Getting ready for tomorrow

I didn't cut out my fabric today. I took some time to pick out the fabric, and I decided on a cotton-lycra blend fabric in blues and greens that I bought a couple of years ago. I love the colour and the design but when I bought the fabric I didn't realize that the fabric pattern has a strong horizontal repeat. Since the pattern I'm using for this dress has bias-cut side panels I thought that this fabric would be less horizontal and would actually look good.

So I spent some time trying to figure out how to match the pattern along the seamlines. The width of a horizontal stripe turned on the bias (45 degrees) will always be greater than the width of the stripe in its normal horizontal position, so matching the two is difficult. The stripe is quite wide and there are about six of them (alternating light and dark) on the skirt. I can get about three of of the horizontal/bias stripes to work out but that's it, so I have to figure out where it's most important that the stripes match.

I decided that taking a break to give myself some time to think about and sketch this stripe match would be best, so I went for a walk. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day I ended up walking for nearly two hours! There's a wooded area over where we've been house-hunting that I didn't know about and I explored that area as well as some of the other streets that I didn't know. It was definitely the best thing I could have done for myself today... being out in the fresh air was soothing and comforting, especially with tomorrow being biopsy day.

I'm a bit nervous about tomorrow's biopsy. At the moment I'm not all that concerned about what the biopsy results will be because I just want to know what's going on - no matter what the answer is, having an answer is infinitely better than not having an answer. I suspect I'll be more concerned about the results as I get closer to receiving those results, but right now I'm most concerned about the surgery itself. I wish there was a way to get answers without doing surgery because I really don't like going under a general anaesthetic and I also don't like the idea of an incision in my neck. I tend not to heal all that well, as you know, and the thought of having yet another ugly scar doesn't appeal to me.

Sigh. The end justifies the means in this case and I'm focusing all my energy on getting through tomorrow as calmly as possible. The surgery is scheduled for 1pm and is expected to take about an hour, after which I'll be recovering for a couple or three hours. I'm hoping to be home by 6ish so that I can begin to rest in my own house. Either Ian or I will let you know how things went with an update here sometime tomorrow. Thank you all for the good wishes and happy thoughts you've been sending me - I really appreciate all of them.