Feed Living Happy: NYC Bucket: #2 Participate in a Flash Mob

2. ~~PARTICIPATE IN A FLASH MOB~~

Original Bucket List: HERE

Of all the things on my list, this one was a biggy for me. I think I have wanted to be a part of a flash mob ever since I first learned about them and saw this one on one of my favorite shows from back in the day. Since moving to New York though, I learned that flash mobs come in all forms and can be used for all kinds of occasions.

Some of the best flash mobs are the ones that are used just for shock value or to make people laugh such as NYC's famous No Pants Subway Ride or really, anything created by Improv Everywhere. They're pretty great. A few years ago, I found myself up super late one night in my Brooklyn apartment just watching hours and hours of videos that they made. I was dying. Some of their stuff was so good. Personal favorite: Grocery Store Musical. Anywho... I've also seen flash mobs that people do for birthday surprises, proposals, and all kinds of celebrations.

So! In order to pull this little dream of mine off, I needed to find a group of flash mobbers who were down to let me get in on their mobbing. I did a little research and found this awesome organization called FLASH MOB AMERICA. They do flash mobs all across America (hence the name) and anyone can participate. You just check out their calendar and see when they're coming to your city. For NYC, there were two coming up. One of which was a birthday surprise mob but was set to be happening the following day. That was a little too soon. The next of which was for someone's marriage proposal, and it was set for April 6th which is also my mom's birthday. I thought, perfect! Good vibes for that date.

Once I signed up, they sent me two YouTube videos. One of which shows the dance that we have to learn, in full. The other is a step-by-step tutorial so that we can learn the dance. There was only going to be one rehearsal, the day of, three hours before the actual flash mob was set to take place. I convinced a girlfriend of mine to do this with me and we had practiced together one night a few days prior, so I was feeling pretty confident when we showed up to rehearsal. I was ready to go.

It happened to be the most beautiful, Spring-timey day on this particular Sunday. My friend and I met at the rehearsal studio in Chelsea around noon. At this point we had no idea where the actual flash mob proposal was going to be. It was all very secretive. When we got there, I was surprised at how many people showed up. There were at least a hundred. I was like daaaaaaaaaaayumm..... lets do this.

So we danced, and then we danced some more. It was so fun that it had me contemplating the idea of taking a dance class here. Or really, it just made me want to dance way more in general. I JUST WANNA DANCE. I do.

I snapped a photo.

It was actually really, really hot in there. They had some dumb building code that restricted us from opening the windows. We made the best of it though. At the end of rehearsal, they revealed the official location: The Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.

Yessssssss. I was so pumped! We had about an hour to get there and were roughly forty blocks south of the location. My friend and I decided to take advantage of the perfect weather and walk up. It was definitely one of those feel-good days.

We got there about five minutes before go-time. I started recognizing other 'dancers' in random places all around the fountain. The set up was that five people were going to start with the first two eight counts, then another ten or so jump in, then another 12, and so on until we are all dancing around this (hopefully) soon to be engaged couple.

If you're not familiar with the Bethesda Fountain, it looks like this:

The anticipation was killing me as I waited for the music to start. And then just as I began talking to some random girl, Jason DeRulo's "Marry Me" started playing out of surrounding speakers.

[dancing starts]

105 is the number that comes to my head

When I think of all the years I wanna be with you

Wake up every morning with you in my bed

That's precisely what I plan to do

[next group jumps in]

And you know one of these days when I get my money right

Buy you everything and show you the finer things in life

We'll forever be in love, so there aint no need to rush

But one day, I won't be able to ask you loud enough

[I jump in!]

I'll say will you marry me?

I swear that I will mean it

I'll say will you marry me?

...and a ladi-dadi-da the song goes on for a few more verses as more people chimed in. It was pretty amazing. When the song got to the last verse and slowed way down, all of us mobbers parted like the red sea as the main man walked his girlfriend down the center. We all gathered around in a circle. He said something to her that I couldn't quite hear and then got down on one knee.

There were tears all around! She said yes. I mean, of course she said yes. If you're going to put on a production as big as this, you'd better be pretty sure that she's down to marry you.

I got a couple photos, but got blocked by the people.