Following the directions to get to the Left Center Right: Furry Sticker Swap Event brought us to a darkened room of people at tables and computers showing dice rolls which didn't seem right. It turns out I was misled by the name, thinking ``furry sticker swap event'' meant something about, like, bringing out stickers and swapping them with people. Apparently ``Left Center Right'' is a video game and this is trading stickers in the sense of paying jackpots to the winners. So, we could have slept in more or been two hours less stressed about the traffic getting to Motor City Furry Con.
But I was not wrong that there was a sticker trading event that Friday and it was even in that same room. It's just that this was at 4 pm, and at that we got to the event a few minutes late. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger did some mingling around and I tried to look friendly and like I belonged, and she found a table with enough empty space on it to spread out her stickers. Some were from the past year's sticker swap. Many were Mrs Grossman's Sticker Club stickers. Also occupying a lot of the table were stickers someone or other had put out intending them to be free and then leaving, but as we were at the table we kept getting asked if we were the ones making trades there. It was all generally nice except that the one time I did try taking a sticker that I thought was in the common area of the table the person watching over it explained that I could take it, sure, if I really wanted, only in an even more complicated way than that. So I ended up taking it and feeling like the only thing more wrong than taking it would have been to set it back.
After this we had a couple hours until the next event, and we still hadn't checked into our hotel, in the second overflow hotel. So we went there, and got our room with the easy-to-remember number 321. bunnyhugger noted that I somehow manage to find every number easy to remember. All right, but when I was trying to log in to the hotel's Wi-Fi I messed up our room number several times and couldn't figure why it didn't accept us as staying in room 323.
We had a couple annoying discoveries along the way. One was that bunnyhugger had forgotten her spare camera battery and her battery charger, so whatever was on her one battery was it for the con. It claimed to be full charge, but after about three months batteries always claim to be on full charge when they're actually twelve pictures away from empty. Another is that we'd left behind the earplugs needed to be sure she could sleep or, more urgently, to safely attend the dances. Another is that we'd left behind part of her Velveteen fursuit, and she'd have to either not suit as the plush rabbit at all, or suit in the wrong outfit, or try and find a Meijer's and hope there was an okay enough dress that still wouldn't have the velcro straps to attach her tail.
Here I made a decision that bunnyhugger treated as a far bigger sacrifice than I thought it was. I volunteered to drive home and get the dress and the charger and also stop somewhere to get new earplugs. The case against this is that it's a couple hours driving instead of doing anything fun and it would keep me away from the con. The case for was that there wasn't any particular programming I wanted to be at for three hours, and bunnyhugger had schoolwork she needed to do at some point this weekend anyway, and this would open up stuff she could do, so why not?
Although it had been trafficky on the first way to Ypsilanti, driving back was nothing big. There was construction near where US 23 crossed I-96, a change I needed to make, and I thought a sign said the 23-North-to-96-West interchange that I needed was closed. Turns out I read it wrong; they just meant the exit-only lane for this was closed.
Still it took longer than I expected to get to Meijer's and buy earplugs, and get home and confirm that I had the right dress and the charger, and drive back to the hotel. A small part of this was that I stopped at White Castle in Ypsilanti, figuring this was late enough we needed to get dinner and that bunnyhugger would like some Impossible Sliders with fries. So she would, although by the time I got from the White Castle to our hotel they'd cooled an annoying amount. As it turned out this was our only chance to get to White Castle this weekend, though, I'd made the right call.
My driving, and bunnyhugger's work, took us longer than we expected. But we were able to get back to the convention hotel --- no trouble parking at this hour --- and get to both Hospitality and to the Friday Night Dance.
At Hospitality, by the way, we discovered something wonderful. But I'll share that ... tomorrow, if my post-writing goes well.
Pictures, now, with more of the Cass County Carousel:
The obverse of the one-free-ride token seen yesterday. Or maybe it's the reverse. Not sure which side would count as 'heads' here. Different years get different colors and I think different patterns, so there are locals who collect all the variations.
Arty shot of the carousel seen through the ring dispenser with a regular old steel ring in its talons. Would you feel up to reaching for that at speed?
Model carousel horses and even full carousels set up around the side of the building, along with footprints and handprints made as part of the fundraising for the facility.
Closer look at some of these model carousel. The Lego one I hadn't seen before. I think the Merry-Go-Round Museum has one like that.
bunnyhugger chatting with that ride attendant/docent and hearing interesting stuff about the giraffes and not accidentally stumbling back off teh carousel platform however much I was worried she might.
Readying for another ride! I forget why I'm two horses back instead of just behind the giraffe; maybe I stepped back for a better picture.
Trivia: The sandwich invented by the Earl of Sandwich (John Montagu) was a piece of salt beef between pieces of bread. (While the popular legend is that he ordered this for convenience while gaming, it is also reported that he used this as a way to eat while working long hours at Admiralty House.) Source: To Rule The Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World, Arthur Herman. Without digging into the probably unresolvable source accounts my guess would be he'd order it in both places because, c'mon, it's a really easy way to eat salt beef.
Currently Reading: One Heartbeat Away: Presidential Disability and Succession, Birch Bayh.
