I picked up my new glasses yesterday afternoon. I'm not as worried about how fashionable or trendy they are anymore. The frames have become so costly, that I would rather not spend the extra money. In a previous post, I wrote about things and how they balance out in the end. I blogged that I paid $10 for the frames. Actually they are not at all ugly. I am happy with them, especially for $10! One frame I looked at was $350! I don't want to pay $350 or $150! I will probably have to get new ones next year anyway. They never seem to last very long or they can't fit them with new lenses because they are discontinued the next year. I say for $10, I look fabulous in these glasses!
I don't go to those one hour places because I've had a lot of trouble with their frames. The lenses always come out and it gets frustrating. One time I super glued the lens back in. It worked, but I had a tiny smear of glue stuck to the lens for the rest of the year. I couldn't get it off and it drove me crazy, until I finally got used to it.
Since I found my Optometrist quite a few years ago; I have always purchased my glasses there too. I get really good care and follow up there and he is very good at his job. What originally sold me on him was his easy style and very detailed exams. I moved a distance away, but the drive is worth it.
I've been wearing glasses since I gave up the vanity of wearing contacts in my thirties. Actually, it just got too hard to wear them! When I first got contacts, the doctor's assistant told me that I was born to wear them. I just popped them in with absolutely no trouble the very first time I put them on. I thought, "Wow these are great!"
Contacts weren't the same as wearing glasses. They didn't 'spoil' your face. I was so happy to get them. I looked good because I wasn't walking around squinting all of the time trying to see! I should have known that putting them in so easily the first time, would be one of the last times they would be so easy.
I first realized that I needed glasses when I was 19. Of course I didn't want to admit I needed them. I would go to classes and if I needed to read what was on the board; I had to squint really hard to see. I had one professor who wrote so small on the board, that I was forced to sit in the first row. In some classes, if you sat in the first row you had to be able to answer questions and pay close attention. The professor could see if you were taking notes or not. Of course, his class was one of those classes. The kiss of death for me. If I wasn't particularly interested in the subject, I would take some notes, doodle and generally not pay too much attention. I was a good student, I just got bored easily. Hey, maybe I had Attention Deficit Disorder and didn't even know it. I kind of write my blog with ADD too. See how I digressed and went off track again? I could be right!
Anyway getting back on track; I began to have more trouble driving too. I would drive at night trying to figure out what the signs ahead said. Good thing all stop signs were the same shape, stop lights were red and I was not color blind! I knew I needed glasses. Oh, I got them alright. They were those over sized things that were popular at the time. I had a small face and they swallowed it up. So you know it, I didn't wear them most of the time. Well, that only made my vision become worse. So I finally decided to get contacts.
The prospect of contacts was scary at first. I was afraid of getting them, because I didn't want to stick them in my eyes. I thought they would hurt all of the time. But like I said earlier, I popped them in as if I were born wearing them. Later on I developed an astigmatism the optometrist said was from looking at a computer. After all of these years it still isn't any better and I'm on the computer more!
After several years I couldn't wear the soft lenses anymore and the hard ones were beginning to hurt. The shape of my eyes had changed. I got these great new contacts that were gas permeable. If you had them you know that they were hard edged, but soft and breathable in the middle. I loved them, they didn't love me.
A standing joke with my husband and friends became that I had l "lost" my eyes again. Everyone had to stop what they were doing and not move. I would yell "freeze where you are. I lost a contact!!"
Then we had to get on our hands and knees and search for them; a lot. They popped out of one of my eyes constantly! So I got the brilliant idea to get the colored ones. They didn't change your eye color back then; they were colored so you could find them. The thinking was when you lost them; you could easily find them again because the color would show up on the floor. So I got them in green. I lost them at home a lot; I could easily find them on my kitchen or bathroom floors. Or at least that was the plan.
I went to visit my best friend, who lived in a small town in Maine. I used to visit her a lot when she lived there. We went sight seeing whenever I was there. We were in beautiful Kennebunkport and I was standing in a field shooting picture after picture. At one point I couldn't figure out why my camera lens wasn't focusing. Well you can guess the rest and where this is going. Out popped my right contact, while I was taking a picture. In the middle of a field of green grass!
We looked for it for all of two minutes before we gave up! I was never going to find a green contact in a field of green grass. I called the insurance on them later that day. It was a good thing I had purchased the insurance. I asked them to Federal Express another contact to me the next day. I had to pay the extra shipping, but at least I could see for the rest of the visit! Of course I didn't bring my glasses with me, because I didn't have any to bring! I had been too vain to buy a pair. I wasn't planning to wear them. I had to finish shooting pictures that day with one eye closed. It was a good thing I wasn't the one driving, or we would have been in trouble!
Smokey Mountain Memories
A Little Slice of Heaven
