Paper Chain

Right now, I'm counting down the days until my surgery. Some people have wondered if I'm nervous about it. While I'm definitely stressed about getting all of the paper work done and having something go wrong in the meantime, I'm actually not worried about the surgery itself. I know it's going to hurt and I just learned this week that I'm going to wind up taking a month off work to recover. But, I know that my doctors are excellent and that once it's done, the aneurysm they're operating on will be permanently better.

With everything there is to get done before it happens, I've been telling myself (and other people) that the 7+ weeks from the date I found until until the date of the surgery are going to fly by. So far, that's only been partly true. I've been busy enough with work and getting things organized with the doctors that the last 10 days have gone quickly overall. But, there have definitely been some moments when I've said to myself, "How am I going to survive? 7 weeks is FOREVER!"

So, during a particularly dull moment at work earlier this week, I had an epiphany: I'll do what all anxious children do to mark the passage of time: make a paper chain!

 Love this: the supplies were all within easy reach. I had a couple of sheets of red paper to spice up what would have been an other-wise boring look.

 I made the chain on Monday, and I knew it needed to be 45 links long. I cut the right number of strips so that the chain would be that exact length. Each strip is a little wider than 1". My only recommendation, if you want to try this at home, is that you can use a narrower strip but it also needs to be shorter. My strips are all 8.5 inches long (the narrower dimension of the paper).

 You start the chain by making one strip into a circle. Here, I did that with the red loop on the bottom. For the second, and every following, loop, you'll stick a strip through flat...

 ... and then pick up the ends and tape them together. Simple!

 And it doesn't take long for the chain to grow. Here's my chain, all ready to help me mark off the days.

 I decided to hang the chain at the doorway to the kitchen. I used three small hooks and some left-over turquoise yarn to hang it up. I make sure the portions that hang down, rather than across, were basically even so that the chain can stay in this position as long as possible, even though I'll be removing one link each day.

 Here's a close-up of the corner. I found that using a small command hook and a bit of yarn worked pretty well to hang it up. I wrapped the yarn around one of the links, so there's plenty for it to grab onto. I also knotted it three times and so far it's been very secure!

One more glimpse. It makes the place look extra festive, doesn't it? You can see, if you compare this picture with those above, that I included the day I made the chain in my count of the number of days left. Originally, there were two red loops on the end by the refrigerator. But, I double checked my math before going to bed on Monday night and realized my mistake. I removed the extra red loop on Monday night and have been taking one loop each day ever since. And guess what? Now, it's only 6 weeks away!