Saturday, October 17, 2015

52. Have my fortune read in New Orleans

I crossed off one of the items on my List of 100 Dreams last weekend, and aside from being a lot of fun, it made me feel really accomplished. I wasn’t aware how crossing even the smallest item off my list would make me feel, but it turned out to make me feel like I’m moving toward an end goal, and that is always an awesome feeling. When I graduated college I felt pretty lost, and this has given me something new to work toward in my life. It’s a pretty cool feeling. 

Anyway, back to crossing off my first dream. Rich and I went on our annual trip to New Orleans last weekend, and he suggested that we have lunch in Jackson Square on Sunday and then find a fortune teller after we were done eating. I thought it sounded like a great idea!

After we had lunch at Stanley, which was delicious, by the way, we went out to the Square to find the perfect psychic for my purposes. We cruised up and down the sidewalk trying to find her. What I was really looking for was someone who actually looked like they believed in what they were telling people, not someone who was just there for easy money. After walking up and down the row of fortune tellers three or four times, I had disqualified some of them. One looked promising - she was speaking very seriously to the people that were sitting at her table; it looked like she really might believe what she was telling them. But then when we walked by her a second time, she was playing on her phone, looking bored. That wasn’t going to work for me.

I ended up choosing a woman who was sitting at her table happily awaiting her next customer rather than looking bored and distracted. She was wearing a red tank top and had a handful of teeth missing. She was perfect! She did a palm-reading on me, and then she coerced Rich into having his palm read as well. She was really funny and polite - Rich and I both ended up liking her a lot.

She said she could tell I have problems with authority and that I need to be the boss. Seems right.

The things she “divined” about us could have been guessed by anyone or just plain made up. They could have fit a large subset of the population, but she was entertaining, and it was fun. We weren't sure how much she was going to charge us for the readings, but when she was done, she just opened up this little treasure chest she had on her table and told us to leave whatever we could. We ended up giving her all the cash we had on us, which was $25, and I’m really happy we did. It looked like she only had a few dollars in her chest, so it felt good to give her more money than she probably gets from a lot of her customers. 

This was one of the easier dreams to cross off my list, but it feels good to get things started! I can’t wait to accomplish more of my goals and tell the world about them!