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I took today off, scheduled vacation day number two, on the year.

My sister was somewhat volunteered to feed 100 less fortunate, she started to show signs of worry the last days before the event so I took the day off to offer help. Right up until three hours before the her start time she wasn’t sure if she needed my help but she managed to pull it off herself, she set the menu, did most of the cooking, lined up the servers, got rides for the help.

My first impulse was to just do some of the stuff but instead I just made myself available, I offered my advice when she asked for it. I was insurance that wasn’t needed.

I stood back because it’s a heck of a story to have someone casually drop at some dinner party. I stood back because she got some of her students involved, I thought an object lesson of one person can make a difference was more important than me riding to the rescue.

Once she had the only thing she might need me for down to giving rides to some of the servers. I left for the hospital where Lady G’s mother was recovering from knee surgery. Lady G’s mom had asked if I would visit her in the hospital the Saturday before she went in, she was went in this past Monday.

I avoided going in Monday because I figured visiting would be rough on everyone. Tuesday, I kinda left open but my Tuesday’s are always booked and I sorta got sidetracked with something else of a foolish and personal nature but I did score a Harpoon t-shirt. Wednesday, some other things came up and plus I knew I would have time on Thursday so, I put the visit off until today.

I thought I should bring something, the something I thought of was flowers and I didn’t want to get cut flowers that would die quickly because who really wants to be reminded that things die when your in the hospital so, I went to home depot because they actually have a pretty decent garden section at times.

My first thought, after I got through the door, was tulips because they are pretty hardy and they had a bunch of them but the tulips where in an ugly plastic pot that was wrapped in festive plastic which is okay but I could see the root system peeking out of the bottom of the pot at the seem of the plastic where the festive colors gave was to the clear natural state of the wrapper. I thought that was no good.

So then I found this.

It was in a fancy pink plastic pot the kind that has that catch water tray attached, and the color really matched nicely with the pink veins on the leaves and it requires just a low amount of light “like what’s found in a living room or kitchen table” (the tag informed me) but I thought giving a house plant was stupid.

I bought both, the tulips and the green leafy thing. On the way to the hospital, I thought - maybe give both but I thought that was crazy. I chose the tulips. “Happy Easter” crossed my mind.

Hospitals and chit chat – two things I usually avoid. I walked in and saw a vase of cut flowers wilted and thought: my tulips will outlast however many days they lasted.

Things went well, I stayed for almost an hour. We talked about family mostly. She told me about her and Lady G, “I think I actually hated her from age fourteen to twenty one” I thought, that’s the time I started loving her after I thought – that’s got to be a hard thing for a mother to admit.

the green leafy thing sits in the middle of my kitchen table and now I regret that the color of the pot is pink. I know folks will have something to say. I don’t think my defense that the pot matches the color of the veins will help my case. I’ll probably get a gift subscription to Martha Steward’s Living show up at the house.