Another Shopping Miracle

Yesterday I visited the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. I went with my sister-in-law and her friend while Andrew napped a tired Ella at our hotel. Even a die-hard shopper like myself was overwhelmed by the over 4,000 stalls and the mazes of similar-looking alleyways. After buying a few trinkets, we found a restaurant that looked promising and sat down for a late lunch. After lunch our waiter recommended a carpet shop. It was too hard to explain the location, so he had someone lead us to the stall. We looked at a few turkish carpets. Andrew and I had thought about buying one here, but we hadn't really settled on a size or price. I found some carpets that I really liked, but decided that I shouldn't make a decision without Andrew. The salesman was really pushing and kept lowering his price until it was very tempting. I almost bought it when he followed us out the door and made his final offer. I told him I'd be back with my husband. He told me that husbands aren't the bosses at home, wives are, and that since I was there with my friends I should just make the purchase. We finally disentangled ourselves and wended our ways home.

When we got home I convinced Andrew to come back with me to the Bazaar for his dinner and to look at the rug with me. When we were halfway there, I realized that I forgot to bring the store's card with me. I had no idea what the name of the store was or how to find it in the Bazaar. I thought maybe we could find the restaurant and then find the waiter and then find the store. It was a longshot, especially since I couldn't remember the name of the restaurant either. I got lost immediately and started asking all the vendors for the big restaurant that started with an "H". They all said it was closed. Finally I found someone who actually took me to the restaurant, which was in fact closed. But inside was our waiter, who was nice enough to accompany us to the rug store again. The very surprised salesman pulled the rug out, tried to haggle his way up from the previous price, but eventually sold us the rug. I told Andrew afterwards that considering all the stars that had to align for us to get the rug, it must have been the rug we had in the pre-existence.