So the other day at my house, my family and I were going about our usual things when all of a sudden, the house started smelling like flowers. Ok… that’s not as dramatic as I thought it would be. But seriously… all of a sudden it started to smell like there were a thousand flowers in the house. It was overwhelming.
So after my father went on one of his crazy-man-obsessive-investigations, ya know when guys get really hung up on one thing and they pursue it with a vengeance? Yea… Anyway, he found that this tree had started to bloom.
Ok let me backtrack a bit here. Over the years, my parents have acquired many a… small tree… Now, it’s normal to have plants around the house. Many families do… however my family has trees. Small trees in odd places… Like the upstairs bathroom that nobody uses is home to two odd little non-indigenous trees. “Why?” you ask… My question exactly. My.question.exactly.
Anyway, this particular tree has been in the family before I was even born. And in all that time, the tree has never blossomed. In fact, we thought it was dead (Which begs the question why we were even keeping it around. Proving even more that my parents are hoarders) Now I don’t know the name of this species of tree… my dad says the Chinese call it the “Iron Tree”. These trees blossom only once every ten years… maybe. So it’s a really big deal when they do. When it blossoms, the Chinese will tie a red ribbon (red is the color of good luck in Chinese culture) and a red envelope called “Lei See” in Cantonese. The combination of the two is hoped to increase your chance of good fortune.
In other words, we gon’ get mad dollaz because the mystery chinese palm tree in my living room decided to grow flowers for the first time in twenty years. Happy day.
So… there’s a little bit of Chinese culture for you. My dad’s super excited about it… which is cute. I’m happy for the man. It’s the little things in life ya’ll. For me, it just smells like allergies. Which are already terrible this season. So I really hope, and because I’m unemployed and about to run out of money in my bank account, that this tree brings lots and lots of dollaz. I better be rollin’ in the deep by the end of allergy season.
—Update—
New information provided by my mother: Apparently the last time the tree bloomed was when my mother was pregnant with me. They were convinced I would be a boy. I was supposed to be a “Joshua”…. -_________-
