Here and There

Well, we left at 8:45 this morning and got to Fort Collins about 17:45... *sighs* 9 hours. On my own, it would have been 8 hours. I don't stop unless absolutely necessary, at least not when I have some place to get to.

Highlights: We saw two bald eagles. One was eating some (presumed) roadkill on the side of the highway. It was rather amusing to watch the smaller birds furtively sneaking in and trying to avoid the eagle's notice. The second was in flight.

More snow than usual for this time of year, and a few mildly "bad" spots between Rawlins and Laramie. Nothing major.

That was about it, except I realized I forgot to stick in any "nicer" clothes to wear for the funeral. So after dinner, I wandered over to Fort Collins's mall, expecting a long, painful, annoying, and arduous hunt. I walked in the door; looked to my left; saw a store FILLED with Asian goods. Including clothing.

Normally, I HATE to shop for clothing, but suddenly I was perfectly happy to look through and try on tons of stuff. I got a taiji uniform (black silk, gold dragon embroidery). The pants don't fit, but $40 was a steal just for the jacket. I also got a red linen shirt with frog-buttons, imperial collar, and dragons along the bottom. And I found a nice silk robe with a seafoam pattern of cranes and clouds. *sighs* Take me to an upscale dress store and I'll be bored to death. Take me to a lingerie store and I'll stare at you and ask why. Take me to an Asian import store that actually has clothing in my size...I suggest you stay out of my way, especially since they had a decent selection of knives and swords as well.

They also had some very nice embroidery paintings (they look like paintings from a distance, but when you get close you can see it's embroidery), lots of "lucky bamboo" (which is not, technically, bamboo), plenty of dragon/Buddha/Guan Yin statues, chopsticks, etc. I almost got a set of Foo Dogs/Lions... Dirt cheap compared to most places I've seen them, but they weren't quite the style I wanted. So I bought only clothing.

My mom was too tired to come with me, so I played show and tell when I got back. She liked the red shirt...and made a face when I showed her the taiji jacket. When I told her that was what I thought I would wear to the funeral (it's black, after all), she REALLY made a face. She said she would have gone with something more...conservative... (I think it's the yellow dragons she doesn't like). I just blinked at her. I think Grandma would approve, actually. I can see her looking at the dragons, looking at me, and just busting up laughing. So I'm going with it.