Bonus post, for which you can thank my mom

I try not to post here during the day, but hey, it's lunchtime, and my mom sent me a nice email the other day after I posted about how "fun" I am to shop with.

Anyway, my mom (who reads my blog because she loves me, obviously) told me that not only does she shop that way (which I only vaguely remember, since she was very wise and started giving me a clothes allowance when I was about twelve, so I could make my own sartorial mistakes), but her mother, Chico, also shopped that way. (Chico, sadly, died when I was four or five, so I don't remember her.)

You would have loved to seen Chico at bazaars -- Bangkok variety. [My grandparents were stationed in Thailand and Burma in the 1950s.] Lots of sign language and laughter. Stateside she'd do the whole shop and then she'd take something to a salesperson and say that she would like something just like what she was holding except in blue and with a long skirt -- did they have something -- maybe in the back - like that? They'd give her a look and say yeah -- you're holding it ... but occasionally it would work! And it would be so funny...

So there you have it. It's genetic. (Code for "not my fault.")

QWP--"Quoted with permission"--although probably getting permission to quote a private email from YOUR OWN MOTHER is pretty much a given!