Valentine's Day and 3,000 Pillows

Ever wonder what 3,000 people and a bunch of pillows
looks like... well I never did. But when I heard I
could whack some strangers with an old pillow, I
thought "I must be there!"

You know how people say part of the fun is the
journey, not the destination, well riding your bicycle
with a pillow in front of you might seem a bit odd and
it creates a few looks - just think of a poor-man's
air bag - but after a few jokes with fellow bike
commuters, I make it to my destination.

I got there at the strike of 6:00 pm and there was a
huge circle of people with cameras and cell phones
taking pictures and movies of the insanity. When you
are in it, it is a world all unto itself.

This is an embeded YouTube video:



First, you don't look up, because if you do, BOP!
right in the face.

Second, you are constantly turning and moving because
people are swinging their arms and moving their
bodies, so you feel like those ping-pong balls in a
Bingo machine (B6... B6!).

Third, you start laughing so hard that you can barely
shoulder the strength to swing a light, feather filled
pillow... but somehow you summons the muscles to
rejoin the battle and fight on.

Occasionally a pillow will break open and feathers fly
through the air, buoyed by a new weather system
created from 3,000 swinging pillows.

Bonk, someone just got me in the gut.

"Doh!" spleen attacked.

But retaliation, sweet revenge is only a swing away.

As you start to figure out where you are, you edge
your body towards the side, where the throngs of
on-lookers are wondering if they should have brought a
pillow - until they see someone removing a feather
from their nostril while exiting the fluffy-fly-by
event, and suddenly three pillows hit you at once and
the melee drags you back in.

Eventually the battalion of cotton-clad pillow cased
warriors disband to once again lay their heads down
and dream of a world unto itself.