Valentine's Day Ninjas!

Valentine's Day Ninjas @ APK

Whether you love Valentine's Day or you loathe it, ninjas are awesome. Just stay with me for a second. This tradition, that blends our ridiculous love holiday with ninja badassery started many many years ago at the University of Michigan, the alma mater of my fantastic roommates. The idea is to dress as Valentine's Day-themed ninjas (think pink, red, purple, hearts, etc.) and run around handing out candy, cards, and teddy bears. This year, we decided to continue the tradition in DC. We gathered a group of fellow ninjas who were willing to join the adventure and bought out the Valentine's Day section at Walmart (don't judge). Each of us left the house with one stuffed animal to give out to a special person, and a bag full of candy and handwritten Valentine's cards. Remember the ones you gave out to your classmates in elementary school? Yep, we used those. My Little Pony, Superman, Disney Princesses, and Outer Space-themed. It was pretty great.

Valentine's Day Cards! To: you! From: Ninjas! :)

We started at Union Station, ran around the Capitol and went back towards Union to go inside by the shops. We got very mixed reactions. Some people weren't even phased. They just looked at us and kept walking. Others were extremely weirded out. They did not want our candy. And frankly, they did not deserve it for being so close-minded.

Luckily, others were super pumped. We said Happy Valentine's Day via cards and candy to commuters, parents and children, couples, security guards, Capitol Police, tourists, and more. The tourists and children had the best reactions. They were always so surprised but excited. It was really fun to brighten up someone's day like that. I think the highlight of the adventure for me was ninja-ing (it's a verb) over to a little girl, kneeling down, and handing her a fluffy white teddy bear. She had been very shy before that, observing from afar, but when I handed her the bear, she completely lit up. There is really nothing like a child's reaction to receiving an unexpected gift, especially a stuffed animal. She was so cute!

After posing for a photo with the little girl for her family, we continued doing parkour and running around near the Capitol with our Valentine's Day treats. We even made friends with the Capitol Police while we were over there. They took a picture with us too!

Valentine's Ninjas with Capitol Police (notice the policeman on the left tried to ninja-fy himself!)

Handstands at the Capitol 

As it started getting dark, we went back to Union Station to spread the love inside the shops. Unfortunately, when you're dressed as a ninja, it makes the security guards very nervous. Especially when you're doing flips and rolling around on the floor like 007. Personally, I find it amusing that the Capitol Police were not bothered by our ninja masks but the security inside of the Union Station shops were... hmm. Anyways, we only lasted about 5 minutes inside before they kicked us out. Boo.

We finished giving out all of our cards and almost all of our candy. We also succeeded in giving away each of our stuffed animals to very happy children. I was a little disappointed by the DC-ers who refused our cheer and ninja love, but that's alright. I've been a bitter "Singles Awareness Day" celebrator before, but why be bitter when you can be happy and playful? No, I didn't have a change of heart (haha) because my relationship status changed. Still single. Just would rather shower people with ninja love and treats than put in the effort to be unhappy.

We got so many amazing reactions from people and it made my day! We also got lots of laughs and "what in the F%*&?!"s which was entertaining too. It was somewhat thrown together at the last minute, but definitely worth doing. I hope to continue the tradition next year!

Thanks to my fellow ninjas for an awesome afternoon!

xo A