10.17 Bedtime - Christmas Cactus

Bestest Friend and I are in the middle of a blog project. Each day of the month we will post a picture on a pre-determined theme and write a little something about it. The theme for the seventeenth day of each month is "Bedtime."
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My relationship with my Christmas cactus is fraught with anxiety and love. My mother-in-law gave it to me and it stands as a proxy for our relationship. I worry that something will go wrong with it and I'll have to admit to her that I messed it up.  Other than a few bite marks from a ferocious four-legged creature who deigns to live in our apartment, the plant does seem to thrive under my maintenance plan of watering it once every month or two and otherwise just singing to it regularly.

It sits on a table beside our bed and is the last thing I see at night before Dr. BB turns off the lights. Just as I wouldn't go to bed without saying goodnight to the cat or my husband, the cactus gets a whispered "sleep well" as I'm drifting off.

My mother-in-law and I like to compare when our twin cacti bloom. Mine blooms mostly near Thanksgiving and Easter (although it bloomed from Halloween through to Christmas one year) and hers blooms much more erratically than that, frequently just blooming like mad during one of the summer months.

My grandmother-in-law, who doesn't like me very much (not Catholic, not smart enough for her grandson, from the wrong side of the metaphorical tracks,

[she came to that one only after meeting my parents and I must admit that I was insulted on their behalf before I realized I didn't give a fuck]

not traditional enough to have my father walk me down the aisle or take my husband's name, not providing my husband with children to carry on his legacy, not successful enough professionally, THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO TO PLEASE HER), she will talk to me about my plants. It's embarrassing that my collection of houseplants is a spider plant and two cacti and we can spend hours just discussing the care and maintenance of those incredibly easy to care for plants.

So this turned into a rant about my in-laws. Guess where we're going this weekend?
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To see what Bestest Friend wrote about the theme of the day, check out her blog, Too Legit to Quit.