Indoor Plant Hobby

Recently I have become an indoor plant enthusiast.  I like the fact that many indoor plants are good at removing toxins and pollutants from the air.  I also like that many plants are easy to take care of and thus, building the success rate of "things I can do".

It all started 3 years ago with a random trip to a local nursery.  The mission was a rubber tree plant to keep in my classroom.  I had heard it was extremely good for the air and would tolerate a bit of neglect.  My daughter and I found one (which she promptly named Herbert) and it sat in my classroom that year.  It did take a fair amount of neglect, including the wooden blinds falling on it and stripping it of many of its leaves.  Never-the-less, Herbert persevered and  I brought him home that summer.  Back he went for year 2 at school and when summer came, Herbert was big, I mean really big, like needed a big pot kind of big.  So Herbert made himself a permanent home in our kitchen and I decided that I was good at growing things.

My daughter and I went on the hunt for another rubber tree plant but they were all too large and so we kept looking.  We found a ZZ plant, grape ivy and a peperomia.  The 3 came home and were given names ( I still don't know how she comes up with those names but something about them speaks to her and she settles on a name.)

I have already blogged about the ZZ plant which out grew its pot and became 4.  The grape ivy took off at a rapid pace and became 2.  The peperomia is still slowly growing and I liked the look of it so much that I bought another one to go in my office at work.

Work, the unexplored frontier for plants.  Well the peperomia was lonely (oh, geez, I am beginning to share my daughters affinity for giving plants human characteristics.) So I got another plant to go with it, I forget the name, it is striking with green and red leaves and the stalks are pinkish/ red.  The two little plants sit in my office flanking my desktop computer.  I have convinced myself that they are good for the air and they are sucking in all of the toxic computer rays that would otherwise contaminate my work space.  I Thought I was done with the plant purchases but then I discovered snake plants.  I now have 3 making a statement on the top of my hutch at work and my office is complete.

The only thing I didn't have was another rubber tree plant.  I have searched high and low but had not found one.  Until that glorious day I was just killing time before my meeting and I went into the original nursery.  There she was, not to big, not to small, perfect.  So I brought her home and named her Matilda ( because Herbert and Matilda seem like a good match.)  Matilda loved her new home and outgrew the window sill in the kitchen and has now taken a place by the window.  She popped up 4 new stalks with leaves and so I dug into the soil, discovered that they had sustainable roots and plucked them out of Matilda and into their new home.  Matilda and Herbert had a baby.  Anna (encase you were wondering).

Now to the point of this post.  My husband has drawn a line.  No more plants in our home.  But before he said this, I snuck in 3 little lemon button ferns.  Seriously, No More Plants!  I do not understand this.
 First of all, I am not asking you to take care of them.
 Secondly, they do not interfere with your daily activities.
 Thirdly, they are not creating problems(allergies) for anyone.
 Finally, they just might clean the toxins out of the air and improve the quality of your life!

I have decided that perhaps we just see things differently.
I see this

He sees this

This must be the problem.  Perspective.  I see a dainty, well organized addition to our home.  He sees hoarders, plant addition.  I think I will show him  this picture and remind him that things could be significantly worse.  I will keep you posted if any other plants join the family.  

Well ok, 3 more have already joined the family, but before you lump me in with that second picture.  I have found them a home in my classroom.  So I am listening to my husband's wishes, no more plants in our home.  We just won't remind him that in June, school will end and those 3 will have to go somewhere.  

The right to speak out

    On my way to work this morning, I stumbled across a radio station that I don't usually listen to.  There was a lady speaking on what I initially thought was the Republican debates and clearly she wasn't Republican so I waited to see who she was going to trash.  The interview quickly shifted from  the debates in general to one specific topic, Republicans and their stance on Abortion.  As I listened further, the speaker shared her views and gave a plug for her organization.  She spoke eloquently and was witty, even making fun of the fact that the radio station would get hate mail and their twitter would blow up for a few days because they had her on.  I wondered who she was.  Finally at the end of the show they thanked Lizz Winstead for joining them.

  Now I had a name to go with this speaker.  Lizz Winstead, I had never heard of her, possibly because I stand on the opposite side-of-view on all the topics she spoke about.  However, she was charming and engaging and this would be the kind of person that I would enjoy having these types of discussion/debates with.  So often, people on opposite sides of the spectrum on; politics, religion, social issues, etc can't even exist in the same room without someone's head exploding.  This lady stood firm on what she believed, spoke well about it but didn't leave you with your blood boiling if you didn't agree with her.

   As I finished my drive in, I thought how fortunate we are to live in a country where there are people who are passionate about what they believe and can share those views publicly without fear of retaliation (well, except for social media).

First full day with International Student

Having an International Student from China has taught me many things, like for instance, did you know that China and Los Angeles are 15 hours apart.  Neither did I until I tried to sleep in a house with a boy who was wide awake.  11pm for me was middle of the day for him.  He didn't get to sleep until somewhere around the 5am mark.  He was quiet and stayed mainly in his room, I heard him a couple of times go to the kitchen, cough, things like that. 

My 2 cats were a source of frustration to my attempt to sleep.  They recognized that something wasn't right, the downstairs bedroom that is always closed is now open, and there is a person in there that they had never smelled before, so they kept jumping on me, standing on me and meowing at me so that I was fully aware of the intruder in our home.  Thanks a lot dear sweet cats, you will just have to adjust to the new person in our home.  He will be here for a while and I can't take 11 months of the feline informational bulletin. 

