I worked on the stressfully frantic business of making final preparations and packing for the trip, along with finishing up some mail orders and sending a check to my ISP that had been waiting too long. I picked up Chen and brought him back to my house, where we finished up the final packing and left Dayton around 7:30 PM, roughly 2 and a half hours later than I intended to get away. Luckily, this was not the most time-critical part of the trip. I fueled up on the way out, so I wouldn't have to along the way (Price: $1.79 a gallon) We made a quick stop in Columbus along the way, in part for the standard check for new toys (of which none were found) and also to find a cane for Chen, who inadvertently left his behind. Luck was with us, for we found an inexpensive one at Wal-Mart, which seemed better than his old one, with the exception that the handle made his hand smell like new vinyl. A bit over two hours later, we arrived at the new Todd pad, an in-transition former bar with an apartment atop it. Todd gave us the grand tour, and we got to watch as he worked on the gas lines. At that time, the gas wasn't on because the previous tenants took their appliances without capping the lines (meaning = huge leak), turned off the gas, and told no one about it. It's a good thing it was summertime, or it would've been a very cold night. I took the couch for the night, and Chen took the floor (He likes it) I stayed up for a while, finishing up a colored pencil drawing for the art show, finally going to sleep somewhere near 4AM.
Wednesday, July 28, 2000
The first order of business in the morning (or near it) was to get Todd's truck loaded. After the contents of my car and Todd's stuff were combined, the back half of the truck were stuffed up rather nicely. We picked up Mitch, the fourth for our journey, who brought a set of small radios (I'm behind the times, but I'll call them walkie-talkies) which we would make use of throughout the con. Soon after we on our way. The drive was quite long, but not as long as it seemed the previous year. It was mostly uneventful as well, which is always nice. We arrived at the con hotel around 8:30 PM, and already saw furs starting to gather. The two rooms we got were terrible. The air conditioner didn't work in one room and the other had black mold growing from a water damage spot. It's lucky we were here as early as we were, as it was fairly easy to move to a new pair of rooms. Those rooms weren't great, but they were much better than the first pair. The four of us hung out at the hotel bar for that night. I, being the lush I am, had a coke. Chen had coke, and one shot of Midori. Todd and Mitch were playing 'stump the bartender' and called out for several interesting-sounding combinations of drink ingredi ents, and we watched the draft picks on TV. At 11, the restrictions were lifted, and Todd lit up a cigar. Not long after, we returned to the room, and I tried to get a little work done. I put the drawing from the previous night in a mat, and started on a second. Unfortunately, some other pieces intended for the art show were left behind, meaning I only had one entry. I quickly ripped out a stick figure drawing of a busty vixen (in color!) and matted it. It was intended more as a joke than anything, but it was half of my art show entry for this year. Everyone went to sleep shortly after. Chen was forced to sleep in a bed this night, even though his mattress didn't quite match up with the frame on which it sat.
