On the 84th birthday of an astounding woman, lover and a poet

I deserve that don't I? 

Some sort of blazing love that I can live with.

-Sylvia Plath

The Crookety Cook

Lentils were thrown in. Things were added. Times were had. 

I am getting good vibes from my kitchen tonight!

#nevertrustaskinnycook

Something I should have started before! : Travel AND penning down its Chronicles.

Very few people know that I have harboured a diverse range of fears through the 1st quarter of my life. Terrified by height, petrified by depth and horrified by speed, even life itself is surprised that I have managed to come so far out by now without throwing a fit. It doesn't stop there, I got screwed (literally and figuratively) during what now seems to be a ridiculous save-the-pet-rabbit situation at home where I passionately shattered the single biggest bone of the human body (The talus bone) and had an actual screw patch my ankle up. But hey, my rabbits lived on :)

So anyhoo a year ago, I decided, screw this, fuck that. Those flowery and seemingly unattainable dreams that my vivid brain conjures up? I am going to live them. And instead of doing it when I am 50 and rich, or 30 and provided for by a husband or 25 and sponsored by la familia (family trips!), I decided to do it NOW.
Screwed ankle et al.
On my own.

And thus started my experimentation with the boundaries of risk, fear and attempts to conquer them. I had my reservations and of course my family was considerably appalled at my desires to travel alone. But I din’t want to wait for the world to change or become more fair before I could do what I wanted to do; I decided to work with how things are then and there. Make peace with it.

And in the process of hitting the road, diving through the oceans and trekking across mountains, I did not JUST learn to kick ass and listen to my own judgment, but I also learned to exercise my own common sense, even when (sometimes) caught in crazy situations that I would never personally recommend. I learned to trust openly but attentively. To explore bits and pieces of world by the power of my own two feet.

Today, I think I read people and situations much better, have developed some badass serious self-preservation skills and now I regularly conquer my other fears of entering public washrooms, lizards and talking to men with beards.

Preferably not all at the same time.

Considering the full circle I have come along now, I have decided to chronicle my travels from now on in the written form, here. I am no writer and this isn't going to be easy, but it will be my testament, however small, to the worlds existentialism, and that it isn't the horrendously unsafe place that the media and the news depicts. If there is one lesson I value above all others from my experiences traveling, it’s that it’s taught me to ignore all of the negativity (within reason) and realize that people are people, no matter what color their skin is, what their religion is, or where they are from. Of course, there are bad people everywhere and shit does happen, but in comparison to all the beautiful souls out there and all the amazing, positive happy things you experience  while traveling, the good definitely outweighs the bad.

Travel on. Travel much. And its not always about the money, dammit.