Nawlins Bebe: Spring Break (Literary Nerd Style)

Hey all!

Happy allergy season to you. I hope your spring break was as epic as mine.
Side note: I just rediscovered how much I love to use a thesaurus, so pardon the unnecessarily descriptive words.

This spring break I spent a few days in New Orleans with my good friend, Chelsea. We planned to attend a Tennessee Williams festival, but bollixed* the dates and ended up missing most of it, including a "Stella-a-a-a-a-a!" shouting contest that I was really anticipating. However, I saw oodles* of super interesting stuff which I thought was blog-worthy! So here are my musings of Nawlins and road-tripping in general.

1. Travelling with my friend's family is super dolorous*. Am I allowed to ask to turn the A/C up? What if I need to pee? Can I ask to stop if I feel sick, or should I wait until I can't stand it anymore and puke? The answer to this question, my friends, is NO. Puking in your friends car is one of the most humiliating situations ever...not that I speak from experience or anything.
2. Don't stay at a Holiday Inn! Seriously, there are some awesome historic hotels all over the place for not much more than a standard chain hotel. Think outside the box. The hotel we stayed in was super creepy. We lost half of it our first day.
3. Street performers make the world go round. I LOVE street performers with an intense passion. New Orleans is full of all kinds of street performers. Musicians, artists, magicians, and of course, psychics. Now, I'm not saying that I don't believe in prophesizing, but I do find it difficult to believe that over TWENTY people on one block have "the sight". I have never seen so many tarot cards in my life (which isn't really saying much because I have never before seen tarot cards in my life). Isn't divination supposed to be a rare gift? And how do people decide which psychic to visit? I think people generally just pick the most strangely dressed woman on the street. Personally, if I was going to have my fortune told, I would prefer the middle aged white man wearing khakis. He looked pretty rational.
4. Everything in New Orleans is haunted. Chelsea and I gave ourselves a mini tour of some infamously haunted homes and hotels of the area. There's pretty much a ghost story for every building in the city, but definitely the craziest one was the Lalaurie house. My friend likes American Horror Story, which I guess mentioned it, and had to see it. The lady who used to live there, Delphine Lalaurie, was this insanely murderous socialite who tortured her servants. She would literally leave her parties, walk upstairs, and brutally injure these poor people. After a fire, her house was found full of dead, decapitated bodies of her former slaves.
5. Beignets. Enough said.
6. This place is a literary landmark! The whole French Quarter is full of former homes and hangouts of great authors like Hemingway, Faulkner, and, of course, Tennessee Williams. The best spot is definitely the Hotel Monteleone where even F. Scott Fitzgerald liked to stay. One of only three "literary landmarks" in the US, this hotel is beautifully nostalgic. A famous feature is the elaborate carousel bar that actually spins. We ordered virgin cocktails and imagined our names added to the list of renowned visitors. The best part? A bookcase full of first editions of some of the greatest American novels. I think Chelsea almost cried. 
7. Learn to laugh it off. No road trip is complete without a few brief fiascos. Chelsea is one of my best friends, but avoiding conflict doesn't tend to be our strong point. No matter what craziness happens between you and your friends, just remember that eventually it will be the most hilarious memory ever.
8. Just call a cab. Seriously, my feet are still hurting.

Thanks for reading! Comment with your own road trip thoughts. Have a hunky dory* week!



*Why have I never seen this word before?? I will never say "screwed up" again. Also, it has an X in it. Note taken for future scrabble games.

*I am so happy this is a real word.

*I now understand where Umbridge got her name...

*???