photo credit: M.Reyes

nothing says “i love you” like a flash mob valentine’s day pillow fight. as my friend adam put it, i live in a very special place. as mob scenes go, it was the most congenial crush of people i’ve ever been in — in spite of the fact that everyone was smacking the holy heck out of one another with feather pillows. in true san francisco hippy style, the organizers requested that only natural fiber-pillow be used, so that no nasty synthetic materials would get washed into the bay.

the lessons i learned about flash mob pillow fights were as follows:

1) it’s a pretty adorable valentine’s day date option.
2) the handkerchiefs and face masks people were wearing weren’t out of fear of swine flu — they were to keep from inhaling feathers. which i did. and coughed for the next 20 minutes.
3) dressing up in costume pretty much guarantees that people will team up and whale on you. dressing up in a giant pillow costume means that you won’t have free arms to defend yourself.
4) telling a total stranger – “look! over there!” and then smacking him with a pillow when he looks away isn’t poor sportsmanship, it’s brilliant strategy.

pillow fight 2010