We've been on the plane for three hours and already I'm confused about the date. This is the first leg of a two-pronged journey -- 11 1/2 hours from L.A. to Tokyo, then 7 more hours to Singapore. 9 hours in Singapore Airport, then on to Kathmandu! Destination, the Nepal Himalaya.

Brad and I have finally embarked on this trip, two years in the planning, almost postponed due to last-second complications. The primary complication was the US mail, which lost my passport en route to the Nepalese Embassy in New York. One week ago today I frantically rushed to San Francisco to get a new passport, zipped to the Japanese Embassy to get my Japanese Visa, then, placing my faith in God and Federal Express, plopped yet another passport into the mail. This one made it to New York and back with more than 24 hours to spare. As they say in Australia, no worries!

This trip has been the most difficult to plan of all my trips, not uncoincidentally it is the most adventurous. The uncertainties of the trip include the weather and whether or not we will get sick, not to mention the decision of how much to carry on your back when you'll be climbing 16,000 feet in 10 days. And besides, now is the time for worry. Once we start walking, it will be time to act and react, to live life one second at a time, to place one foot in front of the other, over and over again. Only then will the uncertainties of the trip become certainties. If it is cold, we will put on more clothes, or buy more. If it is too difficult, then we can walk more slowly. And if we have trouble communicating, then it's time for charades. (1st syllable, sounds like...). No worries.