New Roommates

As some of you may already be aware, Dave is moving out in just a few days. The place will feel awfully empty without him, but I hesitated to find someone new to live with. I wanted someone quiet and clean, who would not eat the last granola bar in the box without replacing it or smoke out the windows. Definitely no one who would stomp around and drive the downstairs neighbors crazy, leave fragrant shoes all over the living room, or neglect to close the refrigerator door completely. (By the way, I am not insinuating that Dave does all of these things. Just most of them.) Enter the new additions to my apartment:

Virgil, in the background, was camera shy.

After much careful thought, I decided to name them Dante and Virgil. I don't have a great history with goldfish (don't tell Dante and Virgil!) and so I imagine that, for a fish, living with me would be sort of like descending through at least a few of the layers of Hell. Virgil is a bit more battered looking than Dante (the lady at the pet store said it looked like he'd been bullied and so it was a good thing I was taking him), which makes sense because in the book, he was in Hell longer and served as Dante's guide. I hope that, together, they'll survive the ordeal of life under my care. So far, all systems are go; they're both active and look cheerful if it is possible for a goldfish to look cheerful. I brought home sushi the other day and was very careful to eat it where they couldn't see me.

Already, though, the responsibility of taking care of two living things is starting to weigh on me. I have visions of pouring them into an empty mayonnaise jar and boarding the subway with them to take them to a friend to feed if I go out of town for a while. Hm. Well, first they've got to survive that long...