Am I saying that my work defines me? Yes, I guess so, to a point. I mean, when you meet someone, what's the common questions? Where do you live? What do you do for a living? How big of a loser are you and should I even spend 2 minutes getting to know you?
Anyway, one of the clues that I have too much free time lies beneath the ocean. Okay, it's really freshwater. I am referring to our fish, Pete. Our friend and former lead guitarist of our band (which is now on hiatus) moved to Indiana so he gave us his betta fish. He brought the fish in a plastic pitcher, and the plastic gems and a big shellfish were in his bowl, which was like a big margarita glass. So, he poured the fish back into the bowl, added some tap water and that was it. He brought some fish flakes and water conditioner too. He didn't really give many directions. He just told us to feed the fish once a day, and that he likes to be where he can see the action. They forgot to feed him once for a few days and he lived, so no problem.
So, a few minutes after we acquired Pete, our cat Stinksy went over to the bowl and started drinking the water. When he realized there was a fish in there, he tried to stick his paw in the water and grab the fish. This is when I decided we needed a tank with a lid on it.
I didn't have much time, so I went to the evil Wal-Mart. I stood in the fish supplies aisle for about 10 minutes trying to choose a tank, out of the 6 possible choices. I went with the one gallon triangular job with the undergravel filter.
So, I went home, read the directions for the tank and set it up and relocated Pete. I put him on the bookshelf in the bedroom because Stinksy never goes up there. After I had done this, I went online and read about keeping bettas and maintaining tanks. Of course some people said they are perfectly happy to live in a teeny tank, and other said a 1.5 gallon to 5 gallon tank was sufficient. Then I was reading about "cycling a tank". This stuff started to scare me. Was I going to kill this fish overnight? Well, I figured he was pretty traumatized already from the plastic pitcher ride in the car to the relocating addresses and tanks. So, I slept on it. I fully expected to wake up to a floating blue fish carcass, but he was alive and swimming.
Anyway, it's been about 6 weeks and he's still alive. I probably spent a total of ten hours online reading up about fish, even though I haven't done much. I do worry about him, because if we don't go into the bedroom much he seems lonely. As soon as I walk into the bedroom he swims to the closest side of the tank. If I move from one side of the tank to the other, he follows me. I wish I had unlimited finances and knowledge to build a a tubelike extension to the fish tank that could go all the way across the apartment so he could hang out with us more often. I don't have the unlimited finances or knowledge, so I just go and visit with him when I think of it during the day. And at night when he's tucked deep in his seashell, I try not to wake him up when I go into the bedroom. So, here's my question for the day: do fish have feelings?
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