Jan
04
2008
I just looked at my plane reservations and realized I’m leaving a day sooner than I thought. I’m also leaving from a different airport.
In my rising hysteria at trying to get everything done before I leave, I’m having trouble prioritizing: spend time with Lulu since I won’t see her for six weeks, or meet work deadlines? Tough either/or choices. Exercise, or eat? Pay bills, or go buy groceries? Start to get ready for my trip, or update the Blind Pig Drawings section of this blog to include 85 more illustrations? See my best friends before I leave, or go to SF to get my hair dyed?
I’m curious to see how the next week unfolds. Tomorrow I have to produce a little multimedia presentation and clean my house in preparation for my six overnight guests from Ireland who arrive Saturday while I’m at my dear friend Anna’s 60th birthday party. While the Irish contingent is getting ready to leave on Sunday, Lulu’s friend Esmeralda will move into my house, which requires my rearrangement of furniture and suchlike, while Lulu packs to go back to school, after which I throw the dog and the daughter into the car and drive a couple hours to deposit daughter at college and dog at my friends’ house, where I’ll spend the night and leave early the next morning to get back in time for a technical meeting for a Web project I’m managing, and then…
I’m going to bed.
Look what Stella found last night.
It was lying there flattened and motionless save for its head, as though it had fallen out of that tree there. In the middle of the night I heard a raccoon-fight and this morning our friend was gone.
Oct
23
2007
Cheryl & I just Skyped. It appears we’ve had a miscommunication — a friendly one. She’s had a long-term plan to trek with another friend this spring.
- I could swear I remember her saying that, because of this, spring is not an option for my visit.
- She thought she’d told me that she can shuffle plans with her other friend to free up time for a spring trek.
I felt a jolt of hope when I realized I might see Nepal after all, depending on a million variables. Then I got confused. Having painfully but finally cut loose that idea, I’d begun investigating other destinations. Now I no longer know what to do. I really want to visit Cheryl in Nepal. I also really need to get away before spring, and South and Central America have been calling. Can I do both? I guess it’s a good kind of quandary to be in. And as Lulu philosophized when she was three, “Oh well. Life is life.”
Notes to self: Ideal trekking time = last three weeks of April; contact Thakur about good rafting at that time of year (Cheryl sez the Marsyangdi is beautiful; I still want to go to the Kali Gandaki, or if I had ten days to spare I thought I’d want to see the Sunkoshi — despite the following excerpt:
Speaking of Lulu, I’ve just been instant-messaging her. (If Internet technology didn’t exist, I wonder what I’d be doing tonight.) I’ve told her about this latest unfurling and asked for her advice:
“Play it by ear. Don’t stop looking at other options, but continue to hold Nepal as one too.”
She’s as wise now as at three. With exceptions. Like deciding to ride her bike in flip-flops today:
Oct
10
2007
This uncertainty has gone beyond ridiculous. Do I rest my foot or exercise it? Pack or wait? Keep reading about Nepal or start researching a geographically level destination?
Even work is affected: To tackle Task XIVa2.7WL or skip to Item PN1426b47.935?
I ask everyone: What would you do? Would you go or would you stay? At the end of my appointment with my ob-gyn today, he asked if I had any questions. “Yes, as a matter of fact I do… ”
I’ve instant-messaged M at the university, gasped questions to Anna while we’re hiking steep hills, begged advice from my sister in Pennsylvania, Skyped Cheryl in Nepal, and e-mailed Teej about what’s up with the oracles.
I’ve also consulted about a billion health experts. On this, the pros agree:
- Bad: The tendon will not heal in time for the trek.
- Good: The tendon will not snap on the trek.
- Neutral: The Himalaya tends toward steepness.
- Bad: Inflamed bursas get worse during steep ascents.
- Good: Steep ascents lead to pretty places.
- Bad: Pretty places aren’t much fun when you’re toting a bad foot.
The remaining mystery is how manageable the pain will be. Today’s doc wondered if I’ve done a practice hike equivalent to a typical trekking day — without the altitude of course. I haven’t. I’ll do it this weekend. That will be the day of reckoning.
One thing is sure: if I can’t go to Nepal in three weeks I’ll need to start making other travel plans immediately, or the disappointment will shove my spirits into really ugly muck.
