finally, it blooms

Super exciting news, guys. My gardenia finally bloomed! Yeah. I have been on bud-watch for like, a month or more, checking every morning to see if the blasted things would finally start blooming. I got a schweet gardenia plant in May, and it has been threatening to bloom ever since, with it's big bad buds. The buds have proven to be shy, refusing, day after long day to open. But this morning, I trudged out to the backyard, and heavens to Betsey, one of the durn things had up and bloomed. I suspect the others will soon follow. I am so proud. (Not that I had anything whatsoever to do with it, except for the wishful thoughts.)

I've had a soft spot for gardenias ever since sixth grade. That year, I moved over Christmas break from a mansion on Oakmont, PA to a mobile home in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Long story. In Ft. Lauderdale, they had what they called busing for desegregation. This meant that I went on a bus into the heart of an economically disadvantaged area (though they called it something else back then, which starts with gh.) I liked the school, even if I was considered a minority. I picked up cool lingo there, like, "What that is?" and "She think she so bad." Interesting.

At my new school, I managed to make a friend: Jean Ann. She was white, like me. She was a thief, lifting lipstick from Walgreens, which was shocking to me, but, nevertheless, I loved her immediately. We used to have sleepovers on weekends. Just outside of her bedroom window was a humongous gardenia bush, which, in full flower, wafted its scent through her room as we slept. Heavenly. Thick crusty gardenia aroma: there is nothing better.