A Fish Died Today at Work

To be completely honest, the fish (I'll call it "Goldsters") actually died Wednesday, when I went to work with my dad to act as his AutoCAD worker-bee. He's working on a new phase of his BioKat project (I can't release too many details, or I'd have to do unfortunate things to you) that involves the cheapest pet store goldfish available.

(Aside: did you know that male and female goldfish are different colors, a common phenomenom in the natural world, but a trait I never knew GOLDfish exhibited. In the tank there were silvery and gold colored fishies. Hmmm.)

Around 10:30 am EST I walked past the tank on the way to the bathroom and noticed Goldsters sure was inspecting the filter awfully closely. A little too closely, I thought, but I really had to pee so I moved on without giving it too much thought. Sure enough, though, as we discovered a few hours later, Goldsters was as dead as the day is short and in its deadness was being sucked mercilessly against the filter; its limp body was tauntly wrapped around the filter's three-quarter-inch diameter, its left eye preternaturally staring down all passers-by.

My dad did the noble thing by donning a latex lab glove, reaching in, and (gently, I'd like to say) peeling Goldsters off its mount and dropping it into the toilet, for a waterside eternal resting place. I sang the traditional goldfish dirge, "Should old aquaintance be forgot, doo doo doo do doo..." and watched Goldsters swirl to her next home. You'll be missed, little fishy.

In other news of this suffix of the semester, prefix to the summer, I began dive class today. By next Sunday at 5 pm I will be a registered, PADI certified, card-toting Open Water Diver. Sargeant majors of the world (aka "bumblebee fish"), you have been warned.

I've been gathering the various things I'll need for my Costa Rica trip this past week and a half, and actually feel pretty prepared. I'm very excited to go, meet my family, and immerse myself in the environment. I'm not even very concerned about the language barrier (hey, if I could handle French speaking countries, considering I don't know a lick of French, certainly I can handle a Spanish speaking one especially sicne it won't really be any different -- no, seriously, I'm not joking -- from here in South Florida).

I'm very optimistic about the future right now. I've been doing some research on graduate schools, the Peace Corp., and jobs, and I feel confident that everything's going to work out for the best, as long as I make a concerted effort at keeping all of my options open (applying for schools and the PeaceCorp, taking the GRE...). I'm also excited about the Fall, for which I will have three (3!) sources of income -- the 'Nique, my lander research, and I'm going to be a grader for a Heat Transfer class. Pretty cool, huh? (NERD!!)

Anyway, it's almost nine pm and that means I need to put on my pj's and watch the movie I borrowed from Danny. I love doing nothing. *sigh* :) Goodnight for now, World.