mother's day

 Every day is mother's day. I'm still trying to do my best to be kind and helpful regarding my mother's needs. Today was a real test. Well, every day is, really, but I thought the stars were aligned today.

The background info is that my mom is fixated on her hair. This isn't new, but she is losing her vision due to Glaucoma and Macular degeneration and can't see how she looks. She is always asking me how she looks and I tell her that she looks fine. Her hair is amazing. She has really good hair and, as long as it doesn't get wet, it holds very well. She's been wanting and trying to go to Pat's Place hair salon for some time now and has made many appointments, then been unable to keep.

After much discussion last week, we decided to try again. Mom said she wanted to try, and I thought it would work. I made the appointment with her stylist of many years, Darlene. The timing was perfect regarding her schedule. I reminded mom the day before. I called in the morning to confirm. I got there early to pick her up without pressure. She wasn't confident that she could do it. She asked if she could try walking to the car. We got to the elevator and she felt able to make it, so we went back to her condo and got ready. When the time came, she said she couldn't make it after all. She was afraid that she might fall. I told her that I would help her and that the weather was perfect. She didn't feel able to go and decided to cancle her appointment. She was diasppointed, but it was her choice. Then she started asking me how she looks. I told her that her hair always looks nice, which it does. She said she was sorry she couldn't go.

We chatted for a while about other things. Then she said, "I need to have my hair done. When is my hair appointment."

I have to stop doing this to myself. I want to please her and not upset her. I need help.

This is a memoir. My mom passed away over a year ago, but some of these situations keep going around in my head, so I decided to write them down.

 i just experiened a miracle and there's no one around to share it with!

I'm in my 85th year, my memory is problematic, and I use Adobe Suite for most of my 'creations'. I set up my Etsy store and created most of my patterns in the last century ...

My church and church 'family' are a big part of my life and I still do many creative things for them. 

My problem is that I don't do any of the things that I used to do, very often these days and - when I try, I can't remember how. I get nervous when thinking about doing something and I think that contributes to the problem. (Passwords are the bane of my existence, but that's another story.}

Today, I was trying to make a small correction to a pattern I printed in 2007. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Well ... when I tried to open the pdf in Photoshop I got this message. "PDFL Initialization failed". I've seen this message before, but don't remember it being a big problem. Today it was. 

Photoshop wouldn't budge. InDesign opened it, but it wasn't editable and, the typed instructions looked like hieroglyphics. 

Googling it didn't help. While I was pondering where I should go next, it occurred to me that I also have Illustrator. I never learned to use it, but I've tried everything else, so why not? I launched Adobe Illustrator, opened the pattern file and 'Voila', it popped up!

It is clear and editable, and I didn't even have to erase and retype the error. I used 'find and replace', not expecting it to work, as it wasn't in the large text block, but on a pattern piece. It found the words I needed and fixed the error! 

I was in shock for a few minutes, then went to find someone to tell. I can't begin to tell you how exciting this is for me. It opens my ability to fix many typos and errors simply. I'm ecstatic!

I just hope I remember.