Day 2 Part 1 of the best Sunday EVER

Sunday, November 19

Grace and I had gotten a room at a motel in Houston because my apartment was basically non-functional. I still had utilities and whatnot, but no TV and nothing to sleep on. We woke up early and headed out the door at about 7am.

First stop: My apartment to check the place one more time and return the keys. Bye bye Scotland Yard Apartments!

Next stop: The Valero gas station down the block. WHOooooo Hooooo!!! Road trip!

Ok, then we finally got on 610 west at about 7:30am

Next next stop: McDonalds somewhere. It was a renovated one. It had a fireplace and was like a cozy cafe, only dirty like a McDonalds. McDonalds! You can't deny who you really are!!!! But they did have two computers with internet. I wanted to blog from there just to say, "I'm blogging from a McDonalds" but for some reason you can't post from a McDonalds. Weird.

As we drove through the crappy west side of Houston, Grace noted how it stank like INDUSTRY! and was disappointed to learn that we weren't going to be driving through desert. That's the other side of Texas, far far far away.

From 610 we took I-10 to Louisiana. It got more scenic once we hit the Atchafalaya basin. Atchafalayaaaaaaaaa. I bet you could get some jumbalaya in ATCHafalaya. The road lies very low over the bayou in this area. I bet you could also see some aligators.

I drove all the way to New Orleans since it is only about 6hrs away from Houston. On the way there we listened to a CD I burned of the music on my laptop arranged in alphabetical order. It included the appropriate Muppet Movie song, "Movin Right Along" and the worst Muppet song, "Muhnah Muhnah". We got there at about 2ish. Good thing it was pretty dead and we didn't arrive at night because with all the narrow one way streets, it was hard enough to get to our hotel.

We stayed at the Ramada Inn on Bourbon at the corner of Toulouse and Bourbon, right in the French Quarter. It was built on the site of the old French Opera House. I made the reservation at Hotels.com and got it at a steal at $99. Normally the rooms go for $240. It's a really pretty hotel and the beds were SOOOOOO comfy; I wanted to take one home. They had Bath and Body Works soaps in the bathroom. Very nice, but the iron was missing from the closet. Normally I wouldn't care, but my pants were wrinkly.

We decided to go exploring in the French Quarter. It smelled like a frat house. Like the sweet stale smell of alcohol and sweat and little hint of pee. Almost right away we spotted a Voodoo shop and we went inside. They had lots of little trinkets like Mexican Day of the Dead dolls and Turkish evil eyes. The girl at the front with the bright magenta hair mentioned that they were having a special on readings. $20 each for tarot card, past life, or numerology and only $35 for two. I was a little disappointed they didn't have palm reading since I have wanted to do that for ages now. I settled on a Tarot card reading. I paid the bright magenta girl and she brought be to a little room in the back that had a beaded curtain for a door.

Inside the dim closet sized room sat a heavy set woman with long white hair and a flannel wrap around her shoulers. She put away the paper she was reading (I wonder if she gets very bored back there) and welcomed Grace and me into her little room. She had an English accent and seemed very pleasant but, I never got her name. I sat across a kitchenette sized table from the woman and Grace sat on a sofa chair next to her.

The woman asked me to think of a question or my life in general. She then had me shuffle a deck of Tarot cards. I'm horrible at shuffling regular cards and this was even harder because the cards are longer and there are over 70 of them. I shuffled them 3 times (3's the magic number, yes it is, the magic number). She laid 10 cards out in what I later learned to be a Celtic Cross spread.

Grace thought it was amusing how I wasn't giving the woman any information. The woman would interpret the cards and ask, "Does this make any sense to you?" and I would merely answer, "Hmm, yes. I think so." I wanted her to go through all of the cards without my help. Although if she was reallllly good she would be able to tell from my slight facial expressions and body language if she was on the right track. And all of this fortune tellng stuff always has to be taken with a grain of salt and all for fun, but truth be told, the cards were pretty much on target. For example, the card which describes the querent was the King of Cups which meant I am supposedly someone that holds back my emotions and tries hard not to let them show. LOL. When I noticed Grace was nodding her head with her eyes wide in agreement, I wondered if I should have let her come in the room with me! At least my last card that shows my final outcome was a very happy one. I am a little worried about the 'near future' card though; it was the three of swords and depicted a heart skewered by three swords. Owie.

Once she had gone through all of the cards I let her know what I thought some of the cards meant. Some of the cards dealt with career and creativity and starting a business. So we started talking about jewelry making and selling. Then she took off her necklace and showed me her work. I gave her tips and she told me about some wholesalers I should check out. LOL, it was just funny how the conversation always seems to turn that way. Beaders are everywhere.

I tipped her $3.