I first interacted with Miss Jean Louis in 2013. She was knowledgeable and efficient. To say I was impressed by her would be an understatement. But our time together would not last long, and I lost track of her for a few years. So this year I made a promise to myself that I would seek her out and aimed to learn more about the mystery that is Miss Jean Louis.
Miss Jean Louise was born in a cave in a remote area of New Zealand. Not that this was an ordinary cave. Nay, this was a well appointed "luxury cave". Gold plated fixtures, fine linens, strong leather furniture, and all the other accouterments that come with the word luxury. But all of this finery did not turn little Miss Jean Louis into a brat. Instead, she was proud of the mantle of being "born in a cave".
Her young life was fairly unremarkable. Tea parties with foreign ministers, and holidays with coal miners. She spent much time in a field near her home(cave) studying the migratory paths of the now-extinct slangaroos. Her heart was filled with jello and turtles. She was adored by small rodents and large rodents alike.
As she grew, Miss Jean Louis became more aware of the outside world. She began to question her place in the world. She learned that not everyone had a pet beaver or spent their summers wrapping pine trees in yarn sweaters. At this time, she made to decision to go out to the wide world and learn more. So she ventured on.
Those early years were extraordinary. Spending time with the Bedouin tribes learning the secrets of traditional flatbread, making gum wrapper necklaces with Maori elders, and being a scarf carrier for the Belgium ski team are just a few of the adventures she had. Life was full.
But she thought that life could be more full. Like fuller, or fullest. So she began the search for something that would fill that order. Something that would make her ordinary life (to her) a little more extraordinary. And that is when she met a real life angel. And her world was turned upside down.
Finding GISHWHES and Misha filled Miss Jean Louis with so much like and marshmallow fluff that she felt she couldn't contain it. She dove wholeheartedly into this absurd world that Misha had created. She started by punching holes in index cards, but over time she grew to become Misha's personal wrangler, a tall order indeed. She has grown from a naive New Zealand cave dweller to a less naive small loft apartment dweller with minuscule bureaucratic powers. She is truly a unique individual with a somewhat mediocre life history.
I hope you, the readers, now have a better understanding of this complex, interesting person that I have grown to appreciate. After all, everyone needs a hero.
(This article was written to complete an item in GISHWHES, the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen. Check the blog out next week to learn more about GISHWHES and all of our adventures this week. And as always, stay hip!)
