NO TIME FOR BLOGGING?!!

Where does the time go?  It seems like I've been very busy lately — too busy, indeed, to even write a blog entry — and yet it seems as if I haven't accomplished much of anything.

And the time keeps on rushing by...

Before I know it, it will be time to leave for the West Coast and the highly anticipated Marillion ("Los Trios Marillos") semi-acoustic tour.  I have spent quite a bit of time recently preparing for this journey, not the least of which has been creating two different t-shirt designs (one is a general tour shirt, the other is a "crew" shirt for Mike and myself featuring our nicknames — "Albuquerque Anorak" and "Bozeman Barry").  I've also been completing my research of down-time activities; I really wish I could spend a lot more than one day in Portland as it seems like I'll be running all over town taking photos (of course, if the Marillos want to do something special all other plans will go out the window).

Ten days after I return to Albuquerque, I will be boarding another plane — this time to Kansas City for Bryan and Melissa's wedding.  Before last week, I really didn't think I would be able to attend; I was even fairly reluctant to try because of a few personal reasons.  But I finally decided that I would be forever regretful if I didn't make the effort so I quickly purchased my Southwest Airlines tickets before I could talk myeself out of the trip once again (luckily, SWA was having an airfare sale so I got a really good deal).  It will be a quick trip, however:  I land in K.C. early the morning of September 29, and depart the afternoon of October 1st.  Apparently, I'm the "official videographer" for the wedding which seems to be an unpaid position, apart from Bryan buying a couple of blank mini DV tapes.

I've also been keeping "busy" trying to cram as much research on volunteerism, teaching English abroad, and Nepal as I can into the relatively little free time I actually have these days.  I will need to make a decision very soon as to when I would like to leave for Kathmandu.  The best time weatherwise seems to be from October or November through about March so that doesn't give me a whole lot of time.  My family seems to think that Christmas would be a very interesting time of year to be in emersed within such a different culture and religion.  I do have to agree that leaving sometime in mid- or late December would be ideal (and perhaps I wouldn't return home to a house full of spiderwebs like I did the last time I was in Asia).

But it seems like I have a mountain of books to go through in such a short amount of time (I really do like to know all I can about a region before I get on the plane).  It's been more than a little overwhelming since I've also been reading those books about Portland and Seattle.

My "fun" reading has been almost non-existant recently (not to imply that I don't enjoy the research I've been doing, but it would be nice to sit down to some light fiction sometime and just escape into it).  In fact, the "Currently Reading" section of this blog doesn't accurately represent the stack of books on my coffee table right now.  I haven't picked up Innocents Abroad in weeks and the first volume of the Patrick O'Brian novels was recently returned to it's slipcase (both great books, but also fairly "heavy" reading that demands more concentration than I can devote right now).

Perhaps this weekend I'll try to relax with a nice mystery from my library.  I think there's still a Tony Hillerman that I haven't read yet as well as the most recent Michael McGarrity — received from my sister last Christmas — not to mention that I'm several books from getting caught up with Clive Cussler (plus, he has two more coming out in the next few months) and I know I've gotten far behind on the James Patterson novels.  All of these authors are ones I've enjoyed reading as forms of escapism — the books also tend to go very fast as you constantly want to find out what happens next.

Whew!

Now I can understand a bit of where the time goes — mostly it's given over to reading in one form or another (plus watching the few television shows that I enjoy).  And somewhere in the midst of all of this pre-trip research (plus the online portion which is considerable), I need to find time to read (and sometimes even reply to) e-mails, get caught up on the one or two message boards/forums that I still try to keep track of AND scroll the top pages of various BitTorrent sites for any new downloads that I "must have".

It isn't any wonder why I haven't blogged recently; I haven't even had time to devote to my musical endeavors (which I enjoy more than writing).  My hard drives seem hopelessly full of downloaded audio and video; I need to burn off some of this material to make room for more!  (In fact, the ONLY media I've burned recently have been for a couple of friends and to pass on some DVD vines; as usual, they're probably listening or watching to this material long before I do.)

I hope to complete one or two final editing projects between returning from Bryan's wedding and leaving for Nepal.  THEN, I will feel like I've accomplished something!

In the meantime, don't expect blog entries to appear here very often.  And be forewarned that the few that I do write will probably tend to be fairly lengthy (as if that's anything new!).

Unfortunately, that will mean than I won't write much about the quirky things about my town — Albuquerque — that I often like to blog about after watching the evening news or reading the Sunday newspaper.  But it should get REALLY interesting once I go to Nepal (well, if I can find an Internet cafe to write from anywhere near where I'll be — I'm not really expecting electricity for that matter!).

And, now to sleep...