Oh my gosh, you guys! I’m so excited to talk about GISHWHES! So you may recall from last week that GISHWHES stands for the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen. It’s a massive scavenger Hunt that takes place the first week of August. Players compete from anywhere in the world, including their own home, creating weird and beautiful “art” online and in the world, doing crazy fun activities, and committing heartwarming acts of kindness.

So last week – all week – was our scavenger hunt. Our team was composed of Ryan and I and two or our dear friends from Decatur, and 11 other people from around the world. (Each team has to have 15 people, so after our initial four people – they grouped us together with other teams to get us to 15.) Saturday morning, July 30th, they released the list and we started working on items to try and complete as many items as possible. Our team was signed up as a “laid back team” meaning we weren’t worried about being super competitive. But team Lost Scoundrels was amazing and we knocked out at least 36 of the more than 170+ items on the list.

So I thought I’d share the items Ryan and I worked on last week with all of you today!

Item 1 – There’s something you used to do for your significant other when you first met them. Something that made them smile… It’s been years since you did this. Do it now.

(When Ryan and I first started dating – we would always write each other little love letters and leave them on our cars for each other at school. He was at Millikin and I was at St. Teresa so it was a wonderful little surprise for each of us to come out to our car and find a note.)

Item 32 – We all learned from the movie “The Secret” that vision boards and positive affirmations have the power to help you manifest really important things in your life like sports cars and boundless riches. Now I’m sure everyone probably wants a red sports car and immeasurable wealth, but we want to see your vision board that depicts aspects of your life that transcend the trappings of material status. Make a collage from magazines of the things which cannot be bought or sold that you would like more of in your life.

(You guys know what we want in our future… babies, family. So my vision board was filled of images of children and families and babies. Of course there’s some fitness pics for my fitness goals and lots of peaceful outdoor spaces because someday I’d love to finish our outdoor patio area.)

Item 95 – Submit a screenshot of your post. Kilroy was a meme (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here) before memes were cool. Kilroy never grows old though, and now he is so hipster! Bring “Hipster Kilroy” into his well-deserved glory as a popular Kilroy Hipster meme. Get at least 100 likes on your post

(So this was super exciting! I’ve never had so many likes before so seeing all of these come rolling and having so many people helping us get there was phenomenal!)

Item 99 – The bees are disappearing from our planet. This is particularly tragic for gishers, given our reliance on honey for getting things to stick to our skin (oh yeah, and also because we kind of need them to pollinate the flowering plants on Earth, which we depend on for food). Help save the bees by establishing a milkweed garden, creating a painting or mural honoring the bees, helping out at your local apiary protesting the use of glysophates, supporting an organization dedicated to bee preservation, or in any other way you see fit.

(This was Ryan’s creation. I love seeing the way he paints because it’s so different from my own.)

Item 101 – It’s been a very hot summer! Help out the first responders in your area by bringing ice cream to your local police, fire or EMS department while dressed as the world famous Dessert Fairy.

(My first cosplay outfit. I decide the Dessert Fairy probably looks like a sundae complete with cherry on top. So with Ryan’s help – we put this costuem together Friday night so we could go deliver sweets to the firemen on Saturday afternoon!)

Item 107 – Did you see the startling news on the front page of the newspaper today? Of course you did. Using Photoshop, replace the front page photo with a photo you’ve taken of a play-dough re-enactment of the original photo. Did that make sense? No? Figure it out. You are not allowed to email support for ANY clarification on this item. (What I lack in eloquence, I make up for with capriciousness.)

(I was incredibly impressed with my play dough ability… I had no idea I could do this.)

Item 111 – Magazines get a lot of flak for airbrushing models, promoting unrealistic expectations and contributing to body image issues. Take a photo from a magazine that depicts a body that is an unrealistic ideal (and likely heavily Photoshopped to remove wrinkles, blemishes, and curves) and, using Photoshop, recreate what you believe to be the original, unretouched photo. Your Photoshopped image must include all of
the following: additional limbs, machinery, tentacles, and at least one additional enhancement. Then caption the two photos side-by-side and post to social media. Under the original commercial image you must caption, “#makeup” and under your photoshopped image caption, “#nomakeup.” Tag the post with #MakeupNoMakeup. Submit a screenshot of your post. (Not gonna lie – this was probably way more fun than it should have been. Making a realistic double chin was so satisfying too 😉 )

(Not gonna lie – this was probably way more fun than it should have been. Making a realistic double chin was so satisfying too 😉 )

Item 119 – Your pet has just released their first, much anticipated, heavy metal rock album. Show us the cover art.

(Huge shout out to my baby brother, Jeremy, who was my puppy rangler for this shoot!)

Item 152 – Write a poem in binary so the zeros and ones also form a beautiful pattern.

(This was a fun little challenge too! Loved converting my short poem into binary.)

Item 164 – We have Declared August 1st to be a new international holiday: It’s Retro Twitter Day. Retweet something you posted 4 years ago today with a comment. Hashtag it #RetroTwitterDay.

All our other teammates were incredibly awesome! I loved seeing what everyone else created. One of our members mad ea circuit board dress. Another went jogging on an airport moving sidewalk. We had superheroes changing poopy diapers and Trumpunzel paintings. It was amazing. So I have to share a peek at the amazing members of our team as well!

Item 114 – Grid image of all 15 of your team members (5 rows of 3 columns). Let’s see each member of your team dressed in some way emblematic of that member’s state, region or country. For example, if a team member is from New York, the photo might show that member of the team wearing a yankees hat while eating a slice of pizza. If a member(s) of your team is MIA, feel free to add your favorite picture of Misha in their place

So that is just a tiny glimpse at the fun we had last week! In the next 60 days or so we should find out how many points we officially earned and if we earned any prizes for our work either! But I thought it might be fun for everyone to see what we’ve been working on 😉