In Boston, Brian had a plant. It was a baby spider plant that his roommate Frank gave him. In true Malden house style, it lived in a plastic yogurt container. I would visit Brian every few months and the plant would grow bigger. And faster. One Saturday night, I went to sleep and it grew a 5 foot flowering extension. I swear. It was coming to strangle me alive. I’ve been wary of the plant ever since.

So, Brian moved to DC and brought the plant to the yellow house. He repotted it. It grew little baby spider plants. We moved to Greg’s house and we planted the army of baby spider plants into a huge planter by the porch. And they flourished. Dozens of little tentacles tried to dig themselves into the dirt under the porch. During the first winter, we repotted some of the new babies and brought them in for the winter. And we left the mama plant out to brave the winter (she didn’t).

The babies loved the apartment. Even without a green thumb, I managed to keep them all alive. When spring came back, we replanted them into the huge planter. Again, they flourished. Winter came around again. This time, I replanted some for our house and gave some of them as gifts. They’re still living with at least Liz and Justin. Then summer came around and, yep, we put them back outside.

We moved to Seattle and left the plants. After the elections, I came to DC for meetings and stayed with Janine and Greg. I had forgotten about the plants. It was November and the weather was getting colder. But there were still lots of baby spider plants in the huge pot. I went to CVS, got some plastic containers, packed them with a little dirt, and threw them in my luggage. They all survived the trip home, the repotting (for the 5^th time), the time change, and not being watered over Christmas.

And here they are. Still alive.