i found it disconcerting that an old broken television that's brought me so many happy memories could be treated so badly. true, i was throwing it away, but at least it deserved an honorable "burial," not dragged by its cord out into the streets by a city maintenance crew, it's delicate glass screen scraping across the rough pavement. it made me wince. with that, my old television was tossed into the back of a truck and shipped away into oblivion. vaya con electronic dios, old tv set.

it's taken me more than 7 years but i finally made my way to the wellesley college greenhouses. with bruce returning to pittsburgh this weekend, this would be the first and only naturing he and i would do together all summer long. i sucked on a tyrkisk peber licorice lozenge (courtesy of my friend frances and her norwegian care package) as bruce drove us to wellesley. the greenhouses were actually quite easy to find; not sure why i had such a hard time with my friend amy 7 years ago.

outside was a miniature evergreen garden and a herb bed. by one of the entrances sat a potted plant that looked like angel's trumpets (Brugmansia) but without the fragrant smell and the drooping flowers. turns out it was a datura plant, related to potatoes (obvious from the way it was growing).

upon my first steps into the desert plants greenhouse room, i knew i could stay in these greenhouses for the rest of the day, photographing each and every fascinating vegetation variation until i ran out of memory cards. this place could only be matched by the botanical gardens in washington dc, brooklyn, and hong kong - except here was much closer and far less people. in fact, besides bruce and myself, we only saw 2 other women who were on their way out, so we had the whole place to ourselves.

carnivorous plants: (in my lifetime i've raised 2 flytraps, 1 sundew and a cobra lily, all ending unsuccessfully and with the premature death of my plants.)

tropical and subtropical plants:

unlike outside, here in the protected climate of the greenhouse, flowers (many tropical varieties) continue to bloom:

more interesting plants:

the flowers of the devil's claw bear a resemblance to catalpa flowers. turns out they belong in the same order of lamiales.

i introduced bruce to the true mimosa AKA the sensitive plant. he was very much entertained by the folding leaves whenever he touched a petal. he had these mimosas confused with silk trees, which are currently blooming around the neighborhood.

miscellaneous:

several of the greenhouses were actually research laboratories, with arrays of similar potted plants and seemingly experiments-in-progress. there were also mist sprinklers set on timers that'd blast certain areas periodically (for instance in the fern room, where i was accidently doused with water while trying to take a photo).

besides the greenhouses, there was a whole arboretum to explore on the wellesley campus as well. unfortunately the paths aren't very well marked, and we basically just wandered around a bit (saw the row of active beehives, passed by a 300 year old oak tree) before returning to the science center where the car was waiting in the parking lot.

returning home, we stopped by the newton trader joe's to get some groceries. bruce had all sorts of vegetables in his shopping basket while i carried a bunch of snacks in my hands.

back at home, i finally took down my clothes that'd been hanging out to dry in the backyard. i had a feeling the baking soda didn't really do anything and sure enough, my garments still had that weird fishy plastic smell. my next option is maybe take the clothes home to my parents and see if they have any stronger detergent. the case of the stinky clothes continues.

it started about a week ago, when i began noticing the symptoms. the runny nose, the tickling throat, the watery eyes, and the sneezing. ah, ragweed season. this may be a job for the neti pot, which has been sitting unused in my bathroom for months now.

i fell asleep on the couch briefly in the early evening, after bingeing on some junk food (ritz crackers, spicy dried mango slices, half-sour pickles, chinese watermelon seeds, orange soda). i woke up before my returning roommate could find me unconscious in the living room. i made some more hot dogs for dinner.

later in the evening my roommate and i watched the inside man on tv. we were talking about health insurance and she was surprised to hear that in america there isn't universal coverage. i explained to her the battle that's currently waging in our national government, compounded by the fact that it's an election year and politicians are trying to score political points. i showed her the latest issue of newsweek which ranked the US as the 11th best country in the world.