Life of Wry

After well over two years (two years and nine months to be exact), I have completed (well, nearly) the travel blog of my Nepal trekking adventure. Concerning the fate of this blog, people in my inner circle have heard me commit, recommit, table, resume, lament, whine, promise, and stress BIG TIME over the fact that I started this project shortly after my return from Nepal (in April 2011) and Just. Couldn’t. Finish. It.  I’d initially gone gangbusters on the blog, and in fairly short order–at least steadily–debriefed and detailed 13 1/2 of a 14-day trek. Well done, me! But that’s as far as I got. The project has utterly, sadly stalled.  Relentlessly, it has occupied a line on each and every to-do list I’ve made for about two years.

My intentions had been so genuine and the task so straightforward, but other things just kept getting in the way. Honest to god, if it wasn’t one thing, it was another. Legitimate things–projects for others, home & family projects, holidays, trips, and then just life’s minutia. Being a tad anal, I always felt as though I had to clear my desk (completely and totally, apparently), before I could clear my mind, before I could muster the focus to wrap this thing up. And the longer I was away from it, the harder it was to ease back in. There’s a lot to be said for being in a groove on something like this… and I lost my groove; it wasn’t something I could easily pick up and resume.  

The absolute worst and most horrifying part of this whole thing is that when one of our group had this wonderful idea to give the organizing member in our group a thank you photo book for all her efforts, I said, “oh…   don’t do that; I’m blogging our whole trip and I will make a photo book and I’d love to give a copy to everybody,” and she said, “oh, well, okay then, you do it, that would be great!”  And then I didn’t. And, to make matters worse, every time I talk to one of the members of our group (except for the organizer one), I mention how close I am to finishing it. It’s become just been one big crying wolf story.  They have long since given up on the idea there will be a photo book or travel blog.  It is painfully, mortifyingly embarrassing. 

I’d also told the trekking company, the wonderful Himalayan Glacier Trekking, that I was going to do this and I would send them a link, or produce a book for them. Yeah, right.  All of their trekkers probably say that.  (And most probably follow through.)  

Loooooozer!

I’ve just felt terrible for almost three years. But I had so many other things to do.  So many other things.  Always.  Something.

But, lo and behold, I got through all my stuff. That actually happened. And after sitting idle for way too long, I started the Nepal blog up today!  And I finished the last half of the last day’s trek narrative!  

That’s the good news.

Now here’s a bit of a clarification: I’m not just blogging the trek, I’m blogging the week before when the four of us met up in the United Arab Emirates for a couple days to acclimate, and then spent a few days in Kathmandu. That part’s long done. And I’m blogging the last four days when we did the reverse (a couple days in Kathmandu and a couple days in the UAE). That is the last remaining piece. So.. yeah… I actually have a bit more blogging to go, but that’ll go fast, now that I’ve recommenced. There will be some editing and continuity to deal with before it’s all said and done (that’s what I get for spreading the writing project out over nearly a three-year period), and then, finally, the conversion to book format.  A bit yet to go, but I’m radically optimistic. 

Here is the evidence of progress: travel journal, guide book, maps, additional trip data…

And here’s where I get my photos… all consolidated in iPhoto…833 taken by me, and 1,823 taken by the other four in our group, for a total of 2,711 photos to look through to find the perfect ones to capture our experience!  All fabulous photos, too. All have been carefully organized so it’s not as tedious a process as it may seem.   

And with that, we are blogging, baby!