A TripAdvisor.com image of the hotel's lovely atrium.

Tragically, all the photos I took at this con have been lost to time, but my LiveJournal posts remain, as do some pictures and YouTube videos uploaded by other con attendees in which me and Zoe's fursuits can be briefly glimpsed.

As the con approached, I finished up my fursuit, which was a new and improved version of a suit I had created earlier that year. I'd saved money from holidays to commission WhiteyFawks for an unfinished foam headbase, along with eyes and a nose. While my poor furring job did the suit no favors, WhiteyFawks's professional skills certainly made it my most presentable fursuit yet. I wrote in my LiveJournal the day before the con:

I'm going to RainFurrest tomorrow. I'm very excited even though it hasn't fully sunken in yet.
I had my mom help me sew the remaining parts of my suit because there's no way I could have finished in time without going insane (I hate sewing...and costume building in general). I had to redo the arms and hands because I lost them, haha. Also completely redid the footpaws (the old ones were horrible!). That reminds me, I still need to glue the bottoms on the second paw! Glad I remembered that. I'm using some thin, dense black foam I took from the inside of my messenger bag (it's a laptop bag so it's padded to protect laptops, I wanted it less fat). I tested it outside and it holds up well but I'm not planning on suiting outside too much.
I think all the parts turned out pretty good considering how quickly they were built.
I think I'll have around $50-60 to spend at the con. I'm stealing Samantha's wallet to put it all in since she forgot it here. It's a camo pattern...not something I'd pick out if I were buying a wallet...but it'll do (:
I'm interested to see how Zoe will like the con.

Weeks after our day at RainFurrest, I finally wrote up my con report.

Okay, now a RainFurrest report. I probably can't remember everything...I'll try.

Sadly, we were only able to attend RF for one day this year although the original plan was to go all three days, and possibly even get a hotel room. I took Zoe along this year rather than Samantha.

SO. I could not sleep Friday night, of course. My suit was packed up in a large Hickory Farms bag, my messenger bag was full of essential things like my fleece hat, pencils, erasers, my tiny sketchbook (I can't find my big one!), a calculator (I don't know why I brought that), a hairbrush, money in Samantha's wallet (she left it here months ago and never took it back), my iPod, and my conbadges.
After eventually falling asleep, my alarm clock woke me up, informing me that it was indeed Saturday September 27th '08, the day of RF1. I took a shower and got dressed quickly, made sure Sir iPod the Second was charged, gathered my bags, and waited.

Finally Zoe's mom pulled up. I got in the back on her car with my bags and fursuit head (with new taxidermy lower jaw...I love the way it looks with the toony head, it makes it look more like how I draw Zest) and the drive began!
Susan (Zoe's mother) asked some random questions about furry/what to expect/etc. while I listened to my wonderful variety of show tunes and instrumentals. I told Susan I'd willingly pay her to look at the adult section of the art show. Ahaha.
We approached Sea Tac and I began to reminisce about nearly being in a car accident before RF0 when we were driving along the very spot where that unfortunate incident had almost occurred.
Soon we pulled into the parking lot! I'd been to the hotel once before, for my friend's birthday. I was looking forward to being in the hotel again, as I'd had a great time at the birthday party because of the incredible atrium, comfy lobby and amazingly nice staff.

So we entered and found registration easily thanks to the help of a random guy who happened to be standing near the entrance. Thanks, random guy! Registration was a bit of a hassle IMO but Susan didn't seem to think so. I loved the RF balloons in the reg room and how the room had been decorated for the theme.
We were lucky enough to get two of the last three or so wing pins! Those were impressive, I hope they do something like that next year! I loved the conbadge art, it fit the holder better than last year's art did (random observation).
After registering and flipping through the conbooks - hold on, I need to stop the report here real quick and say that my house smells like roasted marshmallows, which is incredibly strange because I'm sure there's not a single marshmallow or campfire in the house - we walked towards the atrium. Susan pointed to a picture in the conbook.

"Is that what I'm going to be seeing in the adult section?"
"Haha, no, you're going to be seeing...genitalia."
"That's what I was afraid of."

We found the main hall with ease because of the amazing hotel exploring skillz I'd acquired during the birthday party. The Dealer's Den was our first stop. Zoe commissioned a hat of her fursona from Taren. Balaa's table was crowded but I insisted on waiting for it to clear up even though Zoe didn't seem too excited about that idea. After awhile we got to look at her art and I noticed commissions were open. I was going to wait to buy anything but I figured those spots would fill up soon and decided to commission a pencil badge.

