Fish creep me out, IRL.

I have a dead fish phobia.  I don't mind live fish — one of my real life friends has a salt water aquarium, which I find endlessly fascinating — but dead fish creep me the hell out.  Crustaceans are even worse.  I absolutely will not touch seafood, including tuna and breaded fishsticks, and while I'm much better about this than I used to be, I still have a hard time being around others while they're eating creepy-crawly or flippy-floppy things from the Deep Blue.  (True story: my soon-to-be-ex boss once decided it would be cute make a lobster tail crawl across the table at a business dinner — all while crying "I'm gonna get you!" in a high pitched, squeaky voice.) 

Unfortunately, my real life issues with fish (which I blame on my Thai mother, who fried fresh fish in the house every single day while she was was pregnant with my brother, and then ingested them — heads and all! — with disgusting relish), extends to the World of Warcraft.  I avoided leveling fishing for the longest time because I couldn't stand having an inventory full of pixelated fishheads.

Why, yes, I am neurotic.  How sweet of you to notice.

But, you know.  I'm a big girl with Dalaran Cooking Awards to burn ... so I got over it.  Fake fish aren't nearly as creepy as real fish (although the big bug eyes on some of the lower level catches are still fairly frightening).

Not too long ago, I skill-ding'd 450.  Now I'm half-heartedly attempting to fish up a Sea Turtle, and will occasionally spend an hour or two making the rounds of the Northrend fishing holes — usually while chatting on Vent or watching Law & Order, since fishing is comfortably mindless and my mind is otherwise occupied.

Last night, I found myself fishing with game sounds on for the first time ... ever. 

And, lo and behold, every time I hooked a fish, I heard a delightful little splashing noise. 

Hey.  I wish I'd known about that 450 levels ago. 

A countless number of fish (and perhaps a Sea Turtle or two) have escaped my lure because I alt-tabbed to the blog or the official forums or Facebook ... or because I forgot to watch the computer screen because Elliot Stabler is so much cuter than my Tauren's backside ... or because I typically only fish at night, when the reflection of the moonlight on the water makes the bobber almost impossible to see ...

/sigh.

Oh well.  Better late than never, right?  In a way, I suppose I have The Sims3 to thank: I was playing with game sounds turned on to choose the perfect voice for my Buffy Summers lookalike (devoted geekgirl that I am, I've recreated the entire Scooby Gang with terrifying accuracy), and WoW felt a little too quiet and even lonely after that. 

Next up?  Elphaba and Galinda, of course,  In honor of my favorite musical of all time.  (Yes, you can make Sims green.  Who knew?!)

Also, on a more WoW-related note, here's tip for any shamans attempting to fish a PvP server: abuse Water Walking!  Instead of fishing from shore, I'll position myself in the center of a pond or lake so nothing can sneak up on me.  By the time that annoying ret paladin or rogue manages to swim over, I'm already zooming around, safely out of reach on my 310% mount, singing "Catch me if you can!" 

... Okay, so Death Knights can also walk on water and anything with wings or a flying mount can drop out of the sky.  But still!  It's hard to use the element of surprise against a water-walking shaman — and without that, the fight will be as fair as it can possibly be.

Just don't break out the 13-pound catfish.  Please.