Les Voodoo

The first time I moved to New Orleans (2000), I had an encounter with a Voodoo priestess. She told me that I should go back home to San Francisco. It was my first week in New Orleans and a voodoo priestess was telling me that it would "be best for me" if I left town. It was sort of strange, but it didn't really freak me out -- after all, this was coming from a person who had a rotten tomato and a moldy eggplant on the alter at her temple. Truth be told, I never really gave much thought to that little incident until this afternoon when I went to my favorite New Orleans day spa for a bikini and eyebrow wax. When I arrived early for my appointment, the girl at the counter told me that someone with my first and last name had called the spa this morning and cancelled the appointment. Read it again...and again. Chills, anyone? If my name was Jane Smith, and if I had been living in New Orleans for more than 15 mintues, this might not be too strange. But no one except my husband (and perhaps my dog, who may have been eavesdropping) knew that I was going to the day spa at 2:30 in the afternoon today. Not a soul. Fortunately for my eyebrows and the rest of me, the spa was able to accommodate the appointment that I never cancelled, although I could tell that they thought I was semi-crazy. After all, who else but me would call on the off chance that a person with the same name had an appointment? Now, I did go out to drink last night. But a beer, followed by a cosmo and two mojitos before going to sleep at 10:30pm is hardly what one (especially in New Orleans) would consider a rough night. Certainly not enough for me to forget calling to cancel an appointment at the day spa (particularly since less than 24 hour notice entails payment for services not rendered). Let's face it, it's not like I have a job right now so I don't exactly have anywhere else to go that would require me to cancel on short notice. You see where I'm going with this. The only explanation is the Voodoo priestess. Her fuzzy tomato probably informed her that I'm back in town and perhaps this is her way of telling me to go back to where I came from. Well, I have to admit that I'm slightly creeped out right now, but I am not leaving!