magnusdiridian's skit, "Oh noes teh drama", with magnusdiridian, mejeep, aquafoxzorro, axelwolf, bondage_husky, and syberfoxmi. Once it was our turn, we got up on stage and did the rehearsal. There were some problems to work out but I think trying this out once helped a lot. After that, there was a bit of a slack period. I got ready for the fursuit parade by assembling my flag pole and New Jersey state flag. I was a bit delayed by the hotel elevator so I was running a bit late but still made it to the parade lineup before they started. I was in a group with the other state flag bearers. (I'm at 3:30 in this Youtube video.) I wore the husky fursuit for the parade but the raccoon fursuit for the masquerade rehearsal and the masquerade. Nice thing about bringing two costumes is I can alternate between the two so each costume has a chance to air out between wearings. Downside is those took up all the trunk space I had. :) But I digress. Anyway, the parade went out from the Spirit of Pittsburgh Ballroom at the Convention Center, over the skybridge, down the escalators to the Dealer's Room, and then to Hall C for the big photoshoot. Fursuiter count in the parade was 640 according to @anthrocon.
I didn't have anything planned for the remainder of the afternoon after the parade, so I took a walk out to the Strip District and had beef ball pho at Vietnam's Pho. Went back to the hotel, wore the raccoon fursuit again, and went to the green room to get ready for the masquerade. Our skit was the 13th act, which I didn't for a moment think was unlucky. It's bad luck to be superstitious. :) I thought it actually went pretty well. Got some laughs from the audience. Aside from group actions, my part was to steal a plushie. I grabbed it and ran to one side of the stage. Fun! I noticed that this is the first time I wasn't nervous about being up on stage. As always, once it started, the act was over pretty quickly and we were back in the green room relaxing. At the end of the masquerade, we were all called back on stage for the curtain call. And that was that. Well, not quite. Each masquerade performer also got a special "Performer" Lexan badge. Pretty neat piece of Anthrocon memorabilia.
Late dinner again, so I went to Primanti Brothers in the Strip District for a bacon and cheese sandwich. It was really the only option as everything else that was still open after 9pm in downtown Pittsburgh looked decidedly subpar. One of the cooks at Primanti recognized me because I'd been there 3 times this week already. On my way back, I watched some 4th of July fireworks. I think these were unofficial though. A guy was launching those from an empty lot on Penn Avenue.
