Dying for a Flower

You know what was the big, big, BIG draw today? The Corpse Flower. Yep, a flower that smells more or less like it's dead or dying, just VISITING our little city for a few days while it "blooms". There was a serpentine queue (I use the English term though I'm American to avoid a silly-sounding rhyme) through all of Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture park, which is open hosting wonderful horticultural curiosities all throughout the year. In the winter it's Christmas trees from all over the world, in the Spring it's butterflies hatching and swarming all over the tropical "room" like a dream in a fairy tale, Fall it's mums in every variety by the thousands, and today...it was a dead-smelling flower! A friend of mine accompanied through the entire building, only partially air-conditioned on this hot, sweaty day:) It was indeed a challenge! After an hour and a half of barely moving or just INCHING closer to the smelly flower of mythic proportions--just a single weird flower, mind you--my knees had just about had enough. There weren't many opportunities to sit on my walker and rest though; the line would move every so often. And I could never be sure when a gap would open between me and the person ahead, when I would want to be "on my toes" so to speak, to fill in that gap so the line would progress ever so slightly forward. I didn't even get to put my hand through the space between the rocks under the waterfall en route--my favorite thing to do--and I think that soured me on the whole experience:( As if the claustrophobia of that dark bottleneck wasn't enough! Not to mention that when I finally, at LONG last beheld the creepy monster plant, I broke ranks to join the friend I'd come with, stepping out of line and a few "people ahead" of the woman whose grandchildren had been bumping into me for three hours. Partly to join my friend for a "selfie" after we'd been waiting in line for three hours, partly so I could get out of the tight formation that had really begun to get on my nerves. And then "ableism" reared its ugly head, when the lady behind started to ask me--of all the others ahead of her in line to see this scary flower--if I was cutting. No ma'am. No I was not. Nor was I the first in that looooooong line to fall out! But she chose me:) An ignoble honor. Needless to say...a bit of a let down to be honest! And not the best experience I've ever had at that venue to be sure:( But of course I'll be back; FMG is a dream to visit, more often than now. The trouble was just the tourists descending from smaller, more rural towns than EVEN Grand Rapids, all over the state, just to see the Corpse Flower:( A few people "tapped out" before they'd even SEEN the flower, and headed back to their vehicles in the parking long, site unseen. Wouldn't THAT have been a disappointment? I told myself after two hours that I was invested now. I had to see this thing. I had to smell it. And it was remarkably unremarkable, considering the huge fuss it had generated. We passed a news crew, and one or TWO news vans! God bless FMG volunteers. How hard they worked today! And God bless the people or people and circumstances that brought air conditioning to the masses; mine has been up full blast for hours:) Good to be home:) Tomorrow I may or may not revisit that hot, humid world outside. Good night, Lovelies! It's big news: