Isabel

It's Saturday morning and it’s raining and I'm up at 7:00 AM. I usually don't wake up this early on

a weekend unless I need to catch a flight or have something truly special to get to. I go through

the sleepy motions. Wash face. Clothes. Try to think about the special thing I get to do today

and ward off the crankiness.

I've lived in Philadelphia for 3-and-some-change years now and the flower show has been on

*my list* for every one of them. I’ve never fully understood what the flower show is, but I like

flowers and all things beautiful and it seems like the place for those things. I was looking at tickets

online a few weeks ago and came across the option to volunteer, so I curiously perused the shifts

and stopped dead in my scroll when I saw it.

Butterflies Live! - Shift 1 (1 slot left)

One need not know any details about Butterflies Live! - Shift 1 to know that when there's one

slot left in Butterflies Live! - Shift 1, you take it.

I grabbed a matcha latte and hopped on

the bus to the convention center. I

checked in at the volunteer desk and

grabbed a comically large button that

signified me as a volunteer and navigated

to Butterflies Live. Butterflies Live, I now

know, is an interactive exhibit with

hundreds of different butterflies fluttering

around. I walked into the tent and met the

Butterfly Man who was running the

exhibit. He told me my first task was to

pick up and throw away all the dead

butterflies that were on the floor so the

children don’t get scared. Not the

romantic vision I had of this morning.

After the dead butterfly pickup activity, which I may or may not recover from, the flower show

opened and the tent slowly filled up with a steady stream of every kind of person. I learned that

basically every kind of person likes butterflies. I learned that butterflies, at least these kinds, are

not shy, and like to latch onto the warmer parts of us like the crook of an elbow. There were these

butterflies that were brown and boring on the outside but when they opened their wings it was the

brightest blue. There were luna moths, which were actually a little creepy, and monarchs and

these tiny ones that had see-through wings like glass.

My duties consisted of spraying the butterflies with water so their wings wouldn’t dry out and

de-butterflying people on their way out of the tent, which is the process of inspecting someone

as they spin in a circle and plucking off all the butterflies that had latched onto them. One

butterfly escaped into the convention center and it was A Whole Thing so I took the job very

seriously.

Every hour or so, the Butterfly Man brought in a new group of butterflies to release. It’s so fun

seeing people live out a thing that they’re passionate about,especially when it’s someone super

passionate about pollinators asking a bunch of kids to gather around while he unleashes a

hundred butterflies into the air and places some of them on their little heads and noses.

Eventually, asking people to spin around in circles and de-butterflying made me dizzy and my

time was up. My friend’s parents were in town from DC and had stopped by to see me earlier in

the day. This friend both looks like and feels like a sister to me, so her parents seem like they’re

mine a little bit too. We met up again and they treated me to lunch in Reading Terminal because

they are the sweetest.

I went back into the show with them and bought a dozen orange roses and walked around all the

exhibits and installations before heading home to read and nap on my couch. Naps feel so special

and indulgent these days and it was still raining so I made it a long one. My alarm went off at 6

PM and I quickly got ready to head back out into the rain.

I hopped on the bus with my orange roses and a bottle of wine and headed towards my friend’s

place in Rittenhouse for a dinner party. I took the 47 to the 42 and the transfer was seamless. A

seamless transfer makes me sooooo happy.

I was greeted by a warm apartment with some amazing smells. This particular friend is

exceptionally good at bringing people together, and if you know her you automatically know all

her people. There were old and new friends and so much good food. And wine. It was the

perfect, cozy ending to a day of flowers and friends and beautiful things.

Isabel is a lover of little happies. You can find her bopping around Queen Village or on instagram @izzaybabay.