Thursday, June 29, 2000
In the morning, Todd hooked up his laptop so we could check the Anthrocon website, causing a revelation - the con we thought started on Thursday actually started on Friday. Actually that's not quite true, as there was early setup and registration happening, but we fooled ourselves into thinking there'd be more. Most of us didn't mind much, taking it as an opportunity for a free day. We wandered around some of the shops in the area. I bought a few brushpens at Michael's, figuring I'd need them. We also wandered about a nearby mall, I was apparently easily distracted after seeing a toy robot with suction cups on its feet, said to climb glass (I had little money at the time, so I had to pass on it) because Chen and I lost Todd and Mitch afterward, finding them later a little searching. Todd bought a portable stereo, giving us the ability to listen to our music of choice while in the room. Finally, in search of a Wal-Mart or something similar, we made widening circles about the area, with no luck. This is a town without a conve niently-placed Wal-Mart, surely a sign of the apocalypse. After dragging ourselves back to the hotel, we rested a bit, taking care to notice the growing crowds in the lobby. After a time, I decided to investigate the dealer room to see if early setup was possible. I took one of the radios with me, and found the dealer room. The table I would have was not set up yet, but I was able to check in and get a badge (Making me one of the first with one) I told Todd he could do the same, but Todd's badge was not ready yet. After meet ing up with Mike Sherman, who was trying to do the same thing we were, Mike, Todd, Mitch, and myself took a break and caught a bite to eat at the sushi bar of the Kobe restaurant in the hotel. I'm still a sushi newbie mostly, but I'm developing a taste for it, and learning quickly that fresh sushi and sashimi is much better than the stuff you find in a Chinese buffet. Afterward, Todd got his badge, but the table was still not up, so I basically gave up for the night. Registration was finally starting to get underway, so I radioed Chen to get in (long) line. I had to run up to the room (twice) to get some stuff Chen needed to register, and saw Jay Naylor working security. On my second trip back, I got to see Max BlackRabbit, Aaron Larson, and Shawntae Howard as well, letting them know where the room was. I also met with Martin Dudman of United Publications (Sabrina's publisher) who informed me close to 75 percent of the Amy and Sabrina figu rines brought from England were smashed en-route, leaving me with very few to sell at my table. Luckily, they were well insured. The rest of the night I spent mostly in the room, soon to be joined by Marcus Fox, and Shawntae, whose plans had changed and needed somewhere to crash. I spent some time taking my colored pencils to my con badge, and watching as a few others did the same. Many folks visited, and more than a few drank, one to falling-down vomiting excess after polishing off most of a bottle of vodka. (the name will be withheld in case he wants to hold office. No, it wasn't me.) The socializing continued into the wee hours, leaving most of us very little time for sleep, which I found would prove quite valuable later. In the dark, Todd brought out his night-vision camcorder, and I tried to battle him back to his own room with a bright flash from my Mavica. Needless to say, a lot of unflattering unintentional pictures were taken that night.
The first real day of the con. After between three and five hours of sleep, I woke
up and travelled to the opposite room to shower, since the bathroom in my room had a
living hangover in seemingly permanent residence. We caught the hotel's breakfast buffet for some morning sustenance. In what would start a trend, someone asked Mitch
(who contains Japanese genetic chunks) if he was Ken Singshow. Afterward, we
grabbed all we could from the hotel room and took it to the dealer room around eleven. I
wasn't quite finished setting up my wares when the room opened, but that's no surprise.
Sales were strongest on Friday, either that, or I had the most trouble keeping up. My
normal practice is to not accept sketchbooks and the like on Fridays, giving me time to
acclimate, but I wound up with a pile regardless. I kept telling people "This is how many
books I get when I'm NOT accepting them!". As is also typical with a Friday, and strong
sales at the table, I didn't get much opportunity to look around. I was able to take a moderate break, using the opportunity to deliver my two art show pieces to the proper place.
(more on them later). I was pretty pleased that I was on the early end of the standby list,
and was not forced to put them up in the adult area like I was expecting. On the way
back, I quickly checked through the artist alley and dealer room, meeting with various
folk. I was surprised to find out James Hardiman wasn't there. I had more or less assumed he would be at the con (since he was last year), and planned to pick up his
newer stuff. Oh well, maybe online I suppose. Much of that day was a blur to me, save
for several people asking us where Ken Singshow was, or asking if Mitch was he. We
could only tell them what we knew, Ken and EMR were expected later that day, arriving
with a group led by Al Fishbeck. Shortly after the dealer room closed, we planned on
dinner, going to the Kobe Japanese steakhouse that was very near to the dealer room
this year. Our dinner group consisted of Myself, Todd, Mitch, Marcus, and Jay, and we
were treated to the usual
"dinner and a show" we enjoyed last year, along with more
sushi. A radio call from Chen informed us that Ken and EMR had finally arrived, and we
invited them down to join us at the restaurant. The upside for us is we got to see the
chef perform twice. I glanced at the bill as it came, and did a quick double-take. "Is that
a two on the front of that three digit number?". With tip, the total was a smidge over
three hundred. I'm glad it was charged to the room, as it allowed me to deal with it on a
more abstract basis. After dinner, back to the room for more meeting with friends, talking, drawing, and a little drinking. I had some strawberry-orange-banana juice mixed
with Vodka, and I did a little drawing. I also took the opportunity to do my latest toy
trades with Ken. I got a kick-butt wind-up Zoids wolf (if you don't remember Zoids from
the eighties when they used to be in America, they are cool motorized walking mechanical animals bristling with weaponry) and Ken got two Beast Machines Transformer toys
from me (Blackarachnia, a slinky femme spider, and Quickstrike, a wolf). I also gave out
copies of my newest (adult) portfolio to nearly everyone in the room. Luckily there are
plenty of people not in the room I could still sell to.
