Scavenge, much??

This is my fifth year doing the GISHWHES, this year known only as GISH: the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt. It's an awesome, amazing fun time. It's also a little stressful and chaotic as everyone tries their best to make something out of the one-week-long, 200+ item scavenger-hunt-a-palooza.

And I have exhausted my friends' list. Even with the couple of relatives that should be signing up in the next few days, we'll only have 7. Minimum group size is 9, and as much as I hated my first year doing GISH with resentful, angry strangers, it looks like I am back to that state of waiting for the GISH gnomes to grant us some random weirdos who may or may not choose to participate at all.

Is that better than known people who choose not to participate at all?

I have no idea, but anything is better than the stress of trying to get more people interested. I think there are more reasons to be bogged down this year comparing to years before, and more reasons to be semi-permanently exhausted. At least that's what I am shouting back over my natural paranoia, which is running through its thousandth chorus of hateful-schoolyard-brat singing: "No one wants to play with you."

So, if you read this and think: what is that GISH thing? Would I maybe like to participate?
Here's the info:

1. Entry fee is about $20, excess to running costs paid to Random Acts charity.

2. List items include the wacky, the wild, the kind, the fun. Not everything is fun for everyone. That's why there's 200 items. If you look through an old list and can find 3-5 things you could easily do and would want to do within a few days using materials you have or people you know, you should sign up.

3. Item submissions take the form of photos or videos you shoot, edit if necessary (but there are rules on the usage of Photoshop) and upload, now to the app unless otherwise stated in the item. Some things wind up on social media as part of the task but otherwise nothing gets shared publicly until after the end of the hunt. Videos usually go to Youtube, unlisted or public.

4. It's a lot of fun. You should try it.

5. Winning team gets a trip to New Zealand. We're not going to win. We're going to enjoy ourselves. But if you look at the lists of old and only shake your head, perhaps it's not your game.

6. But really, try it out.