B is for Bid Day

So Pinterest is cool in all, but this whole fish centerpiece thing...not as easy as that little DIY site makes it look.

The theme for Bid Day was "Reeling in the Freshest Catch Since 1898"

^legit hand painted banner

Naturally, to go along with the nautical theme we thought fish bowl centerpieces would be a fun and festive contribution to the theme. Having done this before at another chapter I was totally down to help execute this bid day plan.

The first red flag of this project was finding the fish floating in their bag in the bathtub.

After I discovered this, I began --

Operation: Fish Centerpiece

Plot: Abbey and New Member coordinator work together to keep the fish alive

Setting: The bathtub

Theme: Stayin' Alive

Knowing a few things about raising a goldfish, thanks to the many I won as a child at the elementary school carnival, I knew to submerge the fish in their bag from the pet store in a bowl of water so they can adjust to the temperature and not go into shock.We did just this. 

Step One: Submerge the bag of fish into the water they will begin to live in.

Step Two: Prepare the other fish bowls by putting fancy fish drops in their water

Step Three: Take the fish and put them in their new homes, saving some JUST IN CASE

Step Four: Keep an eye on the fish and make sure they are swimming, not sinking (or floating)..

Step five: Realizing bottoms up is not just a song, its was a way of life for my new critter friends.... 

WELL good ole' Pinterest didn't make it clear that in order to have a successful fish centerpiece you should use MINERAL water or DISTILLED water with drops that you can purchase from the pet store. Normal tap water has too much fluoride and other contaminants that can't be gotten rid of via pet store drops.

We may or may not have lost  just about every fish. With no time to let this ruin the day, we had to figure out what we could do with what we had.

Instead of going to the story and buying a bunch of distilled water and more fish, I channeled my inner 2001 event planning self and resorted to the "floating flower" decor. Thankfully the Zeta house was neighbors with Food Lion.

Step six: Be creative

The flowers added some color and turned out just fine! 

In the end, it doesn't even matter (okay Linkin' Park)... NC State got an amazing New Member class and we're distracted by BASKIN ROBBINS, SNOW CONES, a BUBBLE MACHINE & DJ to even care about the fish.

Bottom line: If you every try and raise a gold fish... don't.

Peace, Love & Just keep swimmin'