I don't know if it was the booze, the
lack of sleep the night before, or a combination, but I was feeling especially sluggish
and getting more testy by the minute. Around 1AM, I was dying, and most of the people
were out of my side of the room, so I took the opportunity and tried to go to bed. The
unfortunate side to that being several folks showed up then, such as Max, Aaron, Talon,
and a cast of favorites. I would have liked to say howdy, but I was just as likely to say
something nasty I'd regret, so the lights were shut off, and I tried to sleep as things
swinged for a while longer in the opposite room. Todd appeared again with his night vision camera, and I cursed a (short) blue streak at him, apologizing shortly after because
he was only using it to find an item in the darkness.
Saturday, July 1, 2000
I was much better rested, thank God. I didn't want a repeat of the previous night.
I didn't eat much that morning, instead using all the time I could for sleep before I had to
get up, clean up, and go to the dealer room. Ken and EMR took their space at the table
next to mine, and Chen tried his hand at the artist alley today. I must hand it to Ken for
having some of the most innovative merchandise seen at a furry convention. At Further
Confusion, he sold clocks with the Andorozon characters printed on them. This time, he
sold a few different Andorozon ties. The tie with all four girls on it sold out very quickly. I
was selling out of some of my stuff as well, especially if the stock was low to start with.
One of my folios was gone, as well as the Sabrina figurines, all five of which sold out
Friday. Sales were good on Saturday, but slow compared to Friday. I think people are
learning to do most of their purchases early to avoid sellouts at the end of the con. Kudos to Todd and Mitch, who watched and helped to sell stuff (enlightened self-interest,
as they were selling their latest Wild Frontier comic as well.), allowing me to wander
about a bit, and get some much-needed shopping done. Back at the table I was starting
to take sketchbooks from friends and patrons alike, though it took some time to catch up
from the drawings I didn't get done last night. Max dropped by with the return of a legend - The Bible of Zig Zag. I knew I HAD to draw in that later. Mostly free from his
part-time con security gig, Jay hung out behind our table from time to time, and worked
on his own pile of books. It's most entertaining to see what the next drawing will be.
Once to room closed, the standard pattern of dinner, then room took place. This time,
our group (Todd, Mitch, Me, Chen, Ken, and EMR) walked to the nearby Pizza Hut, finding it practically deserted. It didn't last, unfortunately, as two groups of (curious-looking)
furfans and others came in shortly after. Kevin Duane appeared there as well, surprising
(or not) since I'd heard he was not welcome at the convention for his past shenanigans.
