365 Days (Part 1) | ✓

90. Green Thumb

90. Green Thumb: Write about growing something.

For no reason whatsoever, I wanted an aloe vera.

For those of you that don't know, and aloe vera is a somewhat ugly plant that, when a piece is broken off and the slimy inside rubbed on your skin, has healing properties.

Wow, that sounds even more gross than I had originally planned it.

It's a useful plant, but the things is, I have absolutely no need of it. I live a very safe existence, and try to avoid getting injured at all times. Thus far, I have been fairly successful. (My brother, when he realizes I have never suffered a broken bone, will say, "You're not living' on the edge.")

Yet I latched onto that plant and I wanted it. My mom thought it was ugly and wouldn't let it into her garden. For years this plea for this plant went on, and one day, I finally did get my aloe vera.

We were going on the chicken tour of homes (that's right, such a thing exists!) and in the process seeing some really fantastic backyards that put ours to shame. The coops were a little over-the-top... One lady had hung a chandelier from the ceiling of her chilcken coop and also had china plates displayed on the walls. For other people, the gardens were impressive.

I found my aloe vera at one of these major overachiever backyards. These people in particular had even dug a pond and made a mini river flowing through the yard. They took advantage of the people coming to look at their chickens and had some if their own plants up for sale, including little aloe veras. It was a just a baby plant, with shallow roots, but it was a $1 and I was sold. I could keep it up in my room.

Nothing doing. I had forgotten that I had cats. And these cats liked to eat plants. And so my aloe vera was in severe danger.

I tried to place it out of their reach, but my cats (who usually just exhibit laziness and gluttony) are more resourceful than you would think. Every day at least once they knocked my poor, baby aloe to the floor and chewed on it. Every day, it died a little more.

If my cats understood my meaning when I chased them away from my plant, they didn't heed it. They just went right on doing what they were doing.

Eventually, I had to throw the aloe vera away. My first attempt st gardening ended up in the trash. I blame my cats.

Now, I have fake, dancing plants, like a solar-powered Groot.

It's past midnight, so I shall take a picture of my grooving tree tomorrow, haha.