There's Fun, And There's Frivolous

As mentioned a few posts ago, I'm participating in the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen (GISHWHES) this year. It started on Monday night, and the item list is...odd. Yes, "odd" is a good word.

I've volunteered to get a pic of myself hugging a uniformed veteran. I have a former Marine friend who is now in the Army Reserves who has said he'd be happy to help me with this, so hopefully we can coordinate a time to get together before Sunday, when everything is due--and hopefully he doesn't mind having coffee with me in his fatigues.

I also offered to take on this madness:

Item #54: [IMAGE] Elmo Gone Wrong. What would a Tickle-Me-Elmo look like if it had a serious crystal meth problem? 31 points.

 At first, it just seemed like a lark. Find a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll and mark him up with a black Sharpie. Then a series of events happened that made me completely lose my enthusiasm for this item:

1. I realized that a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll costs about $30. I'd rather not spend $30 on a toy I'm going to immediately destroy, especially considering my limited financial circumstances these days. That $30 would buy enough gas to get me around for 3-4 days.
2. Hurricane Sandy happened. Yes, I'm a whole country away from that, but this morning, as I drove around looking for a blasted toy, it occurred to me that there are families who lost everything in that storm, and I'm about to spend $30 on a toy so I can destroy it when there are children in New York and New Jersey who have no toys now. Nothing. There are children I've worked with who would love to have a brand-new toy, that's not a hand-me-down.
3.  Then I spent almost two hours this morning driving around looking for Tickle-Me-Elmo. The guy who runs GISHWHES, Misha Collins (an actor) is specific about "interpretations" of the items, so using a regular Elmo doll wouldn't cut it. And after WalMart didn't have Tickle-Me-Elmo, and then Target didn't have it, and then even Toys 'R Us could only offer LOL Elmo (oh, good grief), I got really frustrated that I was wasting gas and time looking for a toy that I would take home and immediately destroy.
4. It occurred to me that making light of meth addiction using Elmo is...just kinda tacky. Actually, it's hugely tacky.

So I came home, Elmo-less. I've asked on Facebook if I can buy anyone's used Tickle-Me-Elmo for $10, so we'll see if anything comes of that. If not, one of my teammates can take the task, I'm sure. But suddenly, my heart is not in it as much as it was. I'll do the task if the appropriate toy presents itself, because I told my team I would. And I'll happily hug the veteran (he's very huggable) and do whatever else I can do to help the team.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll go back to Target on my next pay day and buy a gorgeous, brand-new Elmo toy of some kind, and proudly give it to Toys For Tots at Christmas.