Preview: Ecstasy in The Big Easy

Jasmine Townsend was in her apartment in Boston when she went on her computer and looked up Louisiana travel websites, mainly New Orleans. She has always wanted to go there because her mother had been there with some of her friends on a trip a couple of months ago. Jasmine had been through some hard times recently. Her boyfriend broke up with her after three years of dating, her mother became very ill with pneumonia and passed away, and had been through a very bad cold. Despite all that, she got over her cold and the boyfriend but still reeling from her mother’s passing. Jasmine needed a getaway from it all, a getaway from nagging, overbearing yet loving friends and family, her stressful yet profitable job as an office assistant at a marketing firm, and the very cold weather. She loves Boston and all, but needed a change of scenery for a couple of days. So she looked up travel and hotel websites to plan her New Orleans getaway. She first went to the New Orleans tourism website and ordered a visitors guide. A week later, Jasmine received her New Orleans visitors guide in the mail and started looking through it. She even wrote a list of hotels she would want to stay in, a list of restaurants she want to dine in, and places she would want to shop. She then checked out a few travel websites to find the right price to book accommodations because she didn’t want to stay at no Holiday Inn, let alone a seedy, budget motel. She planned on staying in New Orleans for one or two weeks. She imagined a lot of things she would do while she was in the Crescent City. She imagined dancing to the beat of New Orleans jazz played by a jazz band walking down Bourbon Street, indulging on jambalaya, gumbo, red beans and rice, beignets and café au lait, po’boys, bananas foster and other delicious dishes, doing some great shopping, staying at a very nice hotel maybe with a lovely view of the city, and maybe even a sexy, passionate, romantic fling with a New Orleans native man. She started creating her own itinerary for her New Orleans adventure, not only that she even added a spa day to her adventure. She has been a spa freak ever since she got a gift certificate to a spa here in Boston for her birthday, courtesy of her best girl friends Tiana and Drucilla. Jasmine started packing for her trip in advance; she packed her toiletries and cosmetics in plastic zip-up bags, packed all her folded and rolled-up clothes, and packed her shoes. She then called her job and asked for time off, two weeks tops. She went online and then booked a hotel room for two weeks. She picked the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans and booked a one-bedroom suite. Once her reservation was confirmed, Jasmine got a call from her employer and her time off was granted. She printed out the confirmation pages and put them in her purse, along with her cell phone, driver’s license, cash, etc. She then booked a flight for tomorrow morning with Delta Air Lines at the Boston Airport also online. On the same day, she even stopped by the bank and picked up some traveler’s checks. The next morning, Jasmine got up, got dressed, and drove to the airport with her purse and luggage in tow. Before leaving, she left a note for the paperboy and mail carrier, telling them she’ll be gone on vacation and will come back after two weeks. She got her airline tickets and boarding pass at the Delta Air Lines terminal. Her flight was at Gate 16 and her flight number 642. She made it onto the plane just in time without any incident.