Ballet Flats and Baggage: Allow me to re-introduce myself

I'm not new to the blogging world. I started my first one in 2004 when I was a new mom and had a lot of downtime while on leave from work. It was a mash up of sorts and I basically spoke of the day to day happenings in the life of a young, single mom who was still trying to find herself post-pregnancy and in life in general.

Oh who am I kidding, that blog was a verbal diarrhea of my "coming of age" or whatever you'd like to call it. It has since been obliterated from cyberspace and although I wish I kept all my words before pressing that delete button, it is probably best for my sanity that I constantly look forward instead of falling for the seduction of sentimentality.

After another attempt at a "personal" blog, or what I would like to call a public declaration of all your insecurities and other issues nobody really cares about, I decided to be more focused and write only about food. I did this for about a year and a half and realized I wanted to write a cookbook, and maybe I should stop giving away my recipes for free (More on this next time. The food thing is a whole other story) and since I travel a lot for work and play, I realized that I have so much more to say about my trips than what I have published in magazines and newspapers.

When I was in college, my plan was, and in my exact words, travel like a gypsy for 10 years, going where the wind, work and love took me. it was never my interest to climb any corporate ladders or have fancy things, or even, at some point, start a family. My requirement for relationships was that he had to love to travel as much as I did, and be willing to move around every few years. It was a plan in my head that was so solid and that I so desired for years. Having a baby in my early twenties killed that dream, or so I thought. But in reality, it just changed it a little bit. I may not "travel like a gypsy" but I do travel- a lot. I find any chance I can to do so, and my job as a writer has helped me experience cities and countries I might not have been able to go to on my own. That, plus having a family that loves to travel has given me many opportunities to do so. Yes, I am blessed.

There are two things that are frustrating to a girl with insatiable wanderlust.

1. Having a Filipino passport- Being a citizen of a third world country makes it just that much harder to get to where I want to go. First of all, I can't just buy a ticket and jump on a plane with no questions asked. In fact, MANY questions are asked, and despite my handful of passports since I was a newborn and the filled up pages of stamps, I am still a traveler closely watched by homeland security because I am from the Philippines! So yes, a heart that physically aches when in one place for too long + the agonizing wait to see if your visa got approved is no bueno.

2. Not ever having enough money- Just because I travel a lot, does not mean I travel luxuriously all the time. When I do, it's usually a work trip or because I get invited by lovely family members who can afford to travel in style. The thing is, with the amount I love to travel and all the places I want to visit, I never feel like I have enough money to do it all. My dream is still to travel around the world before I die, maybe in a different way from what I originally planned, but hopefully I don't have to constantly feel poor to do so.

So there you have it. This blog will be a collection of original blog entries and articles that I have had published in local magazines and newspapers. Here's hoping my gypsy heart awakens yours.