I'm writing this in the reflective contented mood that many furries know after a fun weekend. For those who have never been to a furcon, the result of cramming thousands of weirdos (affectionate) into a hotel space with several days of unorganized time. what ends up happening is like flitting from thing to thing without a care in the world, a true break from the stresses of the world, and around people who are like you and get you, and are basically all queer. in a world hostile to queer people, distant from religion, and with a government that doesnt provide basics to its citizens, they are one of the only times you can be in a public space and truly feel broad acceptance from a community. cons are magical, sacred spaces that helped me, and so many more, find who they are.
sadly, covid has made the pre 2020 con experience unsafe to do anymore. id been avoiding cons in the interim, not quite sure how there was a way to do them relatively safely and keep what makes them special. how could i unmask, have the sheer spontaneous joy, in a world with ppe?
I'm happy to report that i had a pretty damned safe time at this year's ANE: not 100%, of course, but within my acceptable risk levels, and SO MUCH of that was due to our friend the sip mask. if you're not familiar, sipmask is a valve that you install into the facemask of your choosing via cutting a hole in it. it makes you able to drink from a straw through your mask without needing to remove it and without leaking in unfiltered air.
This was my first big event where id be largely relying on it, and wow. what a quality of life improvement, to be able to drink water and other liquids without demasking. the amount of normalcy this returns to your life hits you in waves--waiting for your sandwich from the breakfast place at the hotel, and being able to casually start to sip your latte before the sandwich is ready...through a mask, without removing it, via a leakproof valve. i was able to even do things that were risky and party hardy without limiting my respritory health, like walking through the dealers den drinking an irished up dunkin coffee.
Even room parties get opened way back up with these, though i personally demasked with one where i literally brought my own room hepa air purifier 1 . one of my more cautious friends, though, used the valve the whole time and enjoyed themselves, imbibing and chatting up the people around. us furries are generally pretty physically affectionate, too, and getting a bunch of hugs is still super satisfying in a kf-94 or n95. All this stuff allows for the kind of normalcy, to an extent, that allows for a super fun con. I was able to not demask in any public space that i didnt bring an air purifier to (i.e, i brought meals to my room) in a way that didnt feel uncomfortable or unnatural in the slightest, while still able to drink. my sipmask became like a little magic trick i could show off during the con, with even people not masking oohing and ahhing. my favorite example of this was at the room party, i showed a still masked up pup (in full hood and latex gear over their kf-94, god bless furries) were utterly agog over my little demonstration, something that would have solved a problem they were facing right now--not being able to drink anything
im just so happy that this isn't an either or decision, really, it can be a both/and! its possible to be risk conscious and have fun pretending to be a bird out in a convention center somewhere (trust me you know you want to)
-
i aknowledge that this decision could backfire on me. this will take several days of testing to establish