I always pictured myself living in a city picking up fresh flowers and warm bread on my way home from work – much like Meg Ryan’s life in You’ve Got Mail. Our nation’s capital is a beautiful place filled with charming people and wonderful smells.
Over the weekend on the way home from the hospital I watched a man look through the trash can outside a cafe presumably for food or recyclables. A block down the road, I saw another man take a newspaper out of someone’s curbside trash. And another block further, I witnessed yet another man bum a cigarette off a stranger using only a gesture and upraised eyebrows. It’s amazing the things you see in this city and that was only within a three block radius! One of the most random things I’ve seen in DC was this past weekend.
Saturday, after visiting with Ryan for a few hours, we took the girls to Dupont Circle and ate pizza in the park. It was a tad windy, but a beautiful day. Ainsley spent most of the time skipping around our table singing random children’s songs while Natalie supplemented her meal with packs of parmesan cheese (let’s keep that last part between us, shall we).
Anywho, after lunch my sister and I walked around the fountain with the girls while Henry played chess. I noticed there was quite a crowd gathering, many people with cameras hanging around their necks. There was a buzz in the air and I could sense something was about to happen – it could have been all the college age kids streaming in from all sides of the park, some on cell phones telling their friends where to meet them.
My sister asked a photographer sporting a press badge what in the world was going on. Lucky us – – we were about to witness a pillow fight. Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently Saturday was World Pillow Fight Day and Dupont Circle and the Washington Mall were two of the locations where pillow fights were to happen.
We just so happened to be in the right place at the right time to witness this truly unusual event which I thought was a little weird but interesting all the same. It would probably be more appealing if I were in college – for the first minute or so.
Henry thought hitting total strangers took some of the fun out of it (it is much more satisfying to hit people you know and love) unless, he said, there were teams and you could flank the other teams and win some sort of prize. Oh great, good to know random acts of violence on strangers seems boring to my dear hubby unless there is some sort of competitive angle to it.
So there we were, my girls wondering why in the world a bunch of big people were hitting each other with pillows and laughing about it. Honestly, I can’t say I had a good answer.
(c) 2016 Leighann Marquiss
Comments (9)
Still praying for you and your sweet family….
oh that is so funny!!! glad you guys were able to have a good laugh!
The real question is did Henry win in chess? 🙂
Glad you enjoyed your day.
Oh don’t you just love DC? I miss it!!! And the cherry blossoms!
I see Henry is following in his Dad’s footsteps. 🙂 Checkmate?
ha, this is hilarious. i love the part about henry. soo funny. yes, i would have to agree that hitting those near and dear would be much more fun than hitting a total stranger – that just seems a bit awkward. how did the stars align so that you would get to witness such a once in a lifetime event?
that is so funny, I have never heard of such a thing!
Wow. That is very random and strange….
Just found you through a friend who had your button on her blog. I will be adding your sweet baby to my prayers.
Blessings.
Hi…just found your blog through another blog – honestly I don’t remember whose but I caught the button. We are from the same “neck of the woods”….I recently did a post about loving the city (DC), too!
I’ve enjoyed reading some of Ryan’s story…incredible! I will be praying for you guys. I will think of you each Tuesday, for sure, when I come downtown (I volunteer at Childrens)…
Will check back to see how things go when Baby Ryan gets to come home!