We finally woke him up about 1pm (a little cruel for a kid that just spent 15 hours on a plane and endured the biggest culture shock of his life) but he has to start adjusting to the time zone that he is in.  I immediately thought of the movie Sydney White.  There is an exchange student from Africa and his days and nights are messed up so they start setting his clock back one hour a night until he is on track with the rest of the fraternity members.  Silly movie but good lesson on International Students.  Who knew that would ever come in handy.  So we woke him up and got him up and moving around. 

That night after I got off work, we went to dinner.  Marie Calendar's is down the street from my house and their menu has pictures on it so I thought it would be a safe choice.  I did not choose Chinese food, let me tell you why.  Being raised in the south, I am used to a level of southern cooking that you just can't find anywhere else.  People here in California are always saying, oh, I know this great southern food place.  It is never "Great Southern Food" so I have tried not to do that to people.  Plus I don't know where the authentic Chinese food restaurants are and I highly doubt that Panda Express is going to curb his cravings for home style food.  I digress. . .
We are seated at Marie Calendar's and the searching the menu begins, conversation was strained and awkward but he is putting more words together.  I still can't predict what he means, but that will come with time. 

I notice that he picks up the silverware that is neatly rolled in the napkin with the little white band around it to keep it from coming unraveled.  He peers into the top where he sees the fork and knife but then puts it back down.  The waiter comes over and takes our order and a few minutes later they bring bread for the table. 
  I cut it up for all of us and he looks confused.  I take my napkin/silverware roll and remove the white tab that is holding it together and discard it, he watches me very closely and nods, understanding what to do now.  He tries the bread first without butter, then dabs his knife in the butter like he saw my husband do, he tastes the butter but shakes his head no.  He clearly doesn't like the bread but being a respectful boy who doesn't want to offend his host family or the culture of the restaurant, he eats the slice that I have given him. 

His sandwich comes to the table with French fries.  My husband told me that he had taken him to In N Out for lunch so we knew French Fries would be a winner.  Again, typical teenager.  The sandwich is being held up with a toothpick.  He touches the toothpick then takes his knife and peers into the sandwich to see if the toothpick is part of something.  My husband catches on that he doesn't have a clue what to do with it so he picks up the toothpick from his sandwich and  tosses it next to the plate.  Again the same nod and the look of understanding.  He plucks his toothpick off and places it on the edge of his plate and begins to eat. 

Wow, I had never thought of those type things that are culturally so insignificant but to an outside culture can seem daunting.  We made small talk and he told us where he was from.  I asked if he had any questions about our family but something was lost in translation and I heard the familiar "What?"  I dropped the subject and we finished our meal in silence. 

Overall I would have to say, the first 24 hours went as smoothly as possible. 

Host Family for an International Student

Our family decided to host an international student in our home this school year.  I emailed the principal on Monday night to let him know we would be interested.  I got a response back on Tuesday morning that we would be approved to host.  I had already stated in my email that we would be willing to host either a boy or girl and if we had enough time to plan, I could convert the full bed into bunk beds and we would be willing to have 2 kids.  I got a message on Tuesday mid-morning that there were 2 Vietnamese boys that would be coming to our school and were in need of a host home.  I emailed back that we would be willing to take them.  I turned off my phone and went into a meeting, when I was done with the meeting I turned back on my phone and I had a message.  The two Vietnamese boys were placed somewhere else but they did have a Chinese boy who requested a single room.  Great! That meant that I didn't have to get bunk beds.  I called back to let him know that I would be fine with a single boy.  While talking to the principal, I was informed that I needed to complete some paperwork and send pictures of my home and family.  Easy enough (thanks to Facebook) and then I waited to see if this was going to be a match.  I later Tuesday evening I got a call saying that everything was approved and he would be arriving Thursday.

Wait, WHAT?  Thursday, as in 2 days from now?

I was informed that he was coming for 11 months rather than the traditional 10 months.  O.k.  I guess that will be fine. (Silently panicking that the room is not ready).  I mean really not ready, the guest bedroom had not been used by anyone in about a year so it had collected yoga mats, craft supplies, books that I had finished but was not ready to donate yet, etc, etc, etc.  So I took the day off work on Wednesday to move out all of my clutter, wash the bedding and clean and sanitize the room.  I went to Walmart and purchased new pillows, towels and toiletries for our new student.

Wait, do I even know his name?  How old is he?

I sent another message to the principal asking for some information about him.  I got a reply from a worker in the front office with his name and age.  Ok, 15 not bad.  Name was interesting but not hard to pronounce.  My nervousness began to kick in, what would he be like, is our home going to be drastically different than he is used too, how much English will he know?  The questions kept coming  as my husband and I cleaned.  We finally were satisfied that his new room and bathroom were up to a standard that I would want if my son was moving to China for a year.

Thursday came just like any other work day, I had a busy day which helped the time pass by, finally it was time for his plane to land.  He arrived and we were introduced. 

He seems like a nice kid, quiet, respectful, Very Little English.  He said 4 words to me between 8-11pm.  He said "Name" then said his name.  I completely butchered it several times before I got used to saying it.  Then we asked him is he was hungry and he said "No"  then when we got home and showed him his room and got him settled, I asked him "do you need to call your mom?"  he looked at me so I said it again.  He wrinkled his face a little and said "what?"  Never mind, if the boy can't figure out to call his mom and tell her he made it safe and the host family is not serial killers, then we have bigger problems! 

While I was thinking about what a challenge this language barrier is going to be, he walked into his room and pulled out a notebook from his backpack.  He opened it and shuffled through several pages.  He then looked at me and said "WiFi"  I knew at this point everything was going to be ok.  He is a typical teenager.  Not a solid grasp on the English language but resourceful enough to learn the important words.