And while you’re at it, check out Zooomr. It’s the new Flickr!

So, what’s been happenin’? Well, let’s start by saying I turned 30 and got rootsy. Actually, I’ve always been quite rootsy, but I recently began doing some genealogical research and have been shocked, amazed, and very nearly moved to tears by how much I’ve discovered. For my friends who can’t stand to hear anymore about this, please go here and learn something useful in the time you were going to spend reading and commenting here.

Unbeknownst to me, there’s this huge online genealogy community out there who make their data available. In short, I found someone who had done a huge database of South Louisiania families and my great-great-grandparents were one of his endpoints. Through the message boards on Ancestry.com, I met an in-law of a long-lost relative who provided me with a great deal of the data he’d collected while visiting Louisiana court houses and Parish records archives. Yet another long-lost relative provided me with a great deal of information that got me over a brick wall I had hit. Some lines go back over 20 generations!

The result is this site I’ve setup with my family tree.

That site doesn’t have all the data, but I do have a full database that has full families included, so it’s possible to chart relationships between two people in the database. I managed found a link between my maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother. Granted, it was four generations back and lots of people sisters married other people’s brothers whose mother’s were someone’s sister-in-law… No incest, naturally, but the ability to take in all of this visually is really quite spectacular.

So, yeah, I’ve been doing genealogy and it’s fun and cool and I love it. All this has gotten me interested in the history of how all these people ended up where I am today. What was there story? What’s mine? These are all questions that have been burning inside me and have made me, once again, reflect on my upbringing and the culture I grew up with and how important those things are to me.

While growing up, I always lamented that no one spoke French in my family anymore. My great-grandma Emma was the last person who didn’t speak English and when she died, so did a little bit of history. I’ve been wanting to do work in language revitalization for quite some time and it shocked me that doing it for French in Louisiana had never once occurred to me while riding llamas and knitting their wool in the Andes while speaking Quechua did. I wonder if my time in California will cause me to end up living on a Cajun commune deep in the Atchafalaya…

I’ve been reading some books by some gentlemen who are fast becoming role models, particularly Carl Brasseaux and Barry Ancelet, to give myself a Cajun Studies primer. I’m filling in a lot of blanks, to say the least.

This all means it’s time to revive the school thing since I now have a reason to do so. I’ll be doing a night class and hopefully an online one in the spring semester. Why nights and online, do you ask? I got a job! I love the work and it’s not full of crazy people who make each other’s lives hell like other places I’ve worked. I hope they love me long time.

So that’s the brief version of what’s going on… now subsequent posts won’t sound so random. Thanks for reading!

I was looking at pictures of Matt’s 10 year high-school reunion and he was pointing out fat girls who used to be pretty and popular and it got me wondering what all my high-school friends are up to these days. A little googling has gotten me back in touch with two people and given me ways of contacting a couple of others. From what I know, everyone has done well for themselves and it makes me feel glad. I’ve always had great friends and it’s nice to know that we’re all doing good things.

A lot of birth and death has been going on in my family in recent years and while geneaology has always interested me, I’ve never done much lasting research. My poor mother has been asked the names of deceased family members numerous times throughout my life, but I’m finally doing something with a bit more permanence. I’m going through the process of building an online family tree. It’s very exciting and I look forward to doing the research to fill in all the blanks.

My Uncle Johnny, now deceased, had done a great deal of work on my paternal genealogy. He had gotten as far as tracing a set of grandparents back to Syria and what’s now Lebanon. My mom remembers seeing a copy of the info somewhere in her house. The other stuff was in my Aunt Jackie’s house during Katrina, so where it is, if anywhere, will be a mystery for awhile.

My cousin, Bernadette, has also done a great deal of research on the maternal side and I’ll hopefully be able to get a copy of everything she’s done if it made it through the storm. I think it’d be great to incorporate everything in to something online that can be shared and edited amongst our family members.

On the professional front, Frank and I have decided to breathe new life in to Paramount Rentals, a business we helped his cousin, Stan, setup a few years ago. I’ve been working on setting up a new web site and re-establishing relationships. It’s a lot of fun and I think there’s great potential for it to do well. We have a few ideas up our sleeves for new business angles and I’m really looking forward to making it all work.

