The Maddest Craziest Flower

Melody and I have been friends since kindergarten. She and I had a few of the same teachers in between her moving out of and then moving back into my neighborhood. When she wasn't two blocks from me we would keep in touch in all of the ways you could in the 90s - we wrote insane letters with drawings and dreams and current crushes and a few years after that we added email and AIM into the mix. The house I grew up in doesn't exist anymore but both of the ones she lived in with her dad do. I have driven by those old places on purpose and on accident while trying to take back roads because of traffic. The memories fill me up; sometimes it's just a blur and other times it's very specific. I can picture her room in each house, her dad's giant CD collection, her doing my hair before Rock Haven, the art she created from the drawings on her walls to the ones on paper. Then those memories turn into the ones where we'd walk or bike around the neighborhood and hit up the thrift store and Sam Flax. And in 8th grade when we skipped school together to just hang out at her house all day and when I wore her incredible boho tie pants but was scared I'd get period blood on them all day. What a time! We ended up going to different high schools and she eventually moved a little further south, but as happenstance would have it, we ended up working together at Panera (my first job, maybe hers too?) for a short time. We graduated from those different high schools, she moved up north shortly after, and never looked back. 

But we kept up the letters and emails and myspace/Facebook/Instagram check-ins. I visited her in early 2004, not too long after she'd moved to Delaware. It was the first time I flew alone, the first time I saw snow, the first and only time I'd tried snowboarding (and failed miserably), and my first introduction to Wawa. She eventually moved to upstate New York and has been there ever since. But she would always visit when she was back in town; the last time being January 2020, right before it all went to hell for a while.

We have talked about me coming up to visit her in NY for years and years. Earlier this year she once again mentioned me possibly visiting the farm after wedding season, and that's when I thought to myself ok this is the year.  Before the pandemic I was so fucking cautious and would put things off I wanted to do with dumb excuses like next year will be better, or waiting until I had just enough PTO, or honestly just not making the kind of effort I needed to for one reason or another. But nowadays I'm inclined to just go for shit. I'm making it happen. I'm following through on my end. You can't wait until everything is perfect because otherwise it would never happen.

Hayley invited me to visit during fall since she (and probably everyone at this point) knows that's the season I come alive - especially given she's in the Northeast. So I mapped out Mel's farm and found that it was only a few hours from Hayley's house, and floated the idea of me seeing them both in the same trip. They were both not only on board but so accommodating. There was one weekend that just happened to work out perfectly for all three of us. I booked my flights in July and cursed summer while I dreamed of fall. 

I flew up to NY on Thursday evening in early October. Melody met me inside the small but very nice airport and we got settled into her Volvo. She asked if I was hungry and when I said yes she gave me two choices:

1. drive an hour south back to her place

or 

2. drive an hour north and eat dumplings in Montreal, Canada. 

Of course I picked number two. She had asked me in advance to bring my passport just in case time would allow us to swing up to Montreal while I was in town. I was only going to be with her for 24 hours...so this was our chance. 

She started to drive north. 

 

We talked and giggled like no time had passed - as per usual. Those are some of the best kinds of friends. The ones who know you but yet you still have so much to fill them in on. The kind that you haven't heard their voice in a year but waste no time getting into the nitty gritty of it all. The kind where you still click no matter how many lives you've each lived without the other. She's always been that for me. 

Fun fact about me: I've never been outside of the country, not even to Mexico or the Bahamas. I used to be really self conscious of this. So many people I know are world travelers so I always thought I was way behind or less-than somehow. But in recent years I've just accepted it. I'm probably even in the majority. Dustin and I have a very short list of other countries we'd like to visit and so I made us an appointment to get our passports in Spring of 2020. Ha! Jokes on us! While the world was shut down we still went through all the steps to get our passports. We walked into the Post Office with masks on and took our photos (without the masks obvs). A month or so later they came in the mail and I just put them away for someday. 

