As usual Furst Night was a blast. Thirteen furs and friends attended Pittsburgh’s First Night Celebration including Ahzanti, Scales, Xavier, Flanowa, Red, Woofie, Nancy, Jon, Quicksilver, my mom and dad, Silaria and I.

Steady rain greeted us as we left for downtown to park, meet up with everyone and grab a bite to eat at Arby’s. The manager at Arby’s was cool enough to open up the upper level of the restaurant for the 14 of us to sit together in relative privacy. By the counter on the lower level, Arby’s has a bell with a sign above it which reads, “Ring the bell to let us know we did a good job.” Or something like that. As we left, we paraded, single file, around the lower level of the restaurant and that bell rang at least 14 times.

The rain really hadn’t slacked off as we headed back out into the streets to catch the 6pm “Kid’s Fireworks show and opening ceremonies.” Then it was over to Heinz Hall to grab our seats to see the 50’s do-wop group, Johnny Angel and the Halos. Sil and I had heard a lot of good things about this local singing group, but in the 12 years we’ve been out here we’ve never seen one of their performances. Needless to say they were as good as folks have said and they put on an awesome hour long concert.

The rain had pretty much stopped when we left the theatre and the group of us wandered amorphously through the streets for the next hour or so taking in the small shows and venues along the way. We watched part of the First Night Parade and shouted out praise to the folks in the Sparky and Target Dog mascot costumes.

There was much talk about the rumors that have been circulating regarding Anthrocon and Pittsburgh. On a whim, and with kettle corn in paw, most of us wandered the three blocks to dispel the rumors that the convention center and hotel are situated in the cities “slums.” In fact, while many of the old turn of the century office buildings and stores are currently in the midst of being remodeled and renovated back to their former glory by Pittsburgh’s Cultural Trust with assistance from the Pittsburgh Chapter of the AIA and the Professional Engineers Association, the Convention Center and AC’s hotels are NOT in a depressed area of the city. On the contrary, it’s in a part of the city that is seeing a trend of revitalization.

The group arrived back to the central stage and we wandered over to the Byham Theatre to get our seats for the River City Brass Band. We had the added pleasure of sitting in on a concert that was being aired, live, on WQED radio. The band was awesome as expected and always a highlight to the First Night gathering.

After the concert we did more wandering of the outside venues and activities, checked up on a few, on-going events, like the ice sculptures, then headed over to the river to get a good spot to watch the clock on Mt Washington for the countdown to 2006 and then view the fireworks at midnight. This is usually the coldest part of the evening, as there’s always a breeze blowing along the river and there’s no protection from the buildings. The weather continued to hold off for us and we celebrated New Years with friends Pittsburgh style. Fireworks.

Getting home after the fireworks was remarkably easy. Everyone was at the Inn by about 12:30am and we set about putting out some light snacks, cheese and crackers, sliced kielbasa and mustard and Christmas cookies. Meanwhile Sil worked with others to pour champagne glasses full of sparkling cider to toast in the New Year and wish everyone happiness, health and prosperity for 2006.

The crew hung out and we stayed up until 3am talking, laughing and playing a few rounds of Mad Libs.

All in all, a great time with good friends despite the weather. Thanks for everyone who came out and helped make the gathering so successful. Your company was appreciated.

*Hugs*

Swift Fox