Chen and EMR both hit the claw machine with no luck (bad machine), and Todd
pumped enough money for a few hours of music into the jukebox. He picked a variety of
favorites by Queen and the Village People, to see how many of the furs around us
would start making fools of themselves. We had only moderate success. We went back
to the room, and it slowly began to fill to capacity. I started to catch up on the sketchbooks, to free myself up for more friendly drawing later. Ken and I also stepped out for a
moment to deliver drawings, but found our target out of his room. Visitors to the room
included Style Wager, Dutch, Mike Higgs (whom I had a Mavica duel with), Wolf Kidd,
and many many more. Aaron and Max showed up, Sega Dreamcast in tow, and I saw
(and played) Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. There's too much stuff going on!! Gimme my Darkstalkers 3 any day. I had just finished up a -ahem- 'powerful' image for Sean Foltz, and
sicced my colored pencils on the Zig Zag bible once again. My goal is to be the most
outstanding artist in that book. I hear Steve Martin is gunning for that position, but as
long as I have a next chance, it will never be a final state. I drew in several books that
night, not keeping track very well who got what. I even misplaced one book (recovered),
and a blotter page (later found with my stuff at the end of the trip.) I decided to skip the
booze this night, figuring it to be a contributing factor in my crappiness the previous
night, and, with the extra sleep, it paid off. In a reversal of last night, Todd slept (or tried
to) in his room (He was going to be driving tomorrow) while our group drew and played
games, finally winding up around 5AM, and I didn't feel too much the worse for wear.
Sunday, July 2, 2000
Not too surprisingly, I didn't get much sleep, but I survived. We decided the night
before that we would be leaving today, so we packed up for checkout. Upon checkout,
Todd discovered the reservation allowed for one more day, but our decision had been
made. After packing my stuff into a mostly manageable set, I went to the dealer room
for the last day. After first-stage packing of the truck (with the stuff from the hotel room)
Todd and Mitch came to the dealer room, affording me a few more opportunities to look
around and shop for a last few things. While I bought some prints, comics, and the like, I
got much less overall than I originally expected. Later, With Style Wager and others'
help, I got some news back from the art auction. "Stick Vixen" fetched a final price of
$120. I normally would find this hilarious and enjoy the benefits, but I can't help but be
annoyed that the joke drawing outperformed the legitimate attempt by 30 dollars or so.
The final rush before the dealer room closed was going through, and we started consolidating the leftovers for packing. In a curious piece of irony, I would be taking home
none of the same con sketchbooks I brought with me. One book, titled "Sketch Buk",
missing in action since Confurence 10, was returned by Wolf Kidd, and the two books I
brought to the con were given to Max. As the room closed, we loaded up and said our
good-byes on the way out. I had a few diversions and extra good-byes along the way,
so I lost track of the others. Not knowing that Todd had moved the truck didn't help either. After some confusion, I found Chen, then the truck, then Todd and Mitch. Ken and
EMR, who would be returning with us, were at parts unknown, possibly lost like I was.
The radios came to the rescue again, as Ken had one, and used it to track the rest of us
down. We began to repack the truck. It was nearly at capacity on the trip out, and while
Some of us had a little less cargo than we brought, but we were also adding two more
passengers and their cargo. Another row of seats were opened up, and the storage
space they occupy was negated. Anticipating this, Todd brought a tarp and a cargo net,
and the luggage rack atop the truck was filled to capacity. It was packed well, because
nothing appeared to slip in transit. The trip back to Cleveland went pretty smoothly. We
stopped along the way to eat and fuel up (at roughly $1.63). A bit before we exited the
state of Pennsylvania, Todd's radar detector went from zero to sixty in an instant, and
we were nailed for speeding. The delay it caused us wasn't bad, but the ticket was
pretty outrageous, with some seemingly meaningless fines. There was also the option
to plead 'not guilty' to the charge and pay the ticket anyway, so there's definitely a
higher profit motive to the PA tickets compared to Ohio. We returned to Cleveland late
at night, and talked for a bit as Todd brought Mitch home, and a bit longer after that. Afterward, everyone found a bed, couch, rollaway bed, or pad and discovered sleep. Also
of note, the gas had been turned on in Todd's absence (with much effort and negotiation), so the option of a hot shower would be available in the morning.
