18. Troubleshoot fonts.
A system error can occur if Illustrator accesses a damaged font. You can troubleshoot fonts to determine if they cause the problem.
To troubleshoot fonts in Mac OS X v10.4.x-10.5.x:
1. Deactivate all font management utilities, such as Adobe Type Manager or Extensis Suitcase.
2. Start Font Book from the Applications folder.
3. (Mac OS X v10.4.x only) In the Collection column, expand All Fonts.
4. In the Collection column, select Computer.
5. Now in the Font column click a font then hit Command A to select all the fonts.
6. Choose Edit > Disable Fonts. Click Disable, when asked to confirm.
7. At the Finder, choose File>Find.
8. Type AdobeFnt12.lst , select the system drive, and then press return.
9. Delete all the AdobeFnt12.lst files found.
10. Run Illustrator. Then do one of the following:
* If the problem recurs, then repeat steps 4-8 to disable the User and Classic collections.
* If the problem doesn't recur, then the problem font is in the collection you disabled. In Font Book, enable one font at a time in the collection and try to reproduce problem until you find the damaged font.
This seemed to be the immediate problem-solver. I just removed recently installed fonts (since the problem happened very recently... just yesterday) and now Illustrator works fine. Thanks for all the help guys! I really appreciate it!