Now I feel bad for saying I don’t care for the optometrist. He was perfectly friendly and charming. I must have gotten him on a bad day the last few times I went. That, or he was impressed with my lovely, blown-straight hair. Or maybe he was frightened by the zit on my cheek. One of those, I’m sure.
Wouldn’t you think that past a certain age your eyes don’t get better, only worse? Especially when they’ve been pretty much the same for about three years?
It appears that one of my eyes has gotten better, so now my eyes are both the same, uh, level of blindness. Which rocks, because now I can pop a contact in either eye, instead of worrying about which eye it belongs in.
Dr. C was impressed to find that I don’t wear my contacts to sleep in, that I take them out every night. He said that most people with my level of vision (ie, “blind as a bat”) tend to sleep in them. Considering how awful I look in my glasses, I probably SHOULD sleep in my contacts, but I’m just not comfortable doing that. I used to as a youngun, but now that I’m older and wiser (ha!), the idea of a dry contact getting stuck to my eye freaks me out.
Speaking of glasses, I’ve needed a new pair for years. In fact, the pair I currently have are the pair I bought the first Christmas after I moved down here. They make me look horrible (although I do that just fine even without the glasses), and they’re not strong enough. I spent at least half an hour looking at each and every pair of frames, and finally decided on a pair of the cheapest ones I could find. I figure, the only time I wear them is at night for about ten minutes before the lights go out, so why spend a lot of money on them?
Naturally they were out of stock on the pair I wanted, so it’ll be 3 – 5 days before I get my new glasses.
While I was there, I stocked up on my contacts. How fucking cool is it that 12 pair of contacts (I toss out the old ones once a month) is $60? I honestly remember when contacts were that much PER CONTACT.
Damn I’m old.
After leaving there, I went to the pet store, where I checked the kitties (they were all sleeping) and bought some bird seed, then ran to Target. I swear to god, I could wander around Target and it’s lovely, clean, WIDE aisles for six hours. Such a difference from Wal-Mart, with it’s crappy, crowded aisles. At Target I bought a new iron (the old one is probably ten years old, if not older) and a few things to organize the spud’s closet. There’s currently a huge plastic storage box in there, and she apparently feels that anything she doesn’t want to put away where it BELONGS should go in the box with her stuffed animals and toys: I found two spoons at the bottom of the box. SPOONS.
I know I did the same lazy-ass, stupid-ass shit when I was a kid, and in retrospect my mother didn’t beat me nearly enough.
I honestly don’t know why I’m bothering to buy anything to organize her closet, because within ten seconds of arriving back home in August, the child will half of everything she owns shoved under the bed, and the other half scattered across the floor of her room.
Last summer her father bought her a pair of cowboy boots. Want to take a wild guess how many times she’s worn them? She has at least ten gimme caps, and I’m 99% sure I’ve never actually seen her in any of them.
There are clothes hanging in her closet with tags still on them, and I would venture a guess that she will come home with a whole new slew of clothes that she won’t wear. Because when you say to her “Would you wear this?”, she immediately says “Yes!”, which is just a lie.
And also which is why I never take her shopping unless we’re looking for something specific.
Okay, it’s getting late. Let’s call this an entry, shall we?
If you look very closely, you will see dried catnip around Spanky’s lower lip.
“DAMN woman, can’t I do anything without you flashing that thing at me? Meh! MEH, I say!”]]>
Right there with you on the puff of air thing… I make my contacts last as looooooooong as I possibly can to avoid the dreaded puff!
My eye doctor has a high-tech thingy to test your eye pressure that does away with the air puff. LOVE my eye doctor.
Oooh, Elle, tell more about the high-tech thingy! I’m with y’all about dreading the puff of air (last time I bit damn near through my tongue when I jumped). But the only alternative my optometrist seems to have is the bottle of magic dilating drops, which isn’t any better.
My eye doc gives a choice…puff or the green drops. I’ll take the puff ANY day.
Did you get your contacts at Costco? They had mine (Acuvue2) for $12 a box.
