Good Food, Bad Food... and Ghosts???

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Geo: 29.9537, -90.0778

Today was my first day of classes for the AACN's NTI 2016 Conference. Basically, 8,000-10,000 nurses from across the country descend on one city for continuing education (CE). In California, we have to have 30 hours CE every two years when we renew our licenses. For my Critical Care Certification, I have to have 100 hours CE every 3 years when I renew. So, big conferences like these are an excellent way to meet those requirements, as well as network, get up to date on technology and have fun in a new city.

My very first class on Traumatic Brain Injuries ended up being one of my favorites (when I get home I'll do unit teaching on it). The nice thing about these classes is I can come and go when I want in between classes. I also get to make my own schedule. So, I arranged to have one solid day of classes on Tuesday (tomorrow) but the other days are all only partial days.

After my first class I left the conference center to meet up with Anna for a "free" walking Culinary History Tour. I love walking tours. Free walking tours are even neater if you happen to be visiting a city that does them. You don't pay any money up front. After the tour, if you enjoyed it, you "tip" the guide what they "deserve." Our tour guide, Dave, was INCREDIBLY good. Very passionate about food and New Orleans culture. I even learned the difference between Creole and Cajun cooking, which up to that point, I had just used interchangeably. Creole is what the rich people in town cooked, with lots of heavy sauces, like remoulade. Cajun is what the back country people cooked with spices and lots of critters- think crawdads and jambalaya. Then there's the differences in culture which I couldn't begin to remember but has alot more to do with lineage than the color of your skin. I also learned that jambalaya likely came from paella. When the Spanish settlers came to the area, they didn't have saffron. So they started dumping in other ingredients, like tomatoes and local seafood, and you get jambalaya. The tour ended at The French Market. Anna and I bought a smattering of local cajun cooking to try- blackened catfish, collared greens, red beans and rice, jambalaya and three different types of gumbo. Most of the trip Anna and I split dishes so we could try as much food as possible. And even then, we had a hard time finishing all the food we'd order.

I ran back to the conference to finish out the afternoon in classes. I got done about 5pm, and Anna met me up downtown near the conference center. It didn't make sense to go all the way back to the studio to change before our Jazz Dinner Cruise so I had carried all my things with me that day. Even though it's heavy, it was probably a good thing considering how many calories I was consuming a day. We got Swizzles at the Swizzlestick Cafe (another popular drink), and I told her about my day.

While waiting in the absurdly long line to collect the paper tickets four our jazz cruise, my coworker arrived! I will say in advance, I am not a huge fan of this Jazz Dinner Cruise after going on it (this one was the Creole Queen). I pre-paid for my tickets and printed them like it said to, but I still waited a half hour in a line to get actual tickets that I just handed to the employee on the boat literally one minute later. Why I couldn't use a pre-printed ticket, I have no idea. It was a waste of time especially since we were there to eat dinner. Our tickets told us to be there at 6:30pm for boarding, and we were. But it turned out they started boarding AND dinner at 6pm. So by the time we got on the boat at 7pm because of that line, all the buffet food was picked over. There was barely any food left! We sat around at our table for five minutes wondering if we should go get our food or wait for a waitress to take our drink order. No one ever came. Finally, since I was starving, I walked up to the bar and asked about ordering drinks. They asked if my waitress had come and I said no. She saw me at the bar, apologized and took our orders. We went to the picked over food and started adding to our plates. There was hardly anything left in some of the dishes so we had to wait for them to bring more out. They served red beans and rice, some kind of creole seafood pasta, chicken, beef brisket, gumbo, caesar salad and bread pudding. It was all gross except for the beef brisket and bread pudding. I couldn't even tell what was culturally significant about half the bland foods they served. The bread pudding was amazing but they didn't make enough of it- so I got one small piece but no one else at our table got any. So that's my beef with the cruise. I still recommend getting the experience of a river steamboat cruise but don't waste your money on the food. Get food before and after, and enjoy a drink during the ride because that part was actually beautiful at night. We got to see the New Orleans lights from the river.

After that, we were planning to meet my co-worker at a show on Frenchman Street. But I started to feel funny when I got there. I was fine (and sober, mind you) the whole walk there after the cruise until we actually got there. Then I felt nauseous. I figured it would pass, didn't order any drinks and just waited for the show to start. The guy signing was really good and I wanted to stay. About fifteen minutes into the show, I knew I was going to puke. I ran for the bathroom and up came all the gross dinner I'd wasted my money on, Anna helped me back our studio, which was only five minutes away, and I puked a few more times before lying in the fetal position in my bunk for a couple hours. Was it food poisoning? I doubt it considering no one else in my group got sick. Or maybe just my food was bad? I felt 100% fine in the morning, though. So, who knows. =)

..But the night wasn't over. Sometime around 2:30am, I woke up and noticed the outer shutter of our front door was open. I was certain Anna had locked it when we got home, though. Worrisome. But given the amount of ghost stories we'd heard the past few nights I was scared way out of proportion to reality. I called out from my loft bed to Anna below me on the futon, "Anna... are you awake?" Anna, a small, scared voice, "Yeah." Me, "The shutter on the door... it's open. Didn't you close it?" I already knew the answer, "Yeah. I woke up because I heard a noise.. And the shutter was open." I asked if she saw anyone open it and she said no, she only heard noise. It'd been half an hour and clearly no one had tried to break in. Like a horrible older sister, I told her to get up and close the shutter. I felt bad once she got up because she was freaked out. There was nothing outside, though, and she managed to close the shutter it, secure it a little, and then relock the actual door again. Neither one of us got good sleep that night after that, terrified of ghosts, vampires and murderers NOLA is so famous for.

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