Plague

it was a wild and wonderful couple of days in maine at furcationland, i made a little bit of money towards the repair bills, and now i'm home. it's taken me a bit to unpack and get caught up on chores, and now i wanted to write a lil.

but first: my friend who hosted me over the weekend, Rick, has their dream comic project currently funding on kickstarter!! by all means please check it out and pledge a little if you can. not just because rick is a sweetheart, but i have been following the development of this for a while now and i'm excited to see it come to life. i think it'll be well worth investing in.

and second: convention stickers & zine overstock and discounted paintings going on in the shop. pls help fund our car repairs! ty!!

so, to get back to discussing the furcon - i was vending in the artist alley both saturday & sunday, and while i saw a few familiar faces it was mostly new people. i hosted/organized the artist alley specific stamp rally which, considering i have -no- experience in doing so, went really well!! it forced me to make new friends and
break the ice with other artists and vendors, and i think in a strange way also helped my social anxiety by giving me some menial way to prove myself to strangers.

but before i go Off abt how i did the stamp rally, i have uploaded con photos to kofi. fursuiters i could identify are free to view, but other stuff is paywalled unless you've (ever, at any point) given to my kofi account. or you could give like 1$ if youre new and get access that way! zanyway, stamps.

i had three days with 11 participants spread out in 2 day groups, so i used 3 different colors of baggies to organize prizes. but because there was no way to -get- the prizes from everybody before the actual convention hit, what this REALLY meant was i was running up and down the back alley wall first thing friday, then plopping down on the floor and rapidly sorting things into 50 baggies -per day- then handing each person involved four or five baggies.

then the next day, folks handed me baggies back and i shook them all out and redistributed them into THAT days prize bags (and sundays) and did it again

and then sunday i did it again, but ALSO at the end of the day dumped ALL the prize bags out and sorted them BACK into individual piles to return to their makers/creators, so i wasnt running away with their inventory... and though i did miss a few, literally everyone was so lovely and just thanked me for hosting it.

the only hitch was one of the artists, Roh, made an incredible unique-to-the-year sticker seal for winners... and we didn't have NEAR as many as 50 winners per day lmao i VASTLY overestimated our needs. we handed some of the seals out to the artists involved as thanks, and still had a bunch left. so our current plan is: hold onto them for next year, and offer them as one of the charity auction items for 2026, to raise money for Short Folks for Hope.

see, this is everything i missed about convention and artist culture :,> i'm really glad i went. i'm glad i organized the stamp rally, and i'm glad folks felt it went well enough for them on investment vs return.

so: i WOULD run a stamp rally again, for sure. i'd also do several things differently, just to see what changed.

my neighbors were Soggy (i was losing it at the number of times people were saying 'shitsplosion' bc of one of their stickers lmfao) as well as Scaredy Cat Pottery and Xoloco - a fursuit maker with a really really cute red panda partial for sale. all of whom tolerated my turnicated conversations very well lmao

unfortunately i didnt get to see as much in ways of panels or what have you, cuz i was vending and solo at it - alph stayed home both for work and to watch the cats. but i still managed to see the tetris attack tourney, fursuit a little bit, and meet up with a lot of friends i'd honestly lost contact with since i left xitter in the shitter. i wish i'd had more time to be with them all, but even just that moment is a huge breath of fresh air in hard times like these.

i also finally got to try donuts from the holy donut. ...yom :v

though i was chronicly under-rested and dehydrated, it was a wonderful time just like the year before. i really hope i'll be back in 2026. i fell asleep to the sounds of rick and redacted_cat playing eachother in NES bomberman on sunday, spent the day on trains and was home by kittycat dinner time on monday.

the car is out of the shop, which is a relief, but we're still feeling the sting of the cost of it. but given the trade war kicking off, i think repairing was the correct thing to do.

today i went out to get smoothies/coffee w a friend and catch up, since she just moved back to the area. and tho times are absolutely fucking tough, it felt good to sit and talk trash on her ex and walk in the sun. shes also an artist!

so. the country is going to shit but what else is new. it felt good to ride my scooter home, it was a comfort to see buds beginning on trees. i've caved and like every aging millenial resorted to watching columbo to soothe.

but i think as long as there's people willing to give me a chance, people who smile and laugh and want to catch up even after a long while or even if meetin gme the first time... i think i can survive.

i truly hope you, reader, can find what helps you survive as well.

unless you're trump or musk or lick such boots. in that case it will be my absolute pleasure to embroider your death shroud.

stay in the fight yall. love ya.