saving yucca

when Ro and i split up, i walked away with a lot of "our" stuff. he was moving into a small one room apartment and i was moving into a "terrace house" with 2 bedrooms and an actual living room and kitchen (i clearly picked size over location this time). we both previously owned a lot of furniture that we brought into the shared apartment, but we also bought a lot of stuff together because our shared apartment was more than twice the size of each of our individual places and there were 6 times as many windows.

so when we moved out, we each took whatever was originally ours, but there was also the potentially awkward "who gets what" bargaining of the things we bought together. most of these were simply an i-don't-have-room-and-we'd-have-to-pay-to-get-it-taken-away issue that made it really easy for me to say i'd take it with me. but there were also a few "do you-want-____?" or "can-i-have-____?" conversations too. i got our bedroom curtains, our queen size mattress and frame, bed sheets/comforter, our kitchen table (LOVE), and our fridge. Ro took the Wii, the kitchen and living room curtains (which he ended up dumping at his parents' house - sigh), and our yucca plant.

we didn't talk about the plant until right near the very end. he brought her up, and after all that i was already "getting" i felt like i couldn't demand taking her too, and i figured i could just buy another one (4,000yen at ikea!) and start fresh.

four months later, i still haven't made it to ikea and Ro and i are civil and he texts every once in awhile. (as i write this, i wonder if he actually knows my blog or not. will try not to censor myself...) yesterday afternoon, he texted saying, "i know it's sudden but i'm going to costco tonight. do you want to come?" funny, i had been thinking about needing a costco run for the last couple weeks! if being pleasant and civil with him and sucking it up and "playing" nice just a little bit means costco every couple months, i am *totally* there.

as we pushed the cart up and down the aisles, he said, "i can't understand why you won't go to dinner with me but you will come to costco with me. to me, they are the same." maybe they are, and maybe they aren't, but regardless, i still don't have a strong desire to sit across the table from him and make small talk. at least costco has yummy things to keep me completely ADHD and purposeful.

on the way home, Ro mentions that the yucca plant isn't doing so well in his apartment. i think back to the photo i took on moving day of yucca, like i was leaving a pet or something, with her big bright green leaves shooting up and out and all over the place. and then i envision a couple wilted leaves and want to swoop in and save her. so he hints that maybe i should take her but that he didn't bring her in the car because he thought he should ask first and we can always get her next time. in mother-save-her-child-mode, i say, "well, we have the car today, so let's just stop by and get her? next time might be too late..."

i sit in the parking lot while he runs up to his apartment. he comes back with yucca, who has leaves that look like the hair on the Scarecrow from the wizard of oz!! she still has a handful of new-ish looking sprouts and the majority (but not all) of her trunks are still solid and hard. totally dehydrated (soil is bone dry) and looking pathetic, i put her between my feet in the front seat and watered her as soon as we unloaded her at my house.

and here, folks, is why we shouldn't let exes get pretty things:

fingers crossed that she perks up and is back to her spunky green self in a few months...!