Flash Mob--- how it all went down

December 22 2010 will gone done in infamy... or at least local history...

or at least I might remember it for like a week or two.

Flash Mob.... I did a flash mob.  While the event happened in one night, the prep lasted several.

December 17 2010 1:15 pm- learned all about the flashmob-- got some of the deets and told my friend Cindy.
December 17 2010 1:16pm - Cindy and I let out ear splitting squeals of delight.
December 17 2010 8:30  told everyone at the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party about the mob.
December 19 2010- contacted the head of the flash mob
December 20 2010- heard back from the leader-- there's over 300 people, she's getting concerned.  I wasn't sure if that gave me permission to go or not. Cindy and I said SCREW IT we're doing it.  Beside I had already told a bunch of people I was doing it, so if I didn't I'd be a lair.

Had flash mob nightmares-- there was only twenty people going and another flash mob showed up and stole our thunder.

December 21 2010 9:00 pm-- I watched the youtube video of the dance.

First watch- OH CRAP I AM GOING TO SCREW THIS UP.  --- it's the understatement of the year, I can't dance, or sing and combining both seems like an impossible task.  There's over 1500 students who could witnessed both acts and can agree.

Second watch- it seemed less scary- maybe I could try. --- danced in my chair

Third watch- stood up, tried it for real... realized there's a good likelihood I'm screwing up my lefts and my rights because I'm doing the same thing as the video.

Fourth watch- It's not flawless but far less sucky then I though

Fifth watch- Rocking around the Christmas Tree will forever be in my head.  CRAP.  And half way though, when we're "decking the halls with bells of holly." I get a foot cramp. CRAP CRAP. This does NOT bode well.

December 22 2010- DAY IT ALL GOES DOWN.

10:00 am-  Cindy and I practice our dance moves.  Here's the problem, we're doing this at work--at school and our computers can't get YouTube. Thankfully Cindy has a Droid and she gets the vid on her phone.  We're standing in my classroom, in the direct line of the door--(in retrospect, not the best location) and we're dancing along to the video.  There's a moment where we had to hold hands and swing along.
A co worker walked in.
He can't hear the music.
He can't see the video.
He just sees two women laughing and holding hands.
He pauses.
"Um, I can come back later."

5:00  We drove to Riverhill High School the meeting point.  It was incredibly WELL ORGANIZED.  We walked in, we got three pieces of paper, rules, the procedures and map.  Then we were handed a letter.  The letter matched a location on the map.
The woman organizing the mob came up and said, "Tonight you are acting, you're role is "a shopper." A part of the magic of a flash mob is no one knows it's going to happen so DON'T TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS."
Oops!

This is everyone listening to the directions not to text their friends


5:30 We learned the dance.  200 people were in one room, and 100 people were in dance studio.

I was in the Dance Studio.  Behind me was a mother and her sister with four month old twins in snuggies-- not the blanket with sleeves but the baby carrier. In front of me was a five year old, her 7 year old sister and their mother. To my left was an elderly couple. 

Everyone.  It was everyone.

6:15 We learned the entire dance... flawless.  Sort of.

6:30 We were dismissed and we had to head over to the mall.

7:05 Cindy and I FINALLY get to the mall... there was a LOT of traffic.

7:10 Cindy and I shed our coats and purses and left them in the car.  And walked the 1/4 mile to the mall, in 30 degrees.  Ok we didn't walked-- we ran.

7:15 We were in the mall, and I was HUNGRY-  I played the role of a HUNGRY SHOPPER very well.  We went into Williams Sonoma and snagged some free bark--- I know where all free food is in the mall.

Someone leaked the new time because the upper level was FULL of people. Also there were 300 people without coats in one section of the mall, which was sort of a dead give away something was going to happen.  75 people were waiting in line for Auntie Annie's Pretzels.   70 were in the flash mob, 5 people wanted a pretzel.

I guess that's why they started  early.  15 minutes early.

Cindy yelled "It's STARTING"  What's the point in keeping it a secret?

We rushed to our locations. 

The music started. We danced.

You can see Cindy and I at the 1:30 second mark.  If you missed it, here it is:

I'm the one on the left  with the black and white hat... more of that to come.


Then we vanished.

I bought my daughter mittens.  I took my role of a shopper VERY seriously.

Then we went out to dinner with the David Greisman- he runs a website called Columbia.patch.com and our friend Mo wrote a GREAT piece on the Flash mob.  His video is pretty great because you can see a couple trapped by the mob. 

It was the first official flash mob in Howard County history.  Rumor has it there was another one on Thursday night. One a week is good for me. 

Amazing night.

Cindy is on the left, Mo is on the right.  The cool chick wearing the cow hat, that's me.  There should NEVER be a question as to why I don't have a profile picture.