Friday the 13th.

I'm so glad I didn't pay too much attention to the calendar this week. Too busy catching up to realize that Friday the 13th was on the agenda. Anyone who knows me knows my superstitious streak, which includes making sure that any Friday the 13th dates on my calendar are circled and planned carefully. Not this time though. I woke up, happy it was Friday, had a lovely hot shower, great drive through the country to work, conversed and joked with my staff, spent some time reorganizing my office that had fallen in disarray, had a great chat with a family, talked with my mom on the phone and then went out to do some errands. Drove in to the Big City to pick up my mom for her appointment with the lawyer and that's when life fell apart for a while. And when I spotted the calendar ....

My mom suffers from Dementia. So everything we do has to be carefully planned out. An appointment requires making sure that not just she knows it's happening, with lots of reminders and advanced calls before I go to pick her up, but I also have to let her best friend who lives in the same building know so she doesn't plan any activities at the same time. I have to let HomeCare know and then plan out my time. It's a science really. So today, I thought I had it all lined up as I drove down the highway to her place. Parked, put the handicapped sticker on my mirror so I can park close for her convenience, walked in to her building, picked up her mail, took the elevator up, unlocked her door and walked in to a dark and quiet condo. And she wasn't there. Not the first time this has happened.

I checked with her beau down the hall but he wasn't home. I checked with her best friend who said she seemed to remember I was coming. And I had just called her before I started driving. Instead of feeling frustrated, I cleaned her apartment, gathered her laundry to take home to do for her, cleaned out her fridge and opened the blinds to let the sun in. Then I left, hoping that her beau had taken her out and hoping she was safe. I called the lawyer to cancel the appointment and heading back to our little hamlet. Found out later that yes, she had forgotten and her beau, her normally takes her out for dinner or makes dinner at his house in the evening decided to take her for lunch instead, not knowing I was picking her up. So our new process is I will now have to call him as well. It's all good. It was just scary for a bit and then frustrating but I still feel like I did get a few tasks down that I've wanted to do there and haven't been able to get over much lately. 

Now that I had a bit more time, I finished up my errands, ran to Costco to see if they had the shelves in stock that I wanted to buy for our garage for dh's workshop area (they did!) and made arrangements with a friend to meet me with her truck to get them home before he got home to surprise him (he was!), then had a quick dinner, dh drove me and little grandson back to our centre to set up for the classes tomorrow while he went off to a production meeting. We did a great job vacuuming the space we get to use for free upstairs in the building (I hope we can rent this amazing spot one day - fundraising is now underway), then we had to figure out how to get two folding tables up there along with 12 folding tables and supplies for the parent meeting. As we started to take up the chairs, our neighbors across the hall from the volunteer run and very popular cafe came over to ask if we need help. So very thankful for such sweet staff - we all share each other's resources and help out all the time. Made our job much lighter. Once that was done, we took a break and went into the cafe to buy some chocolate chips cookies and enjoyed some light conversation that revived my energy. And little grandson got to practice his emerging French that is part of his school life.

As we came out of the cafe, dh was just going in to our Centre. Perfect timing. We put the last few art supplies out and then we headed home. Chatted with a team member by text as he drove and then just like that, we were pulling in to our driveway. We watched Coronation Street, placed our grocery order online for pick up later tomorrow afternoon (I love this service) and then finally headed up to snuggle down for sleep. I have a big workshop tomorrow with my board president and my team will be teaching our grief classes for kids and parents at our Centre at the same time. I know it will all go well but there's always a moment or two of apprehension. It always goes well, so I shouldn't even have a moment of worry but I'm human! Looking forward to seeing my team work on their own and for being able to spend a day with my leader of our board. I'll report on the day later tomorrow. For now, it's time to say goodnight. I hope your Friday the 13th turned out to be just fine.