Friday, August 24th, 2007
The first day of magic...after we were all ready and had our suits packed, my best friend Samantha, my mom, and I were ready to drive to Sea Tac for RainFurrest '07. Our first fur con. I had very mixed emotions.
I was immensley excited. It seemed unreal. I thought I'd have to wait much longer for a con. I was also nervous, though I'm not sure why.
The drive was uneventful. Samantha listened to her iPod. I just sat. When we were almost to Sea Tac, we were almost hit by another car. But after that moment of terror, and after driving around a bit, we arrived at the Holiday Inn, RainFurrest's hotel.
As soon as we entered the parking lot, I noticed a few guys smoking outside wearing tails. "They have tails on!" Samantha said, entertained and obviously as amazed as I was that we were actually going to be around tons of furries and have a weekend of pure furry fandom fun.
Upon entering, my worries of being unable to find registration vanished. There was a huge line of people, some wearing tails. One man held a radio playing (furry?) music. The hall was scattered with furries sitting on the sides, most with tails. Dennis the Tiger, a staff member, decided that since Samantha and I pre-registered but my mom didn't, we should stick together in the at-the-door reg line. After registration was the opening ceremonies.
At first Samantha and I were nervous to go in. But someone inside saw us and, smiling, beckoned us in. That small gesture made me instantly realize how truly kind and wonderful this fandom was. Stalking Cat's comment during opening ceremonies, "We're not a fandom, we're a family" made me realize this even more.
We headed down to the Dealer's Den. Monika Livingstone and Calypte weren't quite there yet. The hospitality suite was still setting up a little, so we grabbed some free Cokes and headed to the hotel restaurant. Samantha and Mom enjoyed French dips, while I could hardly eat my cheeseburger because I was too excited. When we'd consumed lunch, it was back to the Dealer's Den, where I bought a Monika Livingstone print, a Calypte print and a Calypte badge. I also got a pawprint henna tattoo.
After that, we went up to the 12th floor in the main ballroom. We found the headless lounge and checked it out before any suiters were in there. We enjoyed the view for awhile. Samantha put on her handpaws and I put on my footpaws. Soon North started the fursuit performance panel. His assistants were Amran, Whitepaws, and Renny, all wonderful suits and great performers. Seeing Amran and Whitepaws was very exciting because their suits are made by LatinVixen, my idol. I was suprised to see Whitepaws because of how recently the suit was made.
At one point, when North was covering how to greet people in suit, North asked, "Whitepaws, how would you greet that person over there, in the blue shirt?" That person happened to be me. It's these little things that make me happy =) After the panel, I got a picture with Amran. Goodness, that is some soft fur on that suit. A picture with a great performer in an LV suit. Yay.
Soon we went to the bathroom to put our fursuits on. I was Neesa Wolf, as pictured in my icon, and Samantha was her fursona Belle. We walked around the Dealer's Den a bit. Calypte showed me my badge before it was laminated. GORGEOUS! Samantha had alot of trouble seeing. We went to the headless lounge.
We went to the Tails and Ears Workshop. It was confusing, so we left to the Dealer's Den again. I got my finished badge of pure awesomeness and a cute, small brown and white wolf tail. Samantha got a massive stuffed fox and a free tiger slinky. Afterwards we got a picture with Stalking Cat and sadly left for the day.
Once back to my house, after a bit of delicious teriyaki and Mountain Dew, it was back to work on Geyser Skunkcat, a new black and pink skunk/cat cross fursuit for Samantha. She did a great job on his mohawk. She decided to make him her fursona. It was alot of hard work and made me tired.
Saturday, August 25th
Not quite as eventful.
I have trouble remembering the details. We got there a bit late and missed some stuff. So there was much waiting.
I'll just seperate it into some nice little categories....
Dealer's Den:
Today I purchased another Monika Livingstone print, two Kitsumi bookmarks, and a large stuffed tiger. Samantha got a Kitsumi magnet. She also bought a tie for her skunksuit.
Events:
Monika Livingstone's panel, to kill time before the fursuit parade. It was interesting, and Monika Livingstone's humor made it quite fun as well.
After awhile we went down to the lobby to change into fursuits. However, I forgot my LatinVixen fursuit bandana waaay back up on the 12th level! After getting that we rushed into suit. As we got there, the parade began to march. We found a place in line and marched around the dealer's den, throught the hallway, past the elevators and outside. 41 suiters! It was fun.
The rest of the day was random suiting and picture-taking. And of course hospitality suite food. On one elevator trip, Amran was in the elevator. So we scritched him, of course. I mean, seriously, when there's an adorable fox-kitty next to you with a pirate outfit on, how can you resist?
The Treats
I'd like to reserve this space to comment on a treat in the hospitality suite. They were rice krispies treats that also had fruity pebbles in them. Those were very delicious.
We ate at Denny's. My chicken was yum.
Later that day...
Originally, my dad found 3 days of con to be "excessive," but we begged him to let us go on Sunday. He took us because we cleaned the laundry room and weeded.
Sunday, August 26th
We got there late due to weeding. Also not quite eventful, but fun. Yaaay for the categories again...
Dealer's Den
Today, I got two Calypte prints, a Kitsumi magnet, and the 2nd issue of Renard's Menagerie. Samantha got a gorgeous badge from Caly.
Events
We went to Fractal's prosthetics panel for awhile. Interesting, but confusing to me. I doubt I'll know how to cast things anytime soon =P
Samantha was not in a fursuiting mood today. So she took me around in suit for awhile.
The Treats
Samantha bought some yummy snacks from the hotel gift shop. An ice cream cookie and a green tea energy drink. YUM!
Afterwards...
Post con depression SUCKS. Ouch. Couldn't think of anything but the con! Samantha refused to remove her fox tail for a few days.
So. I had a fantastic time.
PROS:
- Great staff.
- Easy registration, I was expecting it to be different.
- Nice people.
- Fun, entertaining events.
- Lots of memories and souveniers.
- Overall, unbelievably fun.
- It was in the summer.
CONS:
- Not enough events. Alot of the time we were waiting for something to happen.
- Hotel was slightly small.
- I would have liked a few more events for fursuiters.
WHAT I HOPE FOR NEXT YEAR:
- I hope the con remains in the summer. I can't go if I have school.
- I'll have a sketchbook and reference, so I want more art commissions.
- I'd like to get to know more suiters.
- I'd like more friends to hang out with.
- I want to be in the masquerade.
So, if any fursuiters going to RainFurrest next year come across this post, tell me! I want to get to know more people and suit more often at the next con. I also need ideas for a skit, and people to be in it.
In 2006, the original Seattle-area furry convention, Conifur Northwest, was officially canceled after having run since 1998. Just months earlier, I
had found the furry fandom and roped my school friend Zoe into joining and making shoddy fursuits alongside me. I was certain we'd be able to convince our parents to let us drag them along to the next Conifur, but it wasn’t meant to be. This was a bit devastating to my 10-year-old psyche, as the desire to attend a convention was all-consuming.