I’m having a birthday picnic tomorrow and will post some pics from that soon!

The images are resized, but you can save them or open them in a new tab or window to see the full-sized version.

Later that evening was the recital for Jessica’s students, which was very enjoyable. All her students are around six to twelve years old, but all played well… including Jessica! In spite of a poorly maintained piano, which she later complained about, she glided through Liszt’s Liebestraum beautifully. She impressed a lot of people that night.

I helped out with the setup and breakdown of the reception stuff. What that really means is I tasted all the food before a single note was played on the piano. Afterwards, we returned back to her house to celebrate her success with much drinking and merriment.

Matt came over Friday after work and spent the night here. We made up some dinner and did facial masks. Walt, Frank’s cousin, had also been visiting. Walt is nearly 60 years old and just came out of the closet. How’s that for brave? We all went out to The White Horse and met Marcus, the seemingly well-known bar whore who kept us somewhat entertained or at least gave us something to talk about throughout the night.

Let it be known that Matt Cannon can enter a bar and have a cute guy come up and ask to make out with him in less than ten minutes. That boy knows how to work it.

We spent Saturday morning beautifying the backyard. It was lovely! We also made up a new and improved batch of sausage balls and a key lime cheeseball for Mike, Phillip, Seth, and Cale’s housewarming later that afternoon.

The housewarming was lots of fun. Philip was grillmaster and I ate a buffalo burger! Lots of my friends were there and I met a few new folks, too. The houses are coming together so nicely. They live waaaaay up at the top of Bernal Heights and their entire back wall is solid glass, making their sweeping city view ever-present. I think they’re all really happy with the move.

Sunday, I met up with this guy I’d been chatting with online. I’m not gonna write anything for fear of jinxing it. So yeah… it was a good morning.

Later that afternoon, I headed in to the city and gave Frank a call. They’d just returned from their softball tournament and were having a drink at Uncle Bert’s or The Mix, as it’s called now. I had plans to go see Cotton Candy, Matt’s band, perform at Martuni’s and a bunch of the guys there decided to come along, too.

After the Cotton Candy show, we went over to The Mint, a karaoke bar. Lonnie sang “Father Figure” and the rest of us just stood around enjoying each other’s company. Yanko had his old college roommates in town from Arizona and I was pleased to meet them. Rumor has it some pics from the old days will be appearing on his MySpace page soon.

Matt, Brenda, Brendan, and I left and went back to Brenda’s to play Clue. I didn’t win, but I did have the weapon figured out pretty quickly. By that point in the evening, I’m amazed I could remember what color my piece was. Matt and I walked a couple of blocks back to his house and promptly fell asleep after watching a couple of old episodes of Roseanne.

Ahh… Monday. What a glorious day! Matt, Jessica, Yanko, and I went out to Baker Beach. I didn’t have anything to wear and Yanko got to dress me. He chose a pair little black shorts and a tight blue “Brazil” sleeveless half-shirt. A couple of people honked and waved.

The beach was wonderful. The weather was great and we feasted on fig newtons and champagne while watching naked people play frisbee and volleyball. I’m hella brown, yo.

After the beach, we went to Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant for some dinner and margaritas. The margaritas were fantastic, but the food wasn’t all that great considering it was on the pricey side. Mexican food is sooo good and I’d hoped that the menu for a restaurant owned by people from Yucatan would offer more than burritos, tostadas, tacos and other things commonly found on a Tex-Mex menu. Their salsa verde, however, was a triumph.

We went back to their house and played a fun little game where we each took turns playing 2 songs from our music collection. Some were to torture and some were simply to share. All kinds of music was played, but I’m not sure anyone topped Jessica’s bagpipe music for most disliked.

I spent the night over there again and came back this morning. I did bookkeeping stuff all day and took a break to go to Berkeley Bowl to buy ingredients for a dinner I wanted to cook Frank tonight. He’s leaving this weekend for the AIDS Ride and I wanted to get in some quality time with him before he heads out. I seared some scallops served them on a bed of glass noodles, topped with a spicy papaya salsa (recipe) and did the old acorn squash with butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar for dessert. The glass noodles with the scallops were Frank’s idea and it was definitely a winner.

We also had some time where all 5 of us were together tonight, which was very nice. Derrek is spending his first night here and tomorrow is his birthday! I’m glad he’s finally moving in and that he joined Frank and I for dinner tonight. It’s going to be a great, great summer.

Matt had his art show and sold six pieces and generated quite a bit of interest among everyone who came. The reception ended over an hour later than scheduled for because everyone was enjoying themselves, including the Sproos staff, so mucking fuch.

The food was a whole other side. Matt and Jessica also do catering under the guise of Southern Belle Catering. The big hits of the buffet were the petite lemon curd and pecan pies and the sausage balls, whose early loss in spite of large quantity was mourned throughout the evening. The Hello Dollys, bar cookies made with graham cracker, coconut, and something delicious and gooey in the middle were my kryptonite. Sloe Gin Fizzies and Plantation Iced Tea washed it all down nicely.

I made the sausage balls and helped Matt & Jessica get everything to and from the salon. The art remains and you can see it Sproos Salon, located at 411 Spruce between California and Sacramento. You can also, by the way, get a bomb hairdo from really cool people there. They play good music, too.

A beauty salon is a great place to gather. There are tons of places to sit (there chairs go up and down, too!), lots of mirrors which create all sorts of new visual loveliness when art is present, and counter space.

After the queso infamoso, sitting and spinning listlessly in a chair was very important to me. There was even excellent merengue, cumbia, and salsa music (the kind not made in the US) playing in the background. There were many hips a swayin’ even before they had been sloe-fizzied, my nizzy.

This weekend was also Frank’s birthday. A surprise pool party and BBQ at Jerry’s place was the day event and a gathering at Asia SF which later migrated to The Stud was the evening event.

Jason Jackson and I had it planned so he’d buy everything and I would make it all pretty. I love how in five years my reputation can go from slut to domestic goddess. There is hope for you, too, gentle reader. Anyway, everything was pretty! He got some gorgeous tropical lilies and leaves and great food, desserts, MEAT, and salmon for Frank.

Jason never stopped for hours. He arrived to the house and then Mike came to pick me up and we went on a mad quest for a propane tank. We returned back at least an hour later and Jason was buzzing around the kitchen at rapid speed, but sweet and unbothered. I finished deliberately placing things, arranging flowers and cookies and things like that, and Jason was still buzzing. I chopped onions and formed a lotta ground meat in to hamburgers, and Jason buzzed. I smoked cigarettes and drank beer while Jason went right on buzzing. He even cooked all the food.

It wasn’t until after everything was transported, setup, prepared, cooked, and served – that Jason settled in to the hot tub with a beer and remained his pleasant self. That boy is a machine, so sweet, and hey… he’s Southern.

Later that night, we went out drinking and dancing with our group of friends. Our first stop, Asia SF, was overrun by bachelorette parties – 9 future brides, I believe was the total count.

Frank, Derrek, Jerry, and I had stopped by The Stud for a drink beforehand to give the others time to arrive and since Asia SF wasn’t quite right, we returned there to enjoy the rest of the evening.

I gave Frank a copy of Octavio Paz’s “El laberinto de la soledad” which we’re going to read together. I’m looking forward to that!

Such a fun weekend… I know there will be many more just like it.

I woke up this morning and, thinking I was alone, turned on some cumbias and started dancing around the kitchen washing dishes. Frank came downstairs and when I said I didn’t know he was here, he replied smartly, “I live here.” By that time, I’d moved on to Juan Gabriel and sung him out the door and wished him a good day.

I also noticed that according to our house’s newly formed Wheel of Chores, dishes weren’t my thing. A double whammy, today’s the day the cleaning service comes. Doh! My goal was to do something fun and productive that would energize me for the day and that’s what I did. A good start has led to a productive day. I’m even weeding while taking smoke breaks in between crossing things off my to-do list.

Strangely, writing this blog entry isn’t on there… back to work!