Melody and I arrived to the border of Canada, which like the movies, just looked like a toll booth. The attendant took our passports, asked what we were doing (going to eat dumplings, duh!), and then told us to park in one of the spaces ahead. Mel was clearly annoyed and told me this had never happened before. The guards told us in their French accents to leave everything in the car, including our phones, and wait on the other side of a rail. So we did. The two guys started going through her car and asked questions about everything - 

what is this giant wrapped rectangle thing in the back seat? re-framed art she picked up from Michael's earlier. 

is this your suitcase? yes, she just picked me up from the airport.

and where are you going? Montreal for dumplings. (this is when one of them responded "oh that does sound good")

how do you know each other? we've been friends since kindergarten.

And on and on until eventually they were satisfied that we were ok to enter their country. They were nice throughout the entire interaction and told us to enjoy dinner. 

Mel, who is one of those world travelers I know, and has driven up to Montreal countless of times, was floored that just happened to us. My untraveled self thought it was all normal and didn't think much of it. We just laughed at the whole thing and before I knew it I could see the Montreal skyline. Whoa, I am actually in another country for the first time! Mel drove through some downtown streets and then we were quickly in Chinatown. We found street parking and just started to walk. No real plan other than dumplings. I just kept taking it all in as we walked. We found Sammi and Soupe Dumpling . There was a bit of a wait but we didn't mind. Once seated, we ordered all the dumplings. The menu was in French, English, and Chinese which is a detail that I'm sure is so normal that most people wouldn't even think twice but I found even the small things interesting. 

         

Dinner was amazing! I mean just look at the photo of those dumplings! Melody drove me around town for a bit while she decided whether or not we should stay the night in Montreal or make the drive back to her place. She felt ok to drive the two hours back home so off we went. I was there for maybe a couple hours but it was a great experience. I am so grateful to Mel for being so willing and excited to take me. 

We got back to her place late. She made my loft bed for me and then asked "you can climb up this ladder, right?". I could. I did. And if I'm being honest was anxious I would have to pee in the middle of the night and tumble down. Thankfully, I didn't and all was well. Actually it was super comfortable. We slept with the windows open and it was everything to finally be in the presence of cool air. 

She not only made me a wonderful omelet with all the fresh shit straight outta her farm BUT she made fresh fucking apple juice with literally just apples and a juicer. Talk about wooing a girl!

       

She had some flower picking to do for a client so I took a shower and then shadowed her. She answered all my questions about what kind of flower was what and how she chooses which one to cut, etc. Then she'd elaborate and tell me which seeds were an accident but turned out to be amazing and just all the intricacies I would've never thought of. We moved to her flower workshop and I watched her do her thing. I took a pretty bad-ass time lapse of the whole process that will absolutely make the cut whenever I get to editing the videos from this trip. I heard a clop clop clop and looked out the window; I saw a horse and my first in real life Amish person! I also almost broke my ankle stepping out of her workshop with a freshly arranged vase of beautiful flowers she and I had just put together for Hayley. Thankfully, I didn't drop the vase or break my ankle; I just looked like an idiot and laughed it off. What's new?

I've been watching her create in one form or another since the beginning, and to see her still doing it 30-something years later, AS HER JOB, is just the coolest. I'm so proud of everything she has accomplished and I'm pumped to see what she will do in the future. 

If you're in upstate NY/VT area and need a florist then she is your lady - Mad Crazy Flowers. She also sells the bomb dot com lip balm and other items she made herself. 

 

   

On our way out of town we stopped by Dogwood Bread Company for some food for our trip to meet up with Hayley. Thanks for having me and introducing me to Echo Farm. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet Dillon but next time for sure. Regardless, it was great to take a peek inside your world. 

Hayley stumbled upon the cutest damn bookstore so that's where we ended up meeting her. I've coined it the "Powell's of the East". It just screamed Rory Gilmore. We walked around for a bit but it was a long drive back for both of them so we had to say our goodbyes in front of some beautiful bookstore foliage. 

  

  

From the flowers you drew on your letters to the flowers you'd press in between pages of old books to hearing the squeaky door entry of Flowrgr107 pop up to being in the same field watching you amongst the flowers you grew and the arrangements you created. 

From Sanford to Plattsburgh to Montreal to Westport to Manchester. 

From kindergarten to forevermore.