A most interesting weekend!
We are living in a world of uncertainty. Our state closed schools six weeks ago and the governor issued a stay at home order five weeks ago. The stay at home order is currently in place for another week, but there is much speculation about whether or not that will be extended.
Social media presents a range of opinions, with some folks just trying to get through this, some begging others to listen to authorities, others certain that this is all some big hoax designed by the government to control our minds with technology, etc.
The divisiveness and uncertainty have been taxing to say the least, but this past weekend was a most interesting bright spot in the darkness. It all started with this text from Misha a few weeks ago:
The premise was simple enough to be intriguing, vague enough to make me a little nervous and would benefit a great cause.
Consider my interest piqued!
I texted a few of my crazy friends and started to put a team together. Since only a few of my friends were crazy enough to try something like this, I talked my middle daughter into joining us and my hubby and son into helping out. Our team was still rather small, so we were added to several other teams for a total of 15 members a few days before the start.
In the days leading up to the event, the excitement began to build. We had never done this before so we had no idea what to expect. We began to scour social media sites related to previous, much longer hunts and began to get some hints about how to prepare. The best advice we got was to be prepared for anything and to have fun with it.
The night before the hunt was to start we had a reason to get to bed at a decent time on a Friday night for the first time in months. The morning of the day of the hunt, I woke up excited. I woke the kids with the call of "The list drops in 1 hour!" We haven't been so excited to wake up in weeks!
When it was time for the list to post we all sat around the computer refreshing our pages and scouring social media to confirm with others our excitement and frustration at waiting. As soon as the list posted, we excitedly giggled our way through the list, marveling and laughing at the silly challenges, quickly making a list of all the ones we wanted to try and comparing it with the list of challenges our teammates had claimed.
We knocked out the simpler ones and got a head start on the more complicated ones before I had to leave for a couple hours. As I was pulling out of the parking lot the enormity of what this hunt was doing began to really sink in.
I was floating on a cloud of excitement for the first time in weeks. When someone asked how my day was going, I could honestly answer that it was great! I reached out to friends and family I hadn't talked to in a while and asked them for help. I didn't dread heading home after my essential tasks that day, instead I rushed home ready to tackle the next challenge.
I didn't realize how much I needed something different, something look forward to, something beyond the norm that we are experiencing now.
We submitted most of our chosen challenges that night. As we were finishing up for the night, my son, who had helped us with most of the challenges, reflected on the day and declared that he had really enjoyed himself.
I'm amazed at the times we are living in. Six months, a year, 5 years, 10 years from now we will look back on this period of time with a different perspective and I wonder what we will remember. I know this weekend will be a bright spot I will remember!
This was supposed to be the end of this post...the part where I inserted photos and links to show you what we did. But then something I hadn't expected happened, or rather, kept happening. What I hadn't expected was the way the excitement of the weekend hasn't quit. I wasn't expecting the GISHers, the community of people to which I was introduced and welcomed into.
More than 24 hours after the last challenge was submitted this community is sharing their creations and experiences. We are celebrating one another and encouraging those who don't feel their contributions quite measured up. There is no talk of politics, of who is right and who is wrong. There is no judgment or criticism.
So many people are sharing how this event and this community have been just what they needed at this time. I echo those sentiments. I had no idea going into it that this is what I needed.
We got to act like total lunatics with thousands of others for just one day, and now we are celebrating our individual talents and achievements. Every time I open Facebook, my newsfeed is filled with a new thread of GISHers sharing their creations and asking for others to share theirs. I'm seeing various levels of creativity and uniqueness. I'm loving it!
Okay, now I'm going to end this post with photos and links of what we did. I'm still learning how this weekend truly affected me, but if I keep writing, I'll never get this posted. Enjoy!
Our team entry for #34 - "As all Gishers know, "Zoombie" is the latest in zombie videoconferencing. Let's see one."
We dressed as zombies to have a Zoombie Conference Call! (see the video hubby put together for this here)
My entry for #23 - "If you were to win the gold medal for "Grand Master Of The Organized Refrigerator" with your food somehow stacked, ordered or displayed using some type of beautiful, unique, or jaw-dropping organizational display or filing system, what would it look like? - Inspired by Tricia."
Our entry for #36 - "Display a roll of toilet paper like the treasure it is. - Dana D."
(hubby helped with the photo effects on this one!)
Our entry for #18 - "Have your kids explain or demonstrate their best strategy or argument for tricking your parents into letting you watch TV." was this video.
Our entry for #24 - "Tampon Jenga. (You may not unwrap them -- this is not a time to be wasteful.)" was this video. This is harder than it sounds and extremely entertaining.
Our entry for #42 - "Here comes the airplane! A child feeding an adult soup, pudding, or cereal using CDC-recommended distancing guidelines of at least 6 feet away - the longer the "spoon," the better."was this video.
Our entry for #53 - "Since we can no longer give each other big, warm, cuddly hugs, it's time we invent the official hug or hug routine of social distancing. Props, noises, physical impossibiliites... they are all welcome. Let's see two people warmly "embracing" each other with "the new COVID hug" (obviously from a distance of at least 6 feet)." needed more cowbell as seen in this video.
