GISHWHES 2012: The week that changed my life

Last week I participated in G.I.S.H.W.H.E.S (the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen). What is GISHWHES? Well that is a hard question to answer. The long answer can be found here: GISHWHES Super-Wiki It describes lasts year’s hunt more than this years but you get the idea.

Basically it is an internet based scavenger hunt started by actor Misha Collins. (If you are keeping score at home I am a big Supernatural fan and he plays the part of Castiel, the fallen angel that eventually becomes God and is currently “missing” somewhere in purgatory and whom I named my dog after. Bonus points awarded for knowing my dog’s registered name is, “Webfoot’s Heaven’s Missing an Angel” and his doggy grandfather was named Misha and I didn’t know that until after I named Castiel.) In 2011 participants in the hunt were awarded a Guinness World Record for getting the most pledges to do a Random Act of Kindness. This year our goal was to get 100,000 pledges to break last year’s record.

The Scavenger Hunt consisted of over 150 items that our team of 15 had to make, do, photograph, or video in 5 days: Item List Our team consisted of Steve and I and 8 other people I knew or were known by another member of our team (Team Ottawa!!!) Six of us are a part of a group of long-time online friends that we call Zen & Chocolate, then we added 2 husbands and 2 friends and had a team of 10. That left 5 open spots when registration ended. We were combined with 5 young ladies from across the country. We had pretty good luck with the make up of our team with the exception of one person who was enthusiastic at the beginning and volunteered to do some big items and then unfortunately kind of disappeared by the end of the game. But it was all good because it was more than made up for with the enthusiasm of the rest of the team.

Team Ottawa totally blew me away with their talent and bravery. Just to illustrate what I’m talking about take into consideration just a few of their contributions:

Maxisaurus! Item #65 Create a 2 foot-high dinosaur out of sanitary napkins. 50 points

Three of you dress up like frogs and play "leapfrog" in your local Starbucks or chain coffee shop. We must see patrons and must hear "Ribbit!" each time you leap. 31 points

A stop-motion film depicting the two by two loading of Noah's arc and the ensuing flood.

Team California Dreaming (Nic, Paul & Carina) came up with some awesome stuff too:

Recite these lines from Edna St. Vincent Milay's poem, "First Fig": "my candle burns at both ends---It will not last the night;---But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends----It gives a lovely light," with a candle burning at both ends in front of your face. No other sources of light may be visible. In the background, we must hear the droning howl of Hurricane Sandy. 19 points

Make a children's doll from items found in your refrigerator or pantry. Go ahead and really creep us out with this one.
24 points

Calendar item: A photo of a scantily clad fireman (or firemen) whose skimpy attire is made entirely from kale. Model must be posing in front of a fire truck. Bonus points if, behind him, water is shooting up into the air from a hose or hydrant.
71 points

Knit a scarf that is at least 12 feet long and is being worn by 3 people at one time.
32 points

Not to be outdone Sarah in Minnesota went balls to wall (as she is known to do!) and gave us these:

We've all heard of a "flea circus". What do "flea strip clubs" look like?
28 points

Calendar item: Wear cheese and wear it well. You cannot be wearing anything but cheese. You may use any type of cheese you wish. Supermodel it posed next to or on a classic car (a classic car is any car that predates 1980.)
98 points

Steve and I had so much fun together coming up with and executing our contributions. I only made him join the hunt so if by some crazy chance we won he could go on the grand prize trip to Scotland with me. But he took it and ran with it and continually surprised me with his enthusiasm. My teammates that know him as my mild-mannered conservative husband were extremely impressed.

You and a friend must take at least 50 of your stuffed animals/dolls on a field trip to a grocery store. All of the stuffed animals/dolls must EITHER be attached to your clothing or in a grocery cart or both.
63 points

A person in a business suit with a leather briefcase jumping into leaf pile.
18 points

A dog taking a human for a walk. Human must be on all fours and have a collar around their neck and the dog must have the leash in his mouth. (From Michelle Rogatski)
34 points

Kilt made entirely of sliced cucumbers. Must be worn by a man. (From Xiomara Dilrosun)
104 points

The "Lydia Easter": Recreate a scene from your favorite movie. Hold on, not so fast! You must film this scene in the EXACT SAME LOCATION that it was filmed in the movie (same bus stop, restaurant, park, castle, shark's belly, etc.) The actors must be dressed the same, same props, etc. The more identical the scene the more points you will receive. Extra points for depicting a scene from one of Lydia's favorite movies: "Mao's Last Dancer" or any of the "Harry Potter" movies. (2 minutes) 100 points

We volunteered to do the movie scene because the Chicago area had been the scene for many great movies; Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Blues Brothers, Groundhog Day (Woodstock,IL) and Road to Perdition (Geneva, IL) But we had trouble rounding up extras and actors along with finding the time to go to those locations and work out a convincingly accurate scene. We were about to give up but in the last hours, literally, we decided to go downtown St. Charles and down Munger Rd. in Wayne/Bartlett and get some footage to edit together for our 2 minute version of Munger Rd. We had finally watched this local wonder over Halloween (I don’t think I made it all the way through) and figured between what we remembered and what was in the online trailer we could do okay. Plus we were pretty sure we’d be the only team that lived in St. Charles and would do this movie.

The time and fun I spent doing these things with Steve was the best part for me. I’m not even sure I can put it into words. We communicated, we worked together, we laughed (until I cried when trying to get cucumbers to hold together and cover his junk on the patio) and we did something new and a little risky together. After 23 years it is hard to find the new in a relationship sometimes. To all the men out there, do you want your woman to think you are sexy and awesome? The key is to surprise her, make her laugh and be willing to be vulnerable and daring with her. Other people telling me that my man is fabulous really helps too.

Overall this has been a great experience and I’d do it again. Members of our team are already planning how to do better next year and there is talk about putting together a group blog where we can continue the fun all year long. We are talking about taking the lists from 2011 & 2012 and completing more items and redoing some of them.

The one thing all of us know for sure we will be doing more and more of over the year are more Random Acts of Kindness. Little things like holding the door for someone and letting someone go ahead of you in line at the grocery or post office during the busy holiday season to bigger things like sponsoring a family in need for their Thanksgiving meal or their holiday gifts. I used to donate blood every 6-8 weeks until I had some health issues that made me ineligible and unable to donate. I’m feeling better and haven’t gotten a tattoo in over a year so I’m going to have a big steak and spinach meal and try again very soon.  Once you start looking for ways to be kind you see them everywhere and it starts to become a natural state of being.

Our RAK video. Team Ottawa bought coffee for patrons at their local Tim Horton’s. The last man is a war vet and thanked them.

I will leave you with the piece of advice our team wants to share with the world: