I have hangups and My son is...imaginitive

A two-part entry.

First, a brief blurb on hangups and neuroses in general. I realize (or hope) everyone has at least one or two -- that I'm not alone in borderline craziness. So here are a few of mine in no particular order:

~ The word "panties". Pan-teez. Ick. I have nothing against underwear in general, or this piece of underclothing in particular, but the actual phonetics of PANTIES give me the heebie-geebies. Ick. Ick. Ick.

~ I am a food segregationist. There. I've said it. I'm disturbed when my peas and mashed potatoes intermingle. Peas should stick with peas and potatoes with potatoes. I secretly long to replace all the plates in my kitchen with grade school, cafeteria-style divided trays where everything has its place and nothing touches any other thing not of its own kind. And, yes, some food is inherently superior to other food.
~ I'm phone-phobic. I don't like making or receiving phone calls. I really, REALLY don't like the phone. So the advent of email was perhaps a very bad thing for me as it provided me with a means to communicate with people in my life other than the phone. And I fully realize that a phone call now and then would surely be better than an email hurriedly shot off. I don't know why I have this problem. Oh wait! Yes, I do. I come by it genetically. My parents haven't answered their home phone in, oh, about 13 years. Note to anyone who might call me: Please don't be put off by my confession of phone-phobia. It's probably good for me to be challenged occasionally. However, do not call me tonight between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. eastern. I won't answer.

Ok, enough of that. I sound certifiable. Now on to an unrelated (or is it?) story demonstrating my son's unique imaginative skills. Yesterday he brought a ziplock lunch bag into the bathroom and filled it with water. The bag of water houses his new pet. A speck of dirt to me, a treasured plankton pet to him. A zooplankton to be exact. He is concerned about the well being of the plankton seeing as there is no nearby ocean current for it to inhabit. For now a little tap water and a baggie are its home. He has checked on it several times in the last 36 hours. It's still there, a speck in a bag of water. He wanted to take it with him down to breakfast and later have it walk to school with him. I convinced him that zooplankton are prone to motion sickness. Also, lunch bags can and do leak. That would be catastrophic for the little zooplankton.