Erin, in answer to your second question, absolutely.

Seconding.

"Is that's the way this is going to be?"

Argh! Last show I stage-managed for student theatre, there was one scene where we really couldn't block it until we were on the actual stage, which was a few days before opening night. (Brighton Beach Memoirs. One character is talking to the audience, while everyone else is setting the table, getting all the food on the table, sitting down, and starting to eat. Tiny stage, so we had a table with folding leaves, and five chairs had to get from offstage to onstage in this time, and to get onto the stage, people had to walk up a stairway with no railing, in the dark, while carrying a whole bunch of stuff.) The first few times, it was a mess -- stuff didn't get there on time, stuff got dropped, people or things ended up in the wrong places, people crashed into each other, etc. I eventually had to draw a diagram showing exactly where each person, plate, glass, and chair should be at any given moment, and write up instructions for each person, like, "Stan: come down stairs, move chairs 6 and 7 from behind couch to table, take two plates from Blanche and put at far end of table, pull out chair 5 for Laurie, move three sets of knife/fork to far end of table, take one plate from Kate and put at chair 4, sit in chair 3."

Took something like five tries before we figured it out. After every single try, someone would ask, "I don't have a chair/plate/glass. Is this the way this is going to be?"

Also. I was going to bake bread today. Types of flour available at the Watergate Safeway: spelt flour, rice flour, soy flour, bread flour, white flour, unbleached white flour, cornmeal, pastry flour, dark rye flour. Type of flour not available: whole wheat.

Thanks so much for the info, guys. Check, old cotton slipdress for home-from-hospital wear y nighties.

And thanks for the answer to the 2nd q. Not being a pad kinda girl, I'll have to tell my mom to buy me some from the store. Uh. Pads. Insult to (literal) injury.

I think my suitcase (for home) and overnight bag (for le hopital) are 1/2 clothes, 1/2 books.

And mascara, lip glosss and perfume. I may have visitors!

I'll trade you some wholewheat for some soy flour, Hil? Can't find it anywhere. I'm sure it's available, probably right under my nose and labelled in Thai. But find it I cannot.

Mmm, bread. I'll have plenty of time on my hands in the next 4 weeks. Maybe I'll totter about and make some zuchini bread. It's nutricious, right?

I still haven't figured out who they've got in mind when they stock the Watergate Safeway. Every kind of flour except whole wheat. Every flavor of oat milk except plain. About 30 different kinds of rice. Generally horrible selection of vegetables, but today they had a pretty decent assortment of stuff, including three different kinds of winter squash. In May. No summer squash, though. Lots of different kinds of pasta -- regular, whole wheat, whole wheat with flax seed, rice, and I think I noticed spelt. They've always got grapples, but don't always have grapes.

Erin, I saw on someone's LJ (maybe Smonster??) about tricks to keep hair looking fab despite not washing it. Maybe jot a couple down? That's the first thing that drives me crazy when I'm sick/hospitalized and can't shower. Baking soda in your hair and lipgloss/mascara and you're ready to accept flowers from all sorts of charming visitors. Hope it goes as smoothly as possible.

I am freshly showered and ready to go. I have a lovelym stress-induced fever blister popping up, so I will be lookin' good no matter what I do, I guess!

Thanks for all the support and good thoughts. It kept me from goin' crazy tonight.

Best of surgery and recovery~ma to you, Erin.