Shopping With Feeeeeling

The Chinese restaurant in Madeira , across from the pottery shop where I bought the rooster

Rooster on display (which makes me think of   the Chinese restaurant )

Mazatlan memento

Mickey shorts

As I poured my coffee this morning,  I said "good morning" to my Madeira Rooster.  You see,   I decorate the house,  my ears,  my body, and my internal organs  with stuff bought while on  vacation.   For some totally bogus reason,  traveling lubricates my spending senses,  lulling me into a drunken state of  free spending.   This is not helped if the currency is foreign;  then the money resembles tokens for the merry-go-round and I instantly devalue their worth.  An overpowering need to sentimentalize and remember every place I visit culminates in the purchase of  roosters, paintings, shorts,  and exotic-sounding Mexican pharmaceutical prescriptions (wart cream in Spanish comes off sounding like Verrrrrrruga).

The painting is from our last trip to Mexico.   The shop proprietor  bubble-wrapped the whole thing, then covered it in butcher's paper.  It was suddenly three feet tall . I carried it like a precious baby through the streets of Mazatlan.  After the Dos Equis wore off I was glad to see I still liked it.  Actually,   I adore it (plus, it reminds me of the last cruise my dad took with us - see!  you can justify anything if you give it feeling! )

The items I make off with  are rarely Sombrero Purchases ( you've heard of this right? - crap you don't want once you sober up and are struck with the realization that big straw hats don't look good outside of Cancun.)   That's not to say I don't have a little bit of remorse about the plaid Mickey shorts that spoke to me in a moment of Disney weakness.  No,  I say that just for Scot.  I brought them back to the room and under his breath her uttered,  "sombrero."  For the record,  these have been worn off the ship.