Asia Excursion

In less than two weeks I will be hopping on a flight to Tokyo. 4 days later, I will be boarding another plane to Hong Kong. 5 days later, I will be bound for Seoul. 4 days later, I will be enroute home... If I make it home... 

I will be going solo on this trip. At first it sounded really great in theory as an opportunity to see the world, soak in the culture, and learn more about myself... However as the actual day draws nearer, I'm becoming extremely nervous - for the obvious, fear of my safety... and the fact that I will be on the other side of the world, far from my comfort zone and I will be greeted with multiple language barriers.

Isn't this something I've always wanted to do? Why does this "solo" part give rise to so much doubt, within myself... and especially others. I have to do it, because if I don't I probably never will and I don't want to be faced with the "What if?" ten years later. It never crossed my mind though, that the "What if?" I'm faced with now, is equally nerve-racking, i.e. What if I get kidnapped? What if I get raped? What if I get sold to the underground prostitution ring? What if I get killed and dumped in a dark alley to rot and nobody finds me because my foul odor is mistaken as the sour scent from the fish market nearby? What if ALL OF THE ABOVE happens and I don't live to greet the light of day back in the States?

However, what if I have the time of my life and come back more refreshed than ever? If so, what should I pack? Where should I eat? What is a must-see? What should I do? I have my LonelyPlanet guide books and tripadvisor.com, but I feel both just barely touch the surface of each cities' greatness...

What are some other survival tips for this single woman traveler, aside from wearing a wedding band to fend off predators? Which makes sense to a certain degree, but honestly if someone has targeted you, that ring would just be a keepsake or possibly their next pawn shop item... What should I do to make it out alive? And while I'm alive in each city, what are some recommendations to really "live it up" (on a budget though)! =)

Wish me luck!

Since the beginning of the year, I've been back to O.C. about 6 times. I've pretty much spent half the month of May AND June, as well as the first week of July there. Something tells me I should just move there already...  

House of Blues w/ Cathy

Rain's (Bi) afterparty at Trifecta w/ my golf buddy

V2O w/ Karol, the suga cookie getta - LOL!

Club Mood before we were left stranded on Hollywood Blvd for 2 hours!

Huntington Beach with my niece Celeste

***sigh***

I'll be back next weekend...

2 Dates for Valentine's Day

Every previous "Singles' Awareness Day", I'd either go out with my girlfriends and psychoanalyze each others' lovelife, or lack thereof, over a nice dinner.... or stay at home, write long entries about never having a boyfriend, and wallow in my own self-pity. As time passes and I mature, I've embraced my independence as a single woman and have truly acknowledged that Valentine's Day is an over-commercialized holiday originially reserved to display one's appreciation and affection for their significant other - a daily task which has been reduced to a once a year battle between lovers and cynics.

This year I figure there's no better way than to spend V-Day showering the TRUE LOVES of my life with profound admiration and adoration... via bottles of wine and a scrumptious meal at Bijoux.

With my dates

The dimly-lit venue

Oven Roasted Potato Gnocchi - duck confit and basil pesto

Pan Seared Filet of Beef - young carrots and truffled pomme puree

Daddy ready to take on his steak

Lobster and Scallops - asparagus and blood orange

Mommy cheesing with a bite of lobster

Passion Fruit Sorbet - Coconut tapioca, pineapple confit

Chocolate Mascarpone Bombe - Mara des Bois bavaciran, bittersweet chocolate mousse, mascarpone cream

Romeo and Juliet - goat's milk cheese with guava jelly

My heros toasting to their undying love for each other

My mother trying to win over my dad with 2 roses =)

My first true loves

Greetings from the City of Brotherly Love...

My birthday celebration, or lack thereof, was mundane to say the least. I spent December 9th at home with the family... sober and nicotine-free. It was a rather unconventional state of being for this time of year. Given any other previous year, I would be totally shit-faced trying to remember my name and recounting the shots that led to my plastered existence. The only traveling I've done thus far is from one extreme to the other. Some days I awake struggling to recognize my own reflection in the mirror. Who am I? What is going on with my life? Where has all the time gone? What the hell have I been doing?!?

I know. I know so damn well who I was, what has been going on, where all the time went, and exactly what the hell I've been doing. I'm a lost soul who has has been trying to mend all these shattered pieces of myself back together. My efforts have been channeled into drowning those unpleasant memories. I've been a walking concoction of Grey Goose and stomach acid. My waking moments have been consumed with appearing sober and battling the inevitable hangover. This overall existence is depth-lacking and proves to be the fast-track to my death bed... Yet, it's carried on for north of 365 days.

Here I am again, where it all started... Prior to boarding the plane, I begged the heaven's above to let it be a pain-free stop. Please spare me the walk down memory lane... No matter how much preparation I've done to secure my emotional stability, the emptiness continued to rise within me. When I walked down terminal A, to greet the crossroads of terminal B and C, the unwelcomed sense of familiarity surfaced... Fleeting episodes of my past raced through my mind. I recall loitering at this very intersection awaiting my flight home. It was almost yesterday that I scurried through here, loaded with anticipation for the wonderful weekend ahead. Those weekends were the very same ones that  catapulted me into dejection; my present state of being best summarized in one word.

If I've stumbled upon acceptance of the situation so long ago, why do these unearthed wounds feel so new? That is the least of my problems... The real question is, when will this emptiness subside?