Who would have thought we would search for a big stick for a week?

Its hard to believe how fast time has flown by, and this past week. Starting last Wednesday morning at 8AM, we having been searching Meredith's campus, high and low, for a stick, what we like to call a CROOK! We were serious. The night before the week-long event started, we even got henna tattoos of crooks on our right wrist - I totally felt like I was in some type of cult or something!

This is a tradition at Meredith in which the seniors hide the crook and the juniors have 1 week to find it. Each day we are given clues and have to use them to help us find the location of the crook. One of the big rules is that wherever the crook is hidden, at least one consecutive inch of it must be showing, but is can be camouflaged. Here is a breakdown of the clues we were given:

Wednesday: Rock-On.

Thursday: Evens.

Friday: Print.

Monday: Quarters!

Tuesday: Gateway.

Wednesday:

I knew you expected my clues to rhyme

and honestly all things happen in good Time
the Halls you have roamed to hunt me down
could lead you to Wonderland or straight out of town
You have often walked near, and in the blink of an eye
it seems my hiding place has been hard to come by
Weather you find me here, or you Mae find me there
and I have to admit you sure did prepare
with your theories and schemes, I heard you got swagger
but I'll freak the heck out if I get found by Mick Jaggerbe sure not to pass by me with such distain
for Belted to one place I will not always remain
I've been hoping for one of you to shed some light
and with the power of the ring it's possible you might
just as a chain of ivy is as strong as it's winkest link
you can only hope to find me if you decide to think
the scores that you keep, Playing these games that we do
will only grow larger and to this I am true
I am fine where I am, ask my brother or niece,
and if someone tell you different, they must be from Peaceladies don't be cranky while looking for me
for all shall be revealed come fourth-your-tee
unless someone like your class cares a whole awful lot
The Crook (that's me) will never be found, it's not
Legacies aren't built on slate, sand or stone
but by the women who take Steps and make each day their own
The Class of Ten wishes you luck and sends you on your way
for the time has come the walrus said and suddenly it was May.

Last Wednesday morning we started at 8 and by 8:50AM, we had found 2 fake crooks already. By 10:30, we had found one more. By 5:45, we had found 2 more. Making a total of 5 fakes for day one!

Thursday brought us no luck and we continued to look. Friday night, we found one in a large bush near the front of campus. Saturday we found another behind a shutter on the alumnae house. We continued to look high and low and still no luck until this afternoon.

The end of the hunt was at 4:30PM today, so we were in the homestretch and were all most ready to give up. I was not on campus because I was at class, off campus, but about 4:15, I got a wonderful text that said "WE FOUND THE CROOK!" At 4:13, with 17 minutes remaining, we had found it!!!!! I instantly had whole body chills and was so excited I didn't know what to do! Luckily, we were out of class within a few minutes and I could race back to campus to celebrate. The whole way back to campus I was shaking with excitement and just could not believe that we had found it! Congrats to Halie Sue Smith for not giving up on the searching and finding the real crook. She found the crook in the large bush that Brittany had found a fake in Friday night.

During all of our celebration and sighs of relief, we all agreed, if someone had told us 10 years ago that we would be going to a school that has a ton of "silly" (thoughts of those who do not understand these time-honored traditions) traditions, and we would spend a week, searching, and digging, and climbing down in manholes looking for a stick, we would tell them they were crazy! But, here we are and we found that darn stick before our time ran out! It's hard to believe my life to be anything different and it's days like today that make me proud to be a Meredith Angel and especially and ODD one!

Tomorrow is Stunt, another Meredith tradition, a lot like field day and mini-Cornhuskin'! Can't wait - all of the 2011er's are on a high from finding the Crook so this will hopefully spill over to tomorrows competitions!