Who am I?

This week I have been watching shows about ancestry. All of them have been by Harvard University Prof. Henry Gates Jr. The two shows that I've watched are African American Lives 2 and Faces of America. Both shows are about the ancestry of famous Americans. The first show focuses on African Americans, including Morgan Freeman, Maya Angelou, Chris Rock, Tina Turner and others. Faces of America is more multicultural cast with Stephen Colbert, Yo-Yo Ma, Dr. Oz, Meryl Streep and others. (Both shows are on PBS, highly enjoyable, a nice show to catch).

Watching these shows make me wonder about the history of my ancestors. This is where things are tricky. First I'm multi-ethnic. Second I'm adopted. Who's history do I trace? My blood or my life? I know a few things about my adopted families history. On my father's side I'm a distant niece of Frederick Douglas and both sides are the descendants of slaves. Do I claim this as my heritage?

I know a little bit about my birth mother and I have met her and my half sister. I know that their family comes from TX but that is where the trail goes cold. When we visited she didn't want to talk about my birth father other then to say he was married and abusive. So I have half a history on that side. Do I claim this as my heritage?

When you're adopted these are things to wonder to yourself. How will I explain my ancestry to others or to my children?

I'm going to be doing some more blogs on my life as a multi ethnic, adopted Navy brat, so check back with me.

Sick...Sick....Sick...

So after my illness I got excited for my 27th birthday which was on the 19th. I was trying to recreate a birthday that Daniel had done for me where we went to St. Augustine after we eat at Caddyshack at the World Golf Village. We started late and never got to go to St. Augustine. We ended up just going to the Caddyshack and seeing an IMAX. Toward the end of the day I started feeling sick.

The next morning I woke up with a fever and my joints were hurting. I think I ended up with the flu. After a week of having a fever over 101, I finally came out it with just enough strength to make meals and start doing the wash. Today I'm going to try and clean the house a little.

I know to some it feels like we're always sick but I don't think that we are. I think that we get sick worst then other people. Most of the people that we know are parents and get exposed to germs that kids bring home. Since it's just Daniel and I and we don't have kids we don't get exposed to them. I've noticed we only get sick after visiting family on the holidays. Sooooo I donno......

MIA

I know it's been a while since we wrote in the blog but we have reason's. It had been really busy and then I got a bad cold. Here's what you missed.

We celebrated Christmas like last year. We spent Christmas eve with my parents, then came home to unwrap each others gifts and then on Christmas morning we went to Daniel's parents house and then back to my parents. I love doing this because the little kids faces at Christmas is priceless as is my Moms. We over eat and then try to figure out where to put the gifts.

New Years Eve Daniel had a gig. It wasn't too bad. A company had hired us to play music for their employees. It was easy because for 2 hours(out of 4 hours total) we mostly played background music while everyone talked. They were drinking and towards the end of the night a couple of people became rude. The usual stuff of I'm friends with the owner and you need to turn this song off and play one I want. I just roll my eyes. It was really funny when some drunk lady told us to turn off the chicken dance song while their was like 7 or 8 kids dancing to it with their parents. Ahhhh the life of a DJ.(In case you were wondering what you shouldn't say to a DJ I'd recommend you look at this, it holds true to any type of event.)

Then the great cold of 2010 came through the house. Daniel brought in some kind so death sickness. It always works like this. Daniel will get a tiny bit sick, give that sickness to me and I'll spend the next week dying and begging my parents to bring me med's and juice(sometimes having only one car stinks). Then after sleeping a week of my life away I'll get better only to have Daniel get sick again.

So that is where we are today. I'm gonna try to get back into the swing of things with the blog so check back again soon.

Restaurant Wednesday

I'm starting a new blog for every other Wednesday. It's called Restaurant Wednesday. It will review and talk about different kinds of restaurants in the metro Jacksonville area by category of cuisine.

Today is steakhouses.

My pick for my favorite steakhouse is III Forks. We went last night. It's over on the Southside. This place is hands down the best place for steaks. Having been to the steak holy land in Jacksonville, Ruth Chris, I'm never, ever, ever going back. The food was phenom. Our dinner was the award winning III Forks salad which was salad greens, blue cheese crumbles(which I opted out of ), granny smith apples and pecans with a maple vinaigrette. The dressing was sweet but not in a bad overbearing way with the apples playing off that. Tart and sweet. The salad was huge and very filling. I also wanted to cancel my order and get another round of salad it was just that good but I'm glad I didn't. Next was the ribeye sandwich. I'm bit of a steak foodie and ribeye is my cut. III Forks only offers an 18oz and as much as I wanted it I'm not gonna be able to chow through 18oz so I settle for the sandwich. III Forks is like Ruth Chris in the sides are on the side and extra. The sandwich came with fries. It was cooked perfectly. PERFECTLY!!!!! The fries were spiced perfectly.

The restaurant was decorated nicely with marble floors and a long contemporary fireplace when you enter. The people were friendly. We had two waiters and the Maitre d'/Sommelier came to check on us as well as one of the owners. We never had to ask for a thing. The servers were so good that when the salads came out (we both got the same salad only mine didn't have the cheese) the server knew that my salad was the cheese free one. Every time a waiter walked by they all checked to make sure we didn't run out of drink. We ended up spending about an hour and a half at dinner. The food was IMHO priced correctly for both the portions and quality.

I'm trying to talk Daniel into going back for my birthday.

So I turn to you my reader, have you had your own III Forks experience? Or do you have your own preferred steakhouse.

NOLA

If a person could be in love with a city, that city for me would be New Orleans. I traveled there about a little short of a year after Katrina. It was pretty and tragic all in one. I remember driving from Jacksonville to New Orleans on 10. The drive over was relaxing but I was nervous because of everything I had heard about the city. Will it be safe? Are the hotels up and running? Are the roads still messed up? Are there places to eat? What will greet me in the crescent city?

My first taste of the Louisiana life was at the welcome center. Being the great people they are, we were welcomed with a grin and warm fuzzy feelings. Every question was answered. What I remembered the most was the mix of shock and appreciation on their faces as we stated our destination. We were coming. Strangers were coming back to their city. Tourists were returning.

As we got to the outer belt way of the city the scars of the storm were still there. Stores were closed; weeds grew in the middle of homes and signs hung from strange angles. It looked like a back lot only it wasn't. When we got closer to the downtown things became a little less movie like. Since I wasn't sure about the city we stayed in a suburb. In the morning I awoke and fell in love. Walking around and visiting shops, eating the best food and talking to the nicest people I've ever met. We did the tourist thing and danced on Bourbon St, ate gumbo and drank coffee at Cafe du Monde.

In the years since my trip, New Orleans calls me back and I desperately want to go back. My time there was short but it left a huge impression on me. I can say that I love New Orleans.