My Fish

I went to a Yankee Swap (affectionately and bewilderingly called a 'White Elephant' in some Southern states) on Friday. I arrived with a box of Saltines and left with a fish. Why the Saltines, you ask? I had five minutes to get a gift at Harris Teeter and Saltines are super easy to wrap- and they look deceptively awesome when concealed in holiday paper.  When they were unwrapped the beholder looked at them with a cock-eyed glance and someone in the audience hollered out, "Maybe there's something inside the box besides Saltines?" There wasn't, but I could have told him that. I was quite surprised to see that no one traded for them the whole game, and then the receiver was kind enough to donate them to the snack table before leaving. I felt a little bad that he had purchased round-trip first-class airfare for two from DC to Auckland as his Yankee Swap gift, and then he didn't even get to take home any leftover Saltines because they were all eaten at the party. (I knew the sea salt flavor ones would be a hit!) I suppose that's the gamble of the Yankee Swap.
When it was my turn I traded my present opportunity for a past one- the fish that had been revealed one turn earlier. It's a Beta and she's pretty cool. I consider it a two-fer because the fish came with fish food as well. I thought for sure the fish would be taken from me but she never did... So now I have a pet Beta named Indie, and I'm dying to know what happened to Alpha. I'm trying to prevent a Charlie so I'm keeping Indie by herself. I'm hoping that by continually overfeeding her she will grow to be an alligator. Alligators are so much easier to take care of than fish. Speaking of fish, does anyone want to pet sit Indie for a week while I am gone for Christmas?
Of all the presents at the Yankee Swap, the overdue library books were the funniest. Indeed, someone wrapped up all their overdue library books and put them in the pile. They were children's books, which made everyone else wonder if this particular was harboring a child in his house. We never got to the bottom of that.