Monday, July 3, 2000
Since the convention itself is over by this point, there's not quite as much to report. Chen and I spent much of our time hanging out with Todd, Ken, EMR , and Mitch. Some of that time was spent running about Cleveland, checking toy shops and buying a few groceries to stock up for Ken and EMR's stay in Cleveland. The rest of the time was spent at Todd's place, catching up on some drawing and watching some videos (once the TV and VCR were set into place) We watched some episodes of the second season of Beast Machines, unaired yet in America, but made available to me thanks to Max and Aaron. I also brought a tape of a segment from the Conan O'Brien show featuring Triumph the insult comic dog puppet at the Westminster dog show. Todd found a new idol at that moment. We also had a sumptuous American supper of steak, corn, and beans. No comment on the eventual result of that kind of meal.
Tuesday, July 4, 2000
I planned to return to Dayton this day. After watching some more of the Beast Machines tape, we set out. We planned to visit a museum or two, but they were closed because of this whole Independence day holiday thing. Instead we did a little more exploring and shopping, first at an Asian market. I don't know what the others got there, but Chen got some dried squid, and I bought some melon-flavored mocchi-like things. Then we went to a large waterfront-area mall, with a variety of stores, but we concentrated on the Warner Brothers and Disney stores. Once we returned, we planned to go to a fireworks display for the Fourth. As I have already done a few years before, we found a suitable place to park, marvelling at how easy it was to find a spot, but writing it off to how early we were, and made the trek to the beach. After hanging out at the beach for a while, we ran into someone who told us the fireworks show normally held there took place on the weekend. All was not lost, because there was another display happening in the Lakewood area. It took us a bit to decide whether or not to repack and go, but we were all glad we did. The fireworks were most impressive, and very close too. It was like the difference between watching a regular movie and an IMAX film. When the finale rolled around, the air was filled with smoke and smelled heavily of gunpowder, so it was obviously a good show. It was a mob scene going back to the truck. Luckily, we had the radios again, and no one was lost in the crowd (it would be tough to get lost, as it was a straight line to the truck. We finished up the evening with a trip to Denny's, then to another Denny's that actually cared about having customers. Once that was finished, it was after 1AM. I made the command decision to stay one more night, and leave in the morning, figuring it to be a better option than a projected bedtime of 6 or 7AM. (not that I've never done that)
Wednesday, July 5, 2000
It was finally time to leave. I'd worn out my welcome (not really - I hope) Chen and I packed up our stuff and loaded my car. We said our good-byes and hopped on the highway (after going the wrong way briefly). Chen and I discussed the events of the con on the ride home. I might've been able to make it home, but I fueled up the car along the way (at $1.59) The main reason I wanted to leave Tuesday was there were things to do, and time was of the essence. We did make a quick stop at a comic shop on the way home, however. I had to get to the bank before it closed. Once the errands were finished, I brought Chen back to his downtown apartment, and returned to my home, falling asleep for what feels like a year shortly after. It's been a long weekend-plus.
Epilogue - Friday, July 7, 2000
I got a call from Todd on Wednesday, letting me know he, EMR, and Ken would be visiting Dayton Friday, as part of a roundabout trip to Wolf Park and Toledo. My house was not near clean for their visit, but I tried to make it less unacceptable. My home is a tourist attraction, as Todd, Ken, and EMR studied, discussed, and photographed my collection of Transformer toys and three pet chinchillas (and two baby chins). Afterward, we all convoyed to where they were staying, and then went out, first to Toys'R'Us. I bought a pull-string helicopter toy, which Todd managed to hit me in the face with. On that note, we went to dinner. I bought dinner to show my appreciation to all (and to keep from getting smacked with the chopper again), though I was very glad we were eating somewhere not overly expensive. We talked and drew for a bit in the hotel room to the wee hours, and I said my good-byes again and went back home.
Epilogue 2 - Monday, July 10, 2000
Wouldn't you know, on the same day Ken and EMR leave for home, I go to a Target store and find a toy I'd been meaning to get for Ken. In any case, The large electronic Beast Machines Jetstorm toy was mine, and I had an extra for Ken as well. The even larger Cheetor toy showed up a couple days later.