I've never made a bitcoin transaction so this will be my first, need some advice!
i need to pay in cash, $500 worth of USD to buy bitcoins
is this the way i should do this and standard?
we meet in public place
i show him the cash
he transfers to my wallet
i verify it's in my wallet
i hand over the money
please let me know what you suggest is the best way to protect myself
Wow, that is a fun adventure. Obviously bring a smart-phone with a wallet app installed and wait for the actual transaction to appear in that wallet. I use coin.space for a portable wallet. The wallet itself should cover an appropriate number of confirmations so you don't have to deal with it. Copy and paste the TX ID somewhere in a document in the phone and email it to another person, just to confirm the date and time. Biggest thing is that even a few confirmations can take a long time. Find an outside restaurant because you could be there a few minutes or even an hour or more. Have fun and don't hand that money over until the transaction is in your wallet history.