bottleneck getting to hall C, since it was at the far end of the dealer's room (we used to line up in hall A, but that's being used for dealer's now!). the line into hall C got cut off just a couple people before us b/c of capacity/fire marshall, but it ended up working out b/c they merged us a bit at a time into the parade as it began, so we were pretty close to the beginning and didn't have to wait forever to get going
when we got to the end room (whatever the vaxx check hall was last year, near west lobby) we de-suited and got some water and headed back to the westin and discovered that tony dropped his wallet. so i ran back down (badgeless!! completely forgot it) and retraced our steps/checked in the parade ending hall and eventually checked with con store b/c they could check the lost and found sheet and someone had returned it to con ops with everything in tact!!
THE PARADE WAS TWO HOURS LONG
i had to pop down to the block party to drop off some badges and each time it was just STILL GOING i was in disbelief tbh 3k+ suiters! i didn't get to do much of the block party, but that's okay
afterwards, we both had time free before late afternoon/evening shifts, so we hit up the dealer's room a little. after that, we went to the pup meet and greet panel! we took jaymee along with it b/c she'd never been to a pup event (tho she's familiar with leather/kink in general). tony moshed a bit and then socialized
pubby | tony with daddycharlieee
afterwards we poked into the dance for a little bit, but then headed back up to the room to decompress (tony started crashing in my bed at some point during the weekend - i think it was saturday night - b/c the only time we really got to chill out and spend time together was at night!)
SUNDAY
so usually we're leaving the con on sunday, but BECAUSE WE WORK NOW, we were working lol
stopped at sbux for food and a frappe and doodled on their sticker paper, spotted tony busting ass during dealer's teardown
we DID make it to the ohiofurs meet panel, though! which was HUGE and very cool to see so many folks. i handed out meet brochures and stickers and a couple remaining fursonapins cardinals (i have a secret-y little surprise for folks once i get an update............... :3c) and socialized a little bit with folks who knew OF me but had never met me b/c i'm just lazy about going to meets or have other things happening (job, d&d, etc lol)
but it's so great to see the community thriving and seeing something i help with explode in population like it has
tony + i almost hidden lol
later, we went to the staff dinner up on the roof! food was VERY good - i think i had two of those flourless chocolate cake things lol and there was some very good herb chicken and mustard pork
we turned in a bit early, just to get some pre-packing done and condense our stuff (grabbed the rest of tony's things from the courtyard) so we could easily load the car on monday morning (tal had a 2pm checkout, thankfully lol)
MONDAY
LORDY WE SURVIVED
woke up earlier than i really wanted, but got a quick bath and then started dragging things over to the parking garage (i had to walk around the entire thing b/c i didn't realize it was split in two and couldn't get to our spot from the front entrance closest to the westin lol). came back, went and got free breakfast pizza at pizza parma, then walked over and hit up eide's and acquired!!!
Pacific Rim Man Machines & Monsters
Star Trek Blueprints
Monsters in the Movies: 100 Years of Cinematic Nightmares
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures (1989 series) #34
Revell-Monogram Pro-Modeler The Relic Kothoga Vinyl
NECA Pacific Rim Ultra Deluxe Kaiju Otachi Flying Version
all for REALLY good prices, too! if you're in pgh and have never been to eide's, GO. it's such a cool place
we then decided to grab the car since we were across the street from the parking garage and find a spot in front of the westin to load in our stuff - i figured it was close enough to noon that most folks would already be filed out (b/c i am the kind of person that loads things out early if possible) and it was just chaos lol - we grabbed a spot to wait and load out, but there was so much congested traffic it took awhile for us to be able to get back around the pull thru and out to the road
then, we traversed up through the north shore and GOT ON THE HIGHWAY!!! big step for tony, but after wednesday's nightmare, it was worth the risk for him - and it was easy peasy! took 379 up to 79 and then onto the turnpike/76 and 76 all the way home. we hit a little road work, but it wasn't too bad overall. tony said he definitely felt like once he was on the highway it felt more familiar
we stopped at meijer to get some groceries b/c we knew we were LOW on stuff before we left for for the con. i briefly misplaced my phone/wallet in a cart and spent about 20~ minutes retracing my steps and digging thru bags before my second third trip into the building and found out someone returned it to the customer service desk!
came home, hung out with my mom for a little bit (she stayed and house/pet sit for us!) and unpacked a little before she departed back to warren and since then i've been trying to rest/chill out lol
definitely feeling more human after a nap today (so glad i took today off) and glad that i have two evening shifts in a row this week and then off for friday
as for negative things about the con? i have some Opinions™ (especially regarding the way i saw someone on dealer's staff BARKING orders at other staff) on stuff and general suggestions, but those are getting saved for the post-con survey. it's primarily a lot of 'could this be done differently?' and 'disregard if you've tried this, but...'
but those are back end things! the con itself, for me and tony, was pretty great. we'll learn how to manage our time better next year to hit up stuff we want and still put in good staff hours, but the stuff that i missed out on this year isn't too painful haha
but looking forward to returning next year!
i ended up coming home with a lot more stuff than i expected!
this is just stuff that i bought, traded, or was gifted to me by friends! there's a whole bunch of freebie stickers and things we acquired throughout the weekend, as well, but i don't have a table big enough for EVERYTHING. animal art crimes had a box to drop stuff in and take a free sticker, so i put a handful of zines in. also got to see divi again! and finally met katusedcharm!
zines i traded for!
animorphs zines, werewolves of austin - https://www.liamgarnerportfolio.com/
two bite comics - https://whatatinybug.storenvy.com/
gender is so fake, sketchbook - https://catboyriot.net/#books
lauren ipsum - https://laurenipsum.thecomicstrip.org/
cryptids - https://korybing.com/
goals for next year: zine trading panel, destiny furs meetup!
a very happy finn, happy that we are home