Society & Culture in the US

My neighbors down the street from me were building an addition to their already large home. When I met them one day as I was taking a walk I commented on the work being done. They explained that the husband’s parents were coming to live with them as they were getting older and wanted to be near family. His parents now live a five-hour drive away so it is not easy to just drop by to see how they are doing. She took me in to see the newly built rooms and asked me if I would go shopping along with her to pick up some things to fill these rooms. Her husband was not a shopper. One of her mother-in-law's decorating dreams was to be an Asian theme. She had already purchased some Chinese vases and pictures and needed to find the perfect Oriental rug to go along with the other items. I didn’t realize that there were such a variety of choices to buy an Oriental rug in the Chicago area. What fun we had roaming the city trying to find one we thought her in-laws would appreciate! We even stopped at a Chinese restaurant for lunch to keep us in the mood. Her Chinese fortune cookie read, “You will find what you have been searching for soon”. How exciting!