New glasses...

Ok, so my Mom just cracks me up sometime...Infuriates me...Then cracks me up. My Aunt and Uncle were wonderful to pick Mom up today and take her down to see Dad. They dropped her off and I came for my visit and took her home...But not before we picked up her glasses. The frames are very thin and lightweight, and kind of a bronze color and pretty fashionable...I think she looks great in them. She put them on and was reading things acrossed (that's for you E) the room. As soon as we walk out of the store, I told her to look down the mall, and she immediately pulls her glasses off, and complains that everything is so blurry...I told her to put her glasses on...So, she does, and I ask if she can see, and she says "yes," pulls her glasses off and claims everything is blurry. Now, I am not quite sure what she thinks glasses do, but they only help if you are looking through them. This proves to be a difficult concept to her.

Since the doctor said that she can read without any correction, I opted to not get her bifocals because the bottom would be completely clear...I may have made a mistake with this decision. Apparently, it is quite difficult to lift up the glasses, or look over them if you want to look at something up close...Maybe she just needs to get used to everything...LOL...It is all exasperating (because I think it is simple and common sense), and just hysterical (because, I guess it isn't), and as long as Mom and I can continue to laugh about it...All is good. A little laughter does anyone good.

Dad was good tonight...I got down to Magnolia around 6:00, and Dad was eating dinner. If I haven't mentioned it before, the food at Magnolia leaves a lot to be desired. Tonight was a sandwich of some sort (tuna salad maybe?), on white bread, cantaloupe, potato soup, and something unidentifiable...It actually looked like cat food (no offense to my cat lover friends). I smelled it, and it smelled familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. After polling 3 of the CNA's, I think we narrowed it down to (possibly) 3 bean salad that had been ground up...Um...Ew. Now, 3 bean salad is not my favorite thing, but I will eat it. I like the taste and texture of the different beans...All ground up together must be ghastly.

Dad ate the sandwich and cantaloupe, had no interest in the soup and avoided the cat food...He did have a big hunk of apple fritter that my Mom brought.

He was very confused tonight. He kept asking "how am I going to do this?" And I would ask him what he was talking about, and he kept saying "I need to get my shoe on and then how am I going to get home to go to bed?" I kept trying to convince him that he was already in bed, and all he had to do was go to sleep when he was ready. He would say "wait, back up, you need to go slower, I don't understand." So, I explained the whole deal to him, and he said "I can't sleep here! I am in a hallway!" By the time we left, he had determined that he better stay there and sleep in that bed...I am not quite sure what is causing the confusion, or what he heard or thought that set him off. He has been talking about driving and getting in the car to go to Barona Casino lately, but, this seems a little more random.

He is really hanging in there, and for the most part doing well. He is interested in the election, and often says he wants it to be over (don't we all?), and is watching all this drama with the stock market. Dad used to be an avid watcher of the market, and I think he remembers that, and knows that when it goes down, we lose money, but I don't think he understands any more detail than that. Sometimes it is so hard for me to take when my Dad can't process the things that used to make him happy and intrigue him. I guess it just all goes with this terrible disease. But, I also think of how much he does have, his ability to communicate, to rationalize, to want to try...and Simply, to be alive. Nothing about this is easy for him, or any of us for that matter. But we try and take everyday with hope and gratitude.

Love to all.