Social media presents a range of opinions, with some folks just trying to get through this, some begging others to listen to authorities, others certain that this is all some big hoax designed by the government to control our minds with technology, etc.
The divisiveness and uncertainty have been taxing to say the least, but this past weekend was a most interesting bright spot in the darkness. It all started with this text from Misha a few weeks ago:
Consider my interest piqued!
I texted a few of my crazy friends and started to put a team together. Since only a few of my friends were crazy enough to try something like this, I talked my middle daughter into joining us and my hubby and son into helping out. Our team was still rather small, so we were added to several other teams for a total of 15 members a few days before the start.
In the days leading up to the event, the excitement began to build. We had never done this before so we had no idea what to expect. We began to scour social media sites related to previous, much longer hunts and began to get some hints about how to prepare. The best advice we got was to be prepared for anything and to have fun with it.
The night before the hunt was to start we had a reason to get to bed at a decent time on a Friday night for the first time in months. The morning of the day of the hunt, I woke up excited. I woke the kids with the call of "The list drops in 1 hour!" We haven't been so excited to wake up in weeks!
When it was time for the list to post we all sat around the computer refreshing our pages and scouring social media to confirm with others our excitement and frustration at waiting. As soon as the list posted, we excitedly giggled our way through the list, marveling and laughing at the silly challenges, quickly making a list of all the ones we wanted to try and comparing it with the list of challenges our teammates had claimed.
We knocked out the simpler ones and got a head start on the more complicated ones before I had to leave for a couple hours. As I was pulling out of the parking lot the enormity of what this hunt was doing began to really sink in.
I was floating on a cloud of excitement for the first time in weeks. When someone asked how my day was going, I could honestly answer that it was great! I reached out to friends and family I hadn't talked to in a while and asked them for help. I didn't dread heading home after my essential tasks that day, instead I rushed home ready to tackle the next challenge.
I didn't realize how much I needed something different, something look forward to, something beyond the norm that we are experiencing now.
We submitted most of our chosen challenges that night. As we were finishing up for the night, my son, who had helped us with most of the challenges, reflected on the day and declared that he had really enjoyed himself.
I'm amazed at the times we are living in. Six months, a year, 5 years, 10 years from now we will look back on this period of time with a different perspective and I wonder what we will remember. I know this weekend will be a bright spot I will remember!
This was supposed to be the end of this post...the part where I inserted photos and links to show you what we did. But then something I hadn't expected happened, or rather, kept happening. What I hadn't expected was the way the excitement of the weekend hasn't quit. I wasn't expecting the GISHers, the community of people to which I was introduced and welcomed into.
More than 24 hours after the last challenge was submitted this community is sharing their creations and experiences. We are celebrating one another and encouraging those who don't feel their contributions quite measured up. There is no talk of politics, of who is right and who is wrong. There is no judgment or criticism.
So many people are sharing how this event and this community have been just what they needed at this time. I echo those sentiments. I had no idea going into it that this is what I needed.
We got to act like total lunatics with thousands of others for just one day, and now we are celebrating our individual talents and achievements. Every time I open Facebook, my newsfeed is filled with a new thread of GISHers sharing their creations and asking for others to share theirs. I'm seeing various levels of creativity and uniqueness. I'm loving it!
Okay, now I'm going to end this post with photos and links of what we did. I'm still learning how this weekend truly affected me, but if I keep writing, I'll never get this posted. Enjoy!
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We dressed as zombies to have a Zoombie Conference Call! (see the video hubby put together for this here)
My entry for #23 - "If you were to win the gold medal for "Grand Master Of The Organized Refrigerator" with your food somehow stacked, ordered or displayed using some type of beautiful, unique, or jaw-dropping organizational display or filing system, what would it look like? - Inspired by Tricia."
Our entry for #36 - "Display a roll of toilet paper like the treasure it is. - Dana D."
(hubby helped with the photo effects on this one!)
Our entry for #18 - "Have your kids explain or demonstrate their best strategy or argument for tricking your parents into letting you watch TV." was this video.
Our entry for #24 - "Tampon Jenga. (You may not unwrap them -- this is not a time to be wasteful.)" was this video. This is harder than it sounds and extremely entertaining.
Our entry for #42 - "Here comes the airplane! A child feeding an adult soup, pudding, or cereal using CDC-recommended distancing guidelines of at least 6 feet away - the longer the "spoon," the better."was this video.
Our entry for #53 - "Since we can no longer give each other big, warm, cuddly hugs, it's time we invent the official hug or hug routine of social distancing. Props, noises, physical impossibiliites... they are all welcome. Let's see two people warmly "embracing" each other with "the new COVID hug" (obviously from a distance of at least 6 feet)." needed more cowbell as seen in this video.
~Team MaskedgishersLovesCovidCorvidsLovesYo!LovesMadPuppetPeople 2020~
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