I hate that puff of air with every molecule in my body. Plus, I have this awesome thing I do where I yank back at the last second, so they have to do it again, and I freak out and yank back – lather, rinse repeat. But! The last few years I’ve gone they give you DROPS. Much better.
My, my ladies – you do know how to work yourselves into a froth over a nanosecond of …. what? It doesn’t hurt. You don’t really feel much of anything. So is a nanosecond of Startle worth all that angst?
Try not thinking about the puff and just concentrate on staring. Just… concentrate, so your inner Yogi will be proud.
I get drops in my eyes. Never had the option of a puff of air! (Only in Canada eh?). It’s bloody ‘orrible, my eyes are all blurry and funny-feeling for the rest of the visit, and I’m dabbing yellow gunk from the corners of my eyes before I dare walk into a store afterwards and someone thinks I’ve got something catching!
I pay $130 CDN for eight sets!! Sheesh – I think my Optometrist saw me coming! Robyn – do you find your vision goes blurry if you stare at the computer screen for too long. I work on it all day and I can’t wear contacts, because I’m forever having to put drops in my eyes.
I guess it is because I have “dry eyes”. My Optometrist sent me to a Specialist for tests and found I was a candidate for Narrow Angles Glaucoma – http://www.southlandeyeclinic.com/FAQ/naglaucoma.html
so I had to get holes bored around my Irises with a laser beam to relieve the pressure of the liquid build-up in my eyes because they couldn’t drain properly. Bloody nasty experience with only a numbing solution dripped into the eye beforehand. You reckon you don’t like the puff of air? Try that one on…..gaaaaaaah!
what the hell is a “gimme cap”?
I don’t wear contacts anymore–this dry-as-a-bone province makes wearing them for any longer than a couple of hours REALLY uncomfortable–so shopping for new frames is a total nightmare, usually. How good an idea can you have of how they look on you, when your face is 2.5 inches from the mirror? Suffice it to say, I have had frames that weren’t precisely UGLY, but certainly didn’t make me look like the hottie that I know I am.
My current frames rock, by the way.
Dumbchick: Someone emailed and asked me that very thing, so I’ll cut and paste from my email:
While cowboy hats are still a common sight in Texas, you will most often see the “gimme” cap as day to day wear. They are ideally suited for outdoor wear and because they usually carry an advertising message, they are inexpensive or free. That is how they came about their name. You could say “gimme one of those caps” and usually come away the proud owner of a new cap.
I actually picked up the name from Stephen King; I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use the phrase out loud. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever read it anywhere else, either!
Jan: are you trying to make me run away screaming at the idea of having holes bored around my irises? Eeek! My eyes don’t really bother me when I stare at the screen, but I do make a point of looking away every few minutes.
Webster: It’s not the actual having air blown in your eyes. It’s the anticipation that sucks so much. And I’m with Sundry – I get so freaked before it happens that I blink and jerk back before they blow the air.
I hate the dentist as much as I hate the gyno, so I can relate to your eye thing.
My contacts cost me $100 for ONE pair and they aren’t disposable or extended wear, either. I wish I could get the cheap ones! 🙂
HATE THE PUFF. HATEEEE HATE HAT HATEHEHTEHHRHER. Oh man. I refuse to let my eye doctor even come near me. She gets out the drops and I tell her straight out, “NO.” I have an eye.. thing. I can’t watch people put contacts in, touch their eye, watch parts of movies that involve eyes (Minority Report, that part where they’re removing his eyes.. yeah, I refused to look.), etc etc. Maybe I’m weird, but it CREEPS ME OUT.
I’ve never had the puff either. They do the drop thingie to test the pressure. I would HATE the puff too. I would ask about the drops for pressure. They were super easy and didn’t cause me any pain or ickyness. Much better than the puff, I think!
What cracks me up about the puff is that it isn’t painful at ALL, but once the puff of air hits my eyes, I jerk my head back violently, as if someone had stuck a pen in my eye.
I agree with Sundry, Robyn, and Delusive. I too have an eye THING. I think it’s because I’