In better news, in case I didn't mention it before, I left Dan a couple messages in MSN while I was on the train home last night, one of which was to specifically tell him that I would prefer to be staff at any furmeets I was able to attend in the future. He didn't get back home until about an hour after I did, but I received a message from him around 11:30, and off we went, through the several things I sent him previously. The relevant part of that conversation is as follows:
(10:57:30pm) Dan Skunk: I think people were just kinda thinking of you as staff cause you were doing so much working on the meet and they knew you were.
Dan Skunk: And knew you were working close with me.
[...]
(12:23:04am) Karadur: As for the being seen as staff at the furmeet thing, I figured part of the reason people assumed that was because I was the first one down there, and the first one to let people into the party room. What you said about working closely with you also applies, but on a whole, I just intended to say that if I'm able to attend another one of those, I would like to contribute in the same way. Looking at it now, I suppose it's not quite something I need to confirm with you, but I liked that
Karadur: I look at it this way: last time (in May) I was more of an attendee. I helped to set up and clean up at the end of the night, and made cookies and such as per usual, but during the actual meet, I mostly sat in front of the Nintendo, aside from going out to get pop, and the events that followed that which led to taking a bit of a break
Karadur: Following that, I actually told you that I wanted to take a break from furmeets altogether, but decided to go to the one on the 4th anyway, on the grounds that it would bother me more to go out and do something else, but know in the back of my mind that there was a party going on back at the apartment, and from there, everything else fell into place with planning to bake certain things, and the day went well for me
Karadur: And I do apologize if you're using your phone right now. Those blocks of text up there would probably be difficult to read on it :B
Dan Skunk: I'm on the computer now. No worries.
Dan Skunk: I'll tell you a little more about stuff so you could help more next time. Like showing you how to let people in the parking garage and how I was counting the money coming in.
Karadur: Sure. I'd be up for that
Dan Skunk: I think you mostly know how stuff works there now anyway. :3
Karadur: Mostly. I will let you know if and when I think of something I don't...
Karadur: Oh... I don't know how to work the washing machines, but that probably doesn't apply to furmeets <3
Cool, yes? I don't propose to take everything away from him in terms of responsibilities, but I greatly prefer the idea of being a contributor, instead of just a participant. That can even be extended further, to something else I was going to tell him for comparison, but didn't, and thus will have to settle for writing in here: I could legitimately see myself going to another furry convention (at least one - maybe more) if I could go in the capacity of a volunteer / member of behind-the-scenes staff. Transportation notwithstanding, of course, but thinking back to MFF, as it's the only experience of that sort which I have to draw on, I would likely have had a better experience. Having specific obligations would've prevented me from spending as much time up in the room idly watching TV, and would also have been better than just randomly walking around, really only buying things in the dealers' den, and going out for food. Maybe I will do that one day, but for now, there are other things to deal with. I will say that I feel better for having written this entry, but where the idea is that busying myself with things on my laptop and maybe talking to Dan and / or Xion later tonight will be sufficient to keep me in a decent mood, going out to get groceries would seem to be a bad idea. I still don't want to buy too much, but may pick up some things to make a couple more of those chocolate chip cheesecake pies. Heavy / whipping cream, two cans of sweetened condensed milk, two pacakges of mini chocolate chips, two graham pie crusts, and two blocks of cream cheese. Quite a bit - more than $20, to be sure - but it would get me downstairs for a bit, which might be nice today. A shower would be nice too though, because I don't think I've had one since the night after we went camping last week. Groceries first, and whatever may come after that, I suppose~
