Are you prepared to go on an adventure?

Procrastination is a funny, slippery thing. I’m really supposed to be working on a paper for publication this week (and as deadlines settle in I’ll certainly be doing that). But the anxiety over getting down to business makes me work on any other project I deem less scary. Current endeavors have included cleaning up the apartment, re-working my organization system for lab, teaching a bellydance choreography for the first time, and a new breakfast food (oatmeal with craisins). This ain’t my first time to the procrastination rodeo, so I know what this is. On the bright side, if controlled, I can accomplish a lot of other projects I’ve meant to get around to. I try to look at that as a positive thing, instead of my losing time on the important project at hand.

I ask “are you ready for an adventure” because there is one other project that I’ve been meaning to get around to for some time: transcribing my Malaysia journal to electronic form. My pie-in-the-sky dream is to transcribe ALL of my journals, but I’m pretty sure that won’t happen unless I’m bedridden for months on end (which I’m hoping is not ever the case). But the Malaysia journal is an uncovered mystery to me, because mom has been holding on to her photocopied version for years, and I definitely misplaced mine.

So, in a way, I feel like I’m about to go on the adventure all over again. At the time, it was hard to think of it as an adventure, but in hindsight it was. I mean, c’mon: JUNGLES, MOUNTAINS, CURRY, NEW CULTURES, INDESCRIBABLE HEAT, ANTI-MALARIAL DRUG-INDUCED HALLUCINATIONS! And I survived it with my life, just minus two toenails. . .

I’m *considering* posting installments here, but I am a little hesitant about it, since maybe someday I’ll be a famous travel writer and someone will steal it. . . I realize this is unlikely but it could happen, no? We’ll see. But for now, ask yourself if you are ready for an adventure.

P.S. The folder containing my Malaysia journal is from “Southwest Elementary: Home of the Tigers.” This, once again, continues the synchronicity of the tiger theme.

P.P.S Yesterday I saw a parakeet living with a flock of wild sparrows. Part of me was sad that the bird had lost its owner, but part of me was happy that it had found a new family. I hope it will survive the winter. . .