Travel Allowances

54 Marbles 
That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.Ernest Hemingway

    My confidence returns with the morning light. I ask to switch into a non-smoking room, work out in the gym, then go out exploring. 
    The first thing that I purchase is an umbrella that clips onto my purse.  The weather changes frequently in New Orleans, and every so often it rains – a delightfully warm rain, not like the cold winter rain back home. 
    I wander into the French Quarter research center packed with historical books and local newspapers.  I feel like a sponge - drawing everything in - the history, the architecture, the way people talk.  I’m in heaven. 
    As the daylight wanes, vestiges of the three warnings still haunt me so I slip into St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square  I pray for safety and for things to work out the way they were meant to (perhaps the latter is a universal law so praying for it is redundant). 
    I take myself for my comfort food -  at a small Italian place called Mona Lisa. As I drink a glass of wine, I look through my guidebook and decide to check out the Gay and Lesbian Community Center.  I try calling them several times but there is no answer.  They must be closed. 
    For dessert I head over to Café Du Monde to check out their world famous beignets. As I listen to the concert-hall-worthy jazz trio busking near the patio, I have my introduction to the sugary sweetness of the beignets offset by delicious chicory coffee. Yum!
    I’m not looking for romance, or even sex but  this is how it finds me… Since I want to do some more research. I decide to call the Community Center one more time and they answer.  They’re having their anniversary party and they asked me to join in. 
    The party is in full swing when I arrive.  I grab a drink and start talking to a local woman about her Katrina experiences then I ask her what it is like to live as a lesbian in New Orleans.  “Oh, I’m not gay,” she replies.  Then she introduces me to a male friend of hers who grew up in New Orleans as a “French Quarter rat.”
    I’ll interrupt for a moment to explain that in the first draft of Burlesque Palace, there’s a love interest named Ryder.  Ryder is a pothead, a dealer, a schemer, and a rogue with “eyes bluer than a one-eyed carpenter’s thumb.”  Dude has a name remarkably similar to Ryder and when he sits next to me and starts talking, I think, “This is Ryder.” I feel like I’m in my very own living, breathing script so it doesn’t surprise me when he sparks up a joint.  He answers my stream of questions about his city then I ask him, “What’s it like to be gay in New Orleans?” He looks at me, “I’m not gay,” he answers. Apparently my gaydar isn’t set for New Orleans. 
    We go to a bar with dude’s friends including the man who founded the center (who was gay and living in the South).  They tell hilarious stories about life in New Orleans including their brushes with the war on drugs.  I have superstar status as I am from Vansterdam – the Canadian version of the liberal Amsterdam. Dude makes me laugh - a lot. As Napolean remarked, "A woman laughing is a woman conquered."
    After we shut down the bar, dude and I go for a walk and end up back in my hotel room.  I am nervous but he's kind, “We don’t have to do anything.” I want to but it's daunting - I haven’t slept with any man, other than Ex-man, for over twelve years.  I turn out the lights.

Serendipity is a happy accident or the surprise of finding something you're not specifically looking for. Can you appreciate the serendipity in your life? Can you allow more space for serendipity to show up? (Hint, if we try to control too much, there isn't much room for it.)