Greetings and salutations! This past weekend, my wife and I attended Midwest FurFest. It was her first furry con ever, my second, and by far the biggest con either of us has ever attended. Seriously, I don’t know the final attendance numbers, but with 10,000 preregistered, ‘huge’ is a fair estimate.

I want to officially thank the furry fandom in general and the folks at MFF (staff, volunteers, and attendees alike) for making my wife’s first immersion in the fandom a wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable experience. The only hitch of any sort was the gratuitously long walks from the hotel to the convention center (art show & dealer’s room) and the parking garage, but those didn’t impede our enjoyment at all. Just, you know, our ability to get to panels and stuff.

I managed to meet and chat with three artists I follow and enjoy: Michele Light, PMoss, and MilkyBody. All three were as nice as could possibly be to a middle-aged nerdboy like myself, and I’m thrilled to have met them in person, putting faces to the names. I also attended a panel on character design led by Qutens and Terra, and a panel on drawing THICC characters led by Padunk and Niis. Again, nice as could be. Padunk even had some encouraging words about overcoming creative block when I tracked her down at the dealer’s room the next day. My wife got a beautiful Celtic-knotwork badge sketch of her brand-new fursona from SkieBorne Art. Emily was such a total sweetheart that she brought the badge with her so I could get it after my panel that happened during the last hour of dealer’s room.

The weather was about as reasonable as could be expected for November/December in Chicago. It only rained once (we so wanted to pick up all the furs walking in the rain, but our car is wee), and the temperature was comfortable enough to be out without a coat for short periods. Great for cooling off the fursuiters, too. And speaking of the fursuiters, holy mackerel! The sheer number and quality of suits was mind-blowing. Granted, my prior exposure was minimal, but still. Some absolutely beautiful work was on display, and every single one I asked to take a photo of was gracious and cheerful. Once I figure out how and where, I’ll post the slew of photos I took, and add a link here. (Any suggestions? The notions I have now are Tumblr, Instagram, and SmugMug).

In closing, I want to give a big thank you to the organizers, staff, and volunteers at MFF. You all went above and beyond the call of duty, in the face of overwhelming odds, and I appreciate your time and effort.

EDIT: OMG, I totally forgot to give a shout out to InuOkami for a great, rambling conversation that made the Preregistration Line of Doom pass much more quickly.

Also, I have uploaded all fifty-plus photos to my shiny new Instagram account, username narzain42. Now if I can just figure out why so many of the pictures cut off the tops of people's heads when they posted... Grr...