Finally something fun to write about!!

Jenny won a fish yesterday! She came into the room at about 12:30 a.m., right after I'd turned out the light, and since I was still awake, I let her turn on the light so she could get into her pajamas.

"Look what I won," she said as she approached my bed in a tone of uncertainty.

I looked and all I saw, squinty-eyed, was a cloudy plastic cup. "What?" I asked.

"A fish," she said.

"A fish?!" I was suddenly very awake as I sat up to look into the cup. There was a little goldfish darting around in the cup she was holding!!

"But there's just one problem! Now we have to take care of it!" Jenny said. "I didn't think of that... They were just like, 'Enter to win a fish!' and I was like, 'Okay, whatever.' I didn't realize till afterwards that that meant taking care of a fish if you won one."

You would've thought I'd never owned a fish before, I was so delighted with it and worried about it! We got some emergency fish food from one of our wingmates and poured the poor thing into my glass flower jar that had those colored rocks at the bottom. I'd seen people put their fish in flower vases before... They look pretty cute, swimming around the stems and stuff. After a few more minutes of admiring and speculating about names, supplies to get, etc., I said, "We gotta go to bed; we have to get up for class tomorrow."

So we set the fishy in his jar over by Jenny's printer for the time being and settled down into our beds.

After our good nights, I tried to go to sleep but instead wondered if I'd be able to hear the fishy bubbling away and burst into a fit of laughter, which of course set Jenny off too. :D "There's a fish in our room!" I giggled.

"Yeah! There's another living being in here!"

"A pair of eyes watching us!"

It was so funny. The rest of the night I kept thinking of what to call him if he lived, and potential eulogies to write if our poor fish was killed overnight by starvation or the chemicals and metal from the water. I had to hold back laughter so many times as visions of standing before a toilet with poor little fishy in it, putting on comically serious faces and me beginning my speech with, "This is a tribute to the fish who never had a chance!" Or maybe standing near a group of people and speaking to each other in loud voices, "Man, Theodore was awfully loud last night... I could hardly sleep!" LOL!!!

Anyway. Today Jenny and I ran to Wal-Mart and bought a bowl, fish food, and water purifying tablets. It was an ordeal to move him to his new home, though! The vase narrows at the top, and we hadn't thought of a fish net to pull him out with. So there we were, trying to figure out ways to get him into the bowl without him getting smashed by the rocks. He really didn't want to go out.

We did finally get him into his new home. I poured the water reeeaaaallly slowly, and schloop! out he came. Then we sprinkled some food on top of the water, but he wouldn't go eat. I personally think he is traumatized by the transfer from the cup to the vase and then the even worse transfer from the vase to the bowl.

We did decide on a name. His name is Neptune. :D Isn't that great?! Little fishy, god of the sea!! LOL!!

Okay, okay, before I fall off my chair in a fit of giggles... :D I need to get a short nap before lunch so I can get back to the seriousness of college life. :)

Everyone say hi to Neptune in your notes!! He needs words of encouragement so he won't suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

-Stephanie