(An Intermission from our international conversation)

This is the start of my journey of traveling for my birthday, also the end of the era where I was trying to make myself more consumable to people around me. Before this trip I considered thoughts like maybe I’m too much or that maybe I just need to be normal like I see other people being. I was WRONG, I say that because if I were “smaller” I wouldn’t have had one of the best birthdays I’ve had and I wouldn’t have made the impact that I did on other people. The trip starts off with landing in NOLA for the weekend and checking into our hotel. From there we ended up just going to the bar, we’d have a few drinks before we began the night of exploring and food sampling on Bourbon Street. While at the bar, my friend and I were conversing with the bartender and we let her know it was my birthday that day! The bartender then asks us if we want a shot and explains that in NOLA when it’s your birthday you wear money pinned visibly and people who know about it will give you money to add to your pin! Basically for the remainder of our trip we were joining this family, the next day they invited my friend and I over to the mall and allowed me to pick out some items from a few stores! I found this hot pink jacket from Forever 21 which had a suede like texture with a biker jacket fit and style (I love that jacket to this day). That night the mother and father were heading to the casino with their brother and invited my friend and I to join them. I explained that I never played any of the table games and wasn’t very familiar with them….I was met with an alternative! The father explained to me that he was good at blackjack and that if I gave him $20 he would “flip” my money for me…. $20 isn’t much so I indulged and to my surprise he handed me $200 that I later “flipped” myself into $400 just from watching how to play as well as taking his instruction while I played alongside him! My friend and I decided to hit Bourbon street with the cash and enjoy our last night in NOLA, we drank so much that my friend missed her flight back home! NEVER BOOK an early morning departure from New Orleans, you are setting yourself up for failure!

UPCOMING: the next blog will discuss travel plans during the epidemic and also my first time staying in Tulum, Mexico!!