My week as a Gisher

If you’ve noticed that I pretty much dropped off the grid this week, you can blame (or thank) GISHWHES, the international scavenger hunt hosted by Misha Collins of the CW’s Supernatural. For one week, geekdom crowns Collins its prince of mayhem, a job in which he shows great skill.

I decided to participate in GISHWHES (Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen) this year to see what the fuss was all about. It’s touted by past participants as a life changing experience. Hunt participants, dubbed “gishers”, are challenged to create art, reach out to their communities, conduct acts of kindness, and break the humdrum of everyday life with insane antics. 

I was placed on a team of 15, comprised of folks from around the world, and we anxiously awaited for the list of items to be released. And it was, 180+ items ranging from creating a gingerbread house neighborhood showing urban blight to getting the fire department to create an impromptu waterpark for local kids to getting a New York Times bestselling author to read from the California DMV website for 15 seconds.

I don’t know about life-changing, but it certainly was a week I’ll never forget marked by nights not getting to bed until 3 a.m. and excessive eye rolls from family, friends, and co-workers. Crazy as some of the items were, I quickly realized that it wasn’t about the tasks themselves, but the journey. Tasks took creativity, ingenuity, humility, and a heaving helping of courage. Some were even disguised teaching experiences, forcing gishers to look up uncommon terms or figure out government processes.

Thanks to my teammates: April Hickle, Lacey Hickle, Brooklyn Hahn, Katie Jewel, Erin Cockram, Kirsty du Plessis, Emily Colvard, Rebekah Young, Tessa Gillespie, Megan Herbold, Brooke Manning, Candace Lopez, Juliet Fenlon, and my boys, Justin and Reece.

We were united across the world in our effort.

 

Also a HUGE ABNOSOME THANK YOU to Heather Hildenbrand, Silver Screen VII, and Tony Staley for helping me with some of the tasks. Here are some of my favorite moments from the week. Enjoy!

Batman playing Bingo – wonder if we get bonus points for Spider-Man tagging along

 

 

Challenge a movie theatre employee to arm wrestling for a movie ticket. Thanks, Zac, for being a great sport.

Create the next hipster facial hair trend

Short Story by a Sci-Fi Author (must include Misha, the elopus elephant-octopus mascot, and the Queen of England)

Heather, you’re the best!!

Read Huck Finn with only light from lightning bugs

 

Proof that unicorns fart rainbows (no photoshopping allowed)

 

If one of the actors from Supernatural was half animal, what would he be?

My submission was jaRED PANDAlecki and as per the item instructions, I actually had to tweet the photo to him!

 

Zombie buys toilet paper

Walk on water

 

Cat ordering from a food truck

 

These are just a few of the tons of submissions our team rounded up. Over 180 items on the list and I lost count, but I know we had to have been nearing 100 by the end. Not too shabby for a team of first year gishers. Also, I wanted to give a special shout-out to teammate Katie Jewel for her hilarious William Shatner/Larry King love scene editing. Definitely GISHWHES Hall of Fame material. That’s a video I’ll save for another time.