I moved my blog to a new url. If you are interested in reading future blogs, please visit www.ariasblog.com See you there!

So...this has been some time in the making, but it has finally launched today. For all those interested in my travels and hearing the stories behind the photos, well you will enjoy this. Please check out my new travel blog at www.booble.com/aria I will be updating my travel blog on a regular basis with new stories and photos, so stop by often and check it out as it progresses. See you there!

I just went to two different friends houses to cook dinner two nights in a row. I forgot how much I enjoyed being in the kitchen. I use to have all girl dinner parties a few years ago. My girlfriends would come over and I would stand in the kitchen barefoot cooking in my pj's. I often made the dinner parties pj mandatory so I wouldn't be the only one. I love being comfortable while I cook. It was an awesome time to have 4 to 8 girlfriends over to cook for and open my wine. It was nice to hang out and have girl time. It seems that so many of us have gone our own ways lately that I think it might be a time in the past now. It is unfortunate because I wish it could of continued on. It will be nice one day to stay in one place and have my own kitchen again to cook in. I really do miss it.

Wow, what a great book. It is not that it was so perfectly written, but I guess it is more of the timing in which I read this book. It is about a true story of a woman in her early thirties that leaves her husband, her home, and her career behind and decides to travel 4 months in Italy, 4 months in India, and 4 months in Indonesia. The journey and the realizations that she comes to is what is so interesting about the book. I have a quirky habit when I read books. I underline every passage that I relate to or that speaks to me. I sure have a whole lot of ink that I left in this book. To give an idea my favorite passage is: "People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person that brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake...soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave...purpose was to shake you up...show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light could get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you had to transform your life...-Elizabeth Gilbert

I have been single for two years now. It hasn't been easy considering for the last 12 years of my life I was almost continuously in long-term relationships. I didn't really know how to be alone. I am not at my best when I am. I use to travel in the beginning and spend a lot of time looking at other couples on vacation together and wish I had someone with me. Traveling alone without a significant other can really get to you. You can't distract yourself when it is only you talking in your head. I have noticed a change recently though. I look around and see couples and say that looks nice, but I am ok. For once in my life I am ok with not having someone around all the time. Don't get me wrong…being single sucks, but I guess I am growing. I have so much I want to do and see now. My mind has opened to new things and experiences and that has taken the precedence. I have been able to think more clearly without my emotions wrapped up with everything I do. I guess you can blame it on the Scorpio in me….we are strong but quite emotional under the surface. I can see a lot more clearly now than ever. I am living life the way I want to with no excuses, no apologies, and just going with what my gut tells me. I know in the long run this might keep me from finding someone. The more "out there" I get, the less likely I am to find someone who understands and has experienced the same. Nevertheless, it isn't stopping me. Not this time. I can't let myself be worried because there is a part of life I believe cannot be controlled. It will be what it will be. I have really noticed in this last trip too all the "couples" that seem sooooo happy fight quite a lot. Why don't they find someone more compatible? I've been there…not anytime recently but in my far past I have. Life is too short to let small things matter. There is a time though when small things add up and it is time to go. I want to be with someone that makes me smile from the inside out. Only a couple of people have done this for me in my lifetime and I realize now that it means everything. If I find someone, that is what is necessary for me to make it happen. Without it, I will continue being a nomad….gladly. I have realized that life is too short to compromise myself.

You know when you were a kid (and sometimes even an adult) and you would joke with your friend and say "When you look up stupid in the dictionary it has your photo?" Well, my girlfriend was searching the term "cleavage" in Wikipedia's Dictionary the other day and had to forward this to me....LOL

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cleavage

I guess it is possible....

I just got home from being on the road for 11 days in Phoenix and Las Vegas. While I was gone I had a dream that seemed interesting. I don’t remember all the details but I do remember the part that I found odd. I was given a ten dollar bill but not like the current currency. It was a new issue that had a big 10 on the back in the lower right corner that was a different color and stood out. Sounds random enough but it wasn’t until the next day that I was at the airport on my way to Vegas that I questioned it. I went to buy a bottle of water and they gave me change for $20. One of the $5 bills was new and I had not seen or heard of the new bills that were released before my dream. It also had a big 5 on the back of the bill in the same position and a different color like in my dream. The only difference was it was a 5 dollar bill and not 10. So, if anything, what does it mean?

I believe that things happen for a reason in life. I have found that it is the easiest way of accepting the parts that don't make sense. There are people that come into your life like a whirlind. A strong gust of wind through a revolving door that spins you around and viola!...they are gone. You didn't see them coming and you sure in hell didn't see them going. But, what you are left with is the confusion and the desire to decipher all the odd pieces of the puzzle in a search to find reason. If they could not stay then what was the purpose of them coming in the first place? I've been sifting through these pieces for some time now. Whether the wind will return I do not know, but I have learned some things. I have learned to be more open to new experiences. I can be stubborn and set in my ways with no rational reason why other than just because. Well, just because keeps me from gaining the full experience of all that is around me. It is not a good enough reason anymore. I have learned to travel while I can. See the world and all that it has to offer because one day I will not be able to. I have really taken that one to heart maybe a bit too much even. I am grappling with the last one. To relinquish all control and let life take its course. It is hard to have faith that everything will fall into place on its own exactly the way it was meant to. I always want to meddle with it; to put my hand in the pot and try to change the outcome. It will take its time but it will come. So, here is a motto to live by "Jump and the net will appear."

Am I running from something? I am not sure. I came back to Los Angeles to work on a project but I have been always on the go. The project lays untouched. Any chance to go somewhere else I take. My schedule is crazy stupid packed to the brim with one trip after another. Where am I going? I think I lost my balance. I have no place that I call home anymore. There is nothing keeping me anywhere. I say that I will stay home when I have something to stay home for. I guess I haven't found it. I'm seeing the world but I am not moving forward. I have work to do but I don't want to do it. I think I have lost my motivation because I don't feel I have a purpose to work for. I don't want to be in one place or maybe I just don't want to be in Los Angeles. I feel that I have worn this city thin. There is nothing here for me anymore. I think I'm addicted to travel like one would be to chocolate. I am searching but I haven't found it. Where is the purpose? Where is the meaning? What was it all for? There has to be a reason, some conclusion. I have given up on finding it so maybe it will come more easily. I've surrendered to the possibility.

Is that too many? Hahaha...well maybe a little, but I just flew my 80th flight this year to New York. It definitely takes a toll on the body but I have been so many places this year that it has been an experience to say the least. So, here is my list of places I visited in 2007: Cabo, New York, Los Angles, Vegas, Miami, London, Paris, Barcelona, Costa Rica, San Francisco, New Delhi, Khajuraho, Agra, Jaipur, Kathmandu, Varanasi, Sacramento, Amsterdam, Rouen, Budapest, Nairobi, Tanzania, Prague, Limoges, Thou, Munich, Mykonos, Athens, Montreal, San Diego, and Austin. I didn't factor in layover cities or duplicates. On one hand, I am tired. On the other hand, it has been amazing. Here's to travel in 2008. I talk about slowing down a little but I already have 12 flights booked in January alone. You would think that I would be over my fear of flying about now, but sadly I am not. Oh well.