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!   

We can pretend, can’t we?

Somewhere along Pleasants Valley Road.

I am loving having a teen driver in the house. Mostly. I’m loving that he’s hit this milestone, that he’s eager to get behind the wheel, that he’s showing himself to be reasonably, age-appropriately capable and responsible, and grateful we’ve racked up a full week of driving with no serious mishaps and only a few raised voices (it is control-freak me riding shotgun, after all).  

Today: F St, to Rd 29, to 113, to 80, to Pena Adobe, to Cherry Glen, to Pleasant’s Valley (and a short run up, then down, Cantalow as we realized there were too many bicyclists sprinting down the mountain on a narrow one-laner), to 128, to 505, to 16, to Cache Creek Casino, to Rd 29A, to 113, to Russell, to A, to home.  104 or so miles.  He hit 80 mph once, had to use the windshield wipers, had to pull over numerous times to let cars pass, practiced a sudden stop, and had to negotiate the parking lot at the casino so I could pee (our only argument).

All in a day’s work.  

Some drive-by gorgeousness:

I appear to be repeating myself.  I took another walk with Carrie and Bodie in the North Davis ditch; again it was beautiful; again I took a picture and uploaded it to my blog. What can I say.  Not original but it can’t be helped.

I have entered the phase of the Efudex program where the world seems foul. I’m a red, itchy, blotchy, dry, chapped mess. I’m not sure I have much creative in me. Hell, I barely have the will to live.  I now realize I am not skating through this, and that is a blow to my ego. I’m starting to look like the horror pictures people braver than me have posted all over Efudex sites. Problem is, I’d already created a category for myself: people who are so awesome they don’t react to Efudex. And now I have to eat my words. Thank god I was the only person who heard them.

If you want to know what this program is like, go here: https://sites.google.com/site/theefudexdiaries/. The Efudex Diaries..I’m not kidding. I’m not as bad as this guy, but it’s early.

I am kidding about the will-to-live thing, btw. Uncomfortable as it is, it’s not what I expected, based on what I’d read online. I still wonder whether I’m even reacting sufficiently enough to consider the process a success.  We shall see.

Meanwhile, it was a beautiful day in the ditch. If we can’t have rain and winter weather, we may as well take full advantage of these warm (I was wearing capris), golden, long-shadowed days!

The only pictures I took today were the ones I’m taking of my face each day while on Efudex and they’re gross and never going to be posted.  I may write later about this Efudex experience, but I’m not likely to post pictures, even as the effects subside and I sort of return to normal.

So, no great pictures from today… instead, I’m posting this ho hum sunset from three weeks ago. I was downtown when I took this, and noticed people stopping all over and whipping out their phones to get photos.  It was spectacular enough that I saw multiple versions posted on Facebook from friends in Davis who were all witnessing it simultaneously.  It was great in all directions; seemed the heavens were on fire.

Appropriately, then, as I write this, I’m also listening to Peter tease out the melody and chords for Stairway to Heaven.  He’s been working on it for a few days and it’s sounding fabulous, just like Led Zeppelin themselves.  He’s not a prodigy, but he does have a great ear for music. This impresses me, especially since I have no musical background or talent whatsoever. Very glad he’s got it… but I’m more delighted that he’s got the interest. The years of music at Chavez and Holmes gave him an appreciation for music and, I have to say, a pretty solid foundation. He really knows stuff. He was never one to formally practice (we gave up on that), but, especially now, it’s something he does every day completely on his own: he listens to a lot of music, watches a bunch of different stuff on YouTube, and he plays–usually the piano (on which he’s had no instruction) or the sax. He does it for fun. How great is that?

Ooh, it makes me wonder. 

