Der Feuervogel aufersteht.

I absolutely understand that feeling. I think ranyart and I have both made very similar posts to everything you've said here. After going to it for a decade, I thought I would miss COUP a lot more than I did, but it turned out that I only missed seeing a small handful of people more frequently than just at your parties.

I think I might try to start up a monthly/biweekly anime potluck night or something here, once our friends sixolet and melithiel move here in the fall. I don't need to watch three hours of cartoons every week, but a little bit every once in a while in a small group with some food seems much more palatable. Maybe you could organize some alternative yourself and just get together with other like-minded folks who also don't feel like they fit in at COUP anymore?