Most of my friends and family know about…those things.  I mean, I’m not even going to post a picture on here of one of them.  Fish.  Those scaly, jelly-eyed, ugly, slimy, gill breathers are something I fear.  Greatly.  Yes, I don’t like fish.  Without the benefits of hard-core psychoanalysis I think I’ve pinpointed the root of the fear to stem from when I was 4 or so years old and I won a fishing contest (as my Pappy – maternal grandfather – was an avid fisherman), for catching the biggest fish for my age group.  My proud pappy, wanted me to take the fish by the mouth to pose for the picture.  He kept shoving that no-longer-flapping aqua-lover in my face, his thumb and forefinger firmly in it’s mouth trying to get me to do the same.  “Un-NO!”  I think was my horrified reply.  Ever since then, I’m very uncomfortable around the aquatic vertebrates…seriously.  I get nervous walking down the aquarium aisle in a pet store thinking one of those suckers have hopped out of their watery home in a quest for freedom or to commit suicide and I will be just the person to step on their slimy body.  I’m the person who gets anxious in large scale aquariums with the hope that the thick glass won’t break thus freeing all the nemos!  I don’t order fish at restaurants, and get worried when my husband threatens to order crispy whole fish when we eat Asian!  My husband (the JIM), who does go fishing but hasn’t recently, has agreed to clean and gut all fish prior to home entry or at least far from my viewing displeasure.   I freak out when watching what I call, “America’s Funniest Home People” and there are fish jumping out of the water into boats…oh, heck no!  Look, I don’t swim in lakes or rivers or anything I can’t see to the bottom of because inevitably, I will be the person that a fish will take an interest in as they swim on up and attach their sucker-shaped mouth onto my big toe!  Okay, that’s never REALLY happened to me…but now…read THIS!  My concerns stem mostly from my ongoing phobic response and the fact that recently myself and the Lady Dotson have been indulging in great manicure/pedicure combos at Spa Visage.  Rest assured that if this ever, EVER comes to East Tennessee I’m going to have to pay for an isolation booth booking just to get my tooties taken care of.  So please, please don’t follow the kooky spa-tastic trend and keep the fish where they belong…FAR AWAY FROM ME!