Next we wandered around a bit before going to the art show. Susan decided not too look at the adult section since she figured it would be worse then she thought (the large black curtain around the adult area -was- a bit intimidating).
There was some incredible art I would have bid on if I was going on Sunday and hadn't spent so much money before the con. One of my favorites was by an artist who drew cats and dragons, I wish I'd taken her business card! The most amazing one was of a cat licking a dragon's face. There was an incredibly detailed gob of saliva on the cat's tongue and individual bits of its fur were blowing towards the dragon. So...much...detail D:
Feeling hungry, we went to the "RainFurrest Cafe" where I dined upon a hot dog that was actually high quality and delicious. Even Zoe, who thinks meat and bread "aren't meant to go together", liked it, though she had a mini pizza.
I guess there was something going on at the hotel having to do with mental illness, or something along those lines? Susan, being a social worker, was interested and talked to a few people briefly including a woman who had just had her children taken away because of her mental illness D:

Then we went to the lobby to people watch and sketch. That went on for quite awhile and was actually very fun. When we were done with that we went to the car to change into our suits! Yaayy. Zoe kept causing suitcases in the trunk to fall out. It's pretty hard to change in a hot car, but I managed. I guess I've grown since I last suited in April, because my suit's legs didn't cover my knees as well. It's fine when I stand up, but when I sit down my knees are exposed. I got my badges on and stood by the car waving to random people while Zoe dried her sudden bloody nose and got her Serenity suit on. After explaining the fandom to some people in a car, we walked into the hotel and suited around the main hall area for awhile, mostly getting lots of pictures taken and even a few complements (:

Zest Wolf and Serenity in the fursuit parade. Photos by furry-k9.livejournal.com
We decided to explore the headless lounge for awhile. We haven't suited much lately and weren't used to the heat. We drank a lot of water and shared a Power Bar. It was fun to watch certain suits come in.

We soon walked towards the lobby and got more pictures on the way. One guy took a picture of us, then began thoroughly complementing the suits. Then he said my Zest suit looked soft and asked if he could pet it. I held my arm out and he started petting the fur and talking about how soft it was. He slowly started pulling me in and then gave me a -massive- hug (I couldn't even breath, which didn't help since I was already a little overheated) and then told me it smelled good too. It was...a bit creepy...

We found my dad in the lobby before the fursuit parade. Susan went to help him get our stuff into his van so she could leave and he could take over. We went to the headless lounge to wait for the parade. It was incredibly crowded, making it hot and stuffy. I really didn't like the fact that people were blowing up that giant hamster ball-thing in the lounge, it took up a lot of room, making it more crowded and uncomfortable.
I did get to admire a lot of good suits up close at that time, though. It seemed to take ages before the parade started. That time was spent sitting in a chair and cooling my hands and head with a fan that smelled of dust. Zoe squeaked my suit's nose which got the head a bit of attention for a minute. I'm glad people enjoyed the squeak feature (:

Finally the parade started and we went near the back of the line. At this point we were INCREDIBLY overheated. Right around where the parade started, that guy from earlier yelled "YOU SMELL GOOD!" when I passed D:

Zest Wolf and Serenity in the fursuit parade. Photos by Slash V Lagopus, from the RainFurrest Flickr.
In the Dealer's Den Caly called to us. Sadly we didn't see her much D:
I forgot to brush up on my fursuit acting skills before the con and sadly I probably didn't look too interesting in the parade. The end of the parade was confusing. There wasn't a specific photoshoot area like last year, everyone was just...standing there. We figured the headless lounge would get crowded so we de-headed in the bathrooms. I had to use paper towels to wipe the sweat off my face, it was pretty disgusting.

After that, Jinx from the CATS Costume Discussion Board (known as Casidhe to the furry fandom) introduced herself. I'd love to have talked more, I was just too overheated to think D:

After changing in my dad's van, I was left with a headache from the heat for the rest of the day. I satisfied my Snickers craving by buying one in the hotel giftshop along with a large bottle of water which I finished within 5 minutes. We drew in The Hangar for awhile and eavesdropped on the people behind us telling inappropriate jokes.
Later we got some Cheetos Puffs and ate them in the lobby. This was fun.
The rest of our day consisted of finding fursuiters to get pictures with and exploring the Dealer's Den. I bought an original sketch by Balaa of an Amur Leopard <3

Eventually...we had to go. Post con depression set in, as did the sadness of knowing we couldn't attend on Sunday as well. Taco Bell burritos healed this slightly.
Upon arriving home we kept our fleece hats on, drew, and stared at my Balaa sketch. I spent some time playing one-person soccer with a wig head before balancing on it and snapping its neck.
Epic time was epic. Hopefully we can go at least two days next year, and maybe get a hotel room.

The Zest and Chalea fleece hats we wore, made by Taren. His hats were ALL the rage at that time!

RainFurrest 2008 Links

- Rainfurrest 2008 Fursuit Parade - Video uploaded by Matrices. View of the fursuit parade emerging from the Dealers' Den. This link leads to the timestamp at which Zoe and I appear.
- Rainfurrest 2008 Fursuit parade - Video uploaded by miniskunk. View from the start of the fursuit parade. This link leads to the timestamp at which Zoe and I appear.
- Rainfurrest 2008 - Fursuit Parade - Video uploaded by Wolever Wuff. View from a hallway midway through the parade. Guess where this link goes?
- Rainfurrest 2008 - Post Parade Photoshoot - Video uploaded by Wolever Wuff. Fursuiters chilling in the atrium area at the end of the parade. Check out Zoe and I standing around looking confused about whether there was gonna be a group photo.
- RainFurrest 2008 Con Report - A detailed report by LiveJournal user bp-python
- RainFurrest Report - Con report by Nicodemus Rat
- Rainfurrest 1 retrospective - Con report by RF fursuit track lead Xodiac