It was a full season baking-wise. A lot of the usual suspects–butter balls, rocky road, ginger muffins, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread and a cake or two….  And a few new entries–a wonderful gingerbread, which I’ll make again, and my new, personal favorite: cheese crackers, which I’ll definitely make again (maybe even as soon as this Friday for an upcoming potluck.. hmmm). The cheese crackers were a savory alternative to all the sweets; I am very thankful to Susan’s mom, Mumsie, for this recipe.  Not low cal, but sharp cheesy, buttery and hot (cayenne)

Then, there were these (below) which I made for a loosely-themed Downton Abbey dinner with my newish food group last Sunday (we call ourselves the Dining Divas though I haven’t quite brought myself to use that name).  I tried these little mini phyllo tarts with a greek yogurt-based cream (yogurt, brown sugar, orange juice and orange zest), topped with fresh seasonal fruit and toasted chopped pistachios. A bit odd tasting, not sweet enough, but pretty on the plate. And sugar plums.  Never knew what a sugar plum was, other than something the vision of which danced in our heads.  This is a sugar plum: finely chopped dried apricots, dates and prunes, mixed with finely chopped pecans and/or walnuts, spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, allspice and orange zest.  Oh, and rolled in either brown or white sugar. Funny, Jim and I, independently, came up with the same description: fruit cake w/o the cake. Healthy enough and not horrible, but it doesn’t bring ’em back

In addition to all that, we were the grateful recipients of numerous gifts of cookies, toffees, brittles, truffles, breads, liqueurs and boxes of candies…

I am a person in search of a good new year’s resolution. 

Oh my god I had fun with this puzzle.  I just love jigsaws anyway–whatever they are: castles on the hill, baskets of fruit, whatever; they’re all good.  For the OCD-leaning among us, jigsaw puzzles are the perfect sorting and organizing project. Seriously, I’ve never met a bag of M&M’s I didn’t color-sort, so a 1000-piece puzzle is h e a v e n. For the Buddhist-leaning among us, it’s a meditation on the now–nothing like a jigsaw to bring you immediately into a present state. It’s also mentally consuming–focus, concentration, endurance. What I especially love: doing a jigsaw is a pure and simple task with the clearest of finish lines. It starts when you sit down, ends when you get up.. you know what you’re in for, you are making progress each and every time you place a piece, and you know when it’s over because you’re looking at a finished product. Done, fini. And it is enormously satisfying at each of its stages. I will find myself leaving whatever else I might be doing to go all the way into the living room to admire my work, like constantly throughout the day. It’s weird.

Anyway.

So, yeah, they’re totally fun. But this one was the best. I was so hugely pleased with my idea of making a puzzle out of us! Nobody else was that into it, kind of a bummer, but that turned out to be fine, puzzles aren’t everybody’s obsession; didn’t diminish my fun and they did admire it along the way. Smile.

So… ta da!

One of its funnier stages:

How dizzying and abstract the process can be (a potential future profile pic). Hair can look exactly like granite, just so you know.

The stuff of nightmares:

And its source photo:

That kid in red?  Cutest thing..

I’ve entered that phase of the jigsaw puzzle where I’ve placed every piece that has anything on it of any note — color or design — and now it’s just a tedious slog to the finish.  All that’s left is granite, and all the granite is alike. Ugh. So, I’m to the point where I’ve sorted pieces by shapes and will finish it off by summoning my best spacial relations skills.  I estimate about 100-150 pieces remain… each takes about 1-5 minutes to find… though things will go way faster as the number of remaining pieces diminishes.  

Started this one a day or two after Christmas.

Laughter, tears, joy ensue when older folks get married.

This was actually Saturday.  John and Judy exchange vows in a large community hall. Hundreds of friends show up to support, dance, schmooze.  It was even a potluck.

How fun is that!

Who’s driven?  This guy.

Turning 15 1/2 on Christmas Eve meant Christmas vacation had a ready theme and an absolute objective: get a learner’s permit and get behind the wheel of the family car.

So, with no time to lose, he found and enrolled in an online course, raced through the curriculum in two days and passed the test. When his certificate of completion arrived a few days later, he dragged me to the DMV to take the California state driver’s test, and passed that.  As soon as we got home (yesterday), we began the search for a local driving school that had a 2-hr slot available on Saturday (today).  Logging those two hours was the last hoop to jump through; now he can drive our car on the mean streets of Davis (and beyond)… as long as one of us is in the car. Mission accomplished with one day to spare.

Now our mutual goal is to get as many hours behind the wheel as is humanly possible. He’s clamoring to drive everywhere, and we are eager for him to build competence. Driving at this point is a win win.

It is required that all new drivers be gawky teens with pimples and braces.  Darling too.

Here’s ours:

Now who’s driven?