5th Annual NYC Pillow Fight 2010 — Feathered yes; tarred no.

Glo-in-the-dark body paint and hair doo-dads at Bioluminescence II – 2010

Santa Domme & “Rudy” at SantaCon NYC 2009

In case you’re having any questions as to what the heck that is in my hair in the first pictures, yes, it’s feathers.  Considering how much my hair looks like a bird’s nest in the picture, isn’t it appropriate? The feathers are the end results of being a participant in the International Pillow Fight Day 2010 – NYC, held last Saturday.  Yes, I said international. For something that started as an urban underground flash mob, years ago, it has now gained global recognition.  Therefore, I’m happy to say all the feathers in my hair came from nice clean pillows (oh dear God, I hope so, eewwwww! :D!).

In the second picture, my hair is adorned with bright blue curls and hair baubles painted with neon paints designed to glow under ultra-violet light.  It was part of a water fairy costume for Bioluminescence II. Bioluminescence, a fundraiser for Burning Man, is a theme of aquatic, glowing and illuminated figures and art, an exploration of the crossroads bio and technological.  It is inspired by those deep-sea creatures who make their own light in the murky depths inspiring us toward aquatic or illuminated costume in a black light flooded venue. Essentially, it was a really cool rave party on a boat!

The third picture is from Santacon 2009. WTF is Santacon do you ask?  From their official website: “SantaCon is a not-for-profit, non-political, non-religious & non-logical Santa Claus convention, attended for absolutely no reason.”  Aka a few hundred people dress up as various themed Santas and run amok in NYC (and other cities globally) during the Christmas season.

Yes, I am in my mid 40s, this year I cross over into being officially in my late 40s, go figure.

Nothing like hanging out with my BFF (I’m delightfully imagining a capillary bursting as she groans from reading that BFF part – oops, I just did it again.) and participating in a mass outdoor public pillow fight. Or as I nicely phrased it in my Facebook photo album “The annual gathering of people granted permission to wallop the living daylights out of each other for three hours, with no hard feelings afterward.”  Yes, the crowd was predominantly mid 20s- 30s. Still, there was a sprinkling of actual children there. Such as this adorable little tyke, who could not have been more than six years old.  He was defending his daddy from all on comers, and let me tell you, that sweet-faced cherub could pack a freaking wallop!!   There were also senior citizens in attendance, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.  My favorite was the gentleman, who was at least sixty years of age, showing some whippersnappers the proper way to deliver a body shot with his pillow. He took a twenty year old clean off his feet, it was, awesomesauce! I can’t remember the last time, I laughed so hard! Whenever folks ask when will I grow up and start acting my age, I’m going to remember this guy.

After all, who in the hell said, once you reach whatever age some forms of fun must stop? I fully believe we don’t stop having fun because we grow old, we grow old because we stop having fun. I mean real fun!  I mean the sweaty dirty, exhausting, totally unafraid to look completely ridiculous type of fun.  Why do people look back upon childhood with such fondness? Because children don’t have a fear of being dirty. Or looking silly.  If it’s fun, it’s fun and you can’t tell them what’s fun, they know it when they feel it.  So while my being all dolled-up for Marjorie’s wedding two years ago was very enjoyable, bringing 6’7″ groomsman Derrick down to his knees in a game of full-on tackle during the outdoor reception afterward (still dressed in our wedding finery mind you!), was FUN!

It amuses me to no end that the people, who question why I do such immature (by their standards), things at my age, are often the same people who wonder why I have such a youthful spirit.  Hello? Put it together people!  Let that rocking chair gather a little more dust while I’m scavenger hunting at The Met. If I’m physically able to do something, without harming myself, I am going do it.  God willing, I will reach a point in my life, where I will have to rest up more and play hard less, but I’m not there yet.   So yes, I’m still finding feathers in my hair after shampooing, so what? I had a heck of a lot of fun, with a heck of a lot of people. What did you do for fun?