So, now we pick up with Saturday morning.
I was doing pretty good on Saturday – I didn’t find myself standing in the shower with that feeling of dread, “I have to do this again?” I wandered down to grab some breakfast and ran into Tsuki in Tre Cena, the hotel restaurant. We had a nice chat, and the hotel manager stopped by our table to check and see that everything was running well for the convention (I guess there are times that having a “Board Member” ribbon on my badge is good for something 🙂 We had a pleasant discussion, and before he left, he instructed our waiter to comp our meal. Score!

Now that Registration was moved downstairs and everything was neatly (?) tucked away in the coat closet, setup was relatively painless. It was even more painless because I had folks there like ramamlion and rasslor and the ever-capable Tsuki to help. I humbly admit all I did was a lot of general organizing and management this year – most of the crawling around under tables and hooking up wires and arranging equipment and paperwork was done by these fine gentlemen.

Once we got everything set up, we were able to swing into the Saturday/Sunday relaxation mode, whereby a person comes by to register every so often, but a lot of the time is spent just watching people go by and chatting with friends. It’s days like these that remind me why I really do enjoy working Registration. DaveQat showed up a little early for his tour of duty in the morning, and that left me time to go up and start preparing for the Sponsor Brunch. Now, in the past we’ve had some OK menus – there was 2002’s regrettable glorified deli buffet, and last year’s much-improved “Heartland” buffet. This year we decided to spring for a couple of bucks extra per head and go for the “Regency Brunch” and I am so glad we did.

The spread was fantastic, the omelet station great, the desserts looked tasty, and the general variety of food was fabulous. I’d have to say this menu was one of our best decisions this year. The hotel staff was extremely helpful and supplied me with a podium so I could play maitre’d, taking sponsor’s coupons as they went into the brunch. We had a pretty good turnout – 78% of the sponsors showed up, a good bit more than expected. We filled the empty seats with hungry staff members, and things worked out exactly right. I was able to slide in at the end of the brunch and get food for myself, and I can verify it was delicious! (Incidentally, Aeto – I checked and while they are willing to provide sodas, it would be on an “as-consumed” basis, with the hotel charging the con $2.75 per bottle. Um, maybe we’ll just stick with iced tea and water?)

We wrapped up Registration at 5 PM, and I spent some time wandering around. I was checking out the Art Show at around 6:30 PM when the fire alarm went off. Now, you’ve probably read about this in various places, but I can tell you something that really impressed me that most people didn’t hear: the traffic on the staff radio channel was amazing. Linnaeus (our hotel liaison) did an outstanding job of relaying information from the hotel as soon as he heard it, and all of the staff acted calmly and professionally to get the attendees out of the building in a safe and orderly manner. Once everyone was out, the departments sounded off to assure everyone that they were safe. It was an extraordinary thing to hear, and a nice reminder that MFF is blessed with an extremely competent staff. Incidentally, the fire alarm was caused by a faulty sensor in the second floor hallway, and thank heavens was not repeated.

Saturday evening found Takaza and I back up in our room entertaining (as things seemed to happen), with lots of nice folks stopping by to chat (I’m not even going to try to remember everyone – between the tiredness and the Oban, I’m sure I’d forget some people). Funny thing is, even though we entertained every night, I still have about six gallons of beer left. Next time, we need bigger glasses to drink from!

On Sunday I turned over opening Registration to DaveQat and instead attended the Midwest Furry Fandom, Inc. board meeting. Not too much of note there, except to say that Gary Breuckman, aka the esteemed Uncle Puma, is now a member of the Board of Directors. Yay! From there, DaveQat and I alternated a couple of shifts at Registration, enjoying the slower pace and watching people scurry to the Dealers Room for their last-minute purchases. Then it was time to pack up. I’m afraid by Sunday afternoon I was a bit tired and snarly, and trying to get carts laden with boxes and stanchions and whatnot through the main hallway only exacerbated that; I apologize to anyone who I might have been rude to. (As an aside, I think I did not eat nearly often enough during the convention, and that very definitely affected my mood. Maybe a blood sugar thing? Something to remember for future conventions.) Once we got everything stowed I hung around a bit and helped Art Show track down some problem credit cards. After that it was time for Closing Ceremonies.

Closing Ceremonies went well, with us once again reducing the charity representative to tears with a stunning bit of generosity, totaling almost $9,000 – a new record for MFF, and something to be proud of. The audience seemed very appreciative, and it was nice to get some early feedback that everyone had a good time. The Q&A session was remarkably short and surprisingly free of, um, well, stupid questions, as we had a couple of real doozies last year. By far the most amazing one was the last individual who stood up and started off with, “How does everyone like my costume?” (Linnaeus: Let the record show that a very short bit of polite golf-applause followed 🙂 He then complained that the hotel was hard to find, and there was no information on the website. Now, I wasn’t trying to be mean, but quite frankly I couldn’t quite figure this out. I explained to him that I had put the address of the hotel on the website, as well as maps, driving directions, and we even had GPS coordinates on there. What more did he want? (OK, so I wasn’t trying to be mean – it sure was cathartic, though!)

After Closing Ceremonies I hung out in Security a bit, then went up to the room to relax. At 8 PM, word went out that the pizza had arrived, and Takaza and I headed down to Con Suite for sustenance. A small gathering in the room followed, though we kicked everyone out at 11 when Takaza was overcome by a fever and some nasty chills.

On Monday Dan seemed to be feeling better, thank heavens. I took the chains and stanchions back, then we started the long sequence of goodbyes and hugs and room-packing that always follows on Mondays. We followed tradition, though, and celebrated the end of the convention by gathering a small group of folks and heading over to The Curragh for a tasty late lunch. This was followed by the traditional movie screening – this year, it was “The Incredibles”, which was a nice bit of mindless fun. Eventually we wound up back at Linnaeus’ place, catching up with email and reading LiveJournal, and generally relaxing.

Time for me to wrap this up and head out into the rain/snow/ick, but stay tuned for overall con impressions, Registration traffic analysis, and the 2004 Registration Report.