Here’s one thing I did in New Orleans that didn’t cost me one penny (it was an installation in an art store that I walked into).

Looking is soooo FREE!

It was a mesh-like sculpture of a woman, with a cool shadow.

Later that night we went and had a drink at a jazz bar called Fritzell’s on Bourbon Street. And NO COVER!

That old dude on the piano could really jam. And yes, listening is also FREE!!!

Although drinks could’ve been free as well, if I had accepted one from a drunk doctor sitting next to me who was also visiting NOLA for a conference.

Accepting drinks from men, apparently, is an activity all on its own, if not a woman’s right. YEAH!!! When I moved to New York two years ago I made a point of curtailing my drinking for lack of funds. One of my good friends who had been in NYC for about five years already said to me “Uhh…why don’t you let guys buy you drinks?”

My inexperienced self says “But then I’d have to talk to them?”

“Who cares? Rachel (now his ex) and her girlfriends will have night-outs where they specifically have men buy them drinks.”

“I don’t care for drinks, really. I’m broke. I’d rather ask for the money instead.”

“You can try…I bet they’d give it to you…”

I thought about what I would say if it did happened. “Can I just have the ten bucks instead?”

Accepting drinks from men is a big no-no, one tells me, “…because you’re leading them on and signaling you’re interested.”

Yawn. Alright, alright. So, I guess, I don’t accept drinks from random men now.