I was not looking forward to The Great New Orleans Mulligan. The Big Easy did not deserve a second chance.

Brief recap of trip number one: Day One – I stepped in a puddle of piss on the sidewalk at 9 AM. It splashed all over my foot and up my leg. It only went downhill from there, folks. From obscenely long waits for mediocre restaurants, to a lack of decent beer, to overly crabby, hungover people everywhere we went. The only bright spot was Cafe Du Monde – the beignets and the amazing waiter there.

When it was announced that our annual con was not only being retired and reborn, but was going back to NoLa, I was less than thrilled. But the price for the con dropped a little bit and I wasn’t ready to give up on it yet, so we braved New Orleans.

And I’m glad we did.

We stayed in a different area this time – less touristy, more real. We didn’t have  a single  disappointing meal – Shout out to Willa Jean’s for Earth shatteringly fabulous food and booze – get the Jean and Jam, the Gnarly Barley if it’s still on tap and the Fried Chicken Sandwich with Pimento Cheese. To. Die. For.

The hotel was ready and capable of handling a group the size of ours.

We spent the first two days holed up in our room, only venturing to the elevator, with its Starbucks button, for coffee, food and booze. We wrote, we slept, we decompressed. We cranked the AC because it was glorious to need it.

The panels, Chickens, the panels. The panels were so good I’m taking another swipe at Shenanigans before I submit. Verbs and back stories, and character arcs. It was career changing.

Tell me loveys, what was the most career changing thing you’ve learned?

♥SB