"Ya'll gotta 99 cent menu up in herre?"

You can take the boy out of the ghetto but you can't always take the ghetto out of the boy. As hard as it may be to believe, I did not grow up in an affluent, wealthy, white suburban neighborhood. In fact this couldn't be further from the truth. I grew up on Milwaukee's ghetto hispanic south side. Government cheese, low income housing, gang warfare, food stamps, welfare, and any other unpleasant thing that can be associated with poverty is what I dealt with on a daily basis. Nevertheless, I always say "it ain't where you're from it's where you're at", so I tend not to think too much about my youth. However, my lack of a "fine and cultured" upbringing sometimes comes back to haunt me even almost 10 years later.

On Labor Day I was ready to spend a night alone watching my Rebelde DVD's. To my surprise JQ called me up and told me to put on something nice because we were going to go somewhere classy. I thought JQ was going to be with his family that day so I didn't have much time to quick come up with an outfit. Luckily I have a fierce wardrobe and successfully dressed to impress. To make a long story short we went to this swanky restaurant downtown, Sushi Samba, that serves Japanese-Brazilian-Peruvian cuisine. Um yeah, I felt a bit out of place. I almost knocked over a wine rack, got startled by the little old lady handing out paper towels in the bathroom, and felt like a complete idiot trying to order food since I couldn't pronounce anything. Oh, and let's not even talk about the prices. I think I need to explain to JQ that I am poor now and $100 meals are NOT in my budget. I even joked with him and said "I am not used to going to a restaurant that doesn't offer a value menu!". He laughed but I suppose it was good to step out of my "Comfort Zone" for one night. In fact, I probably need to step out of my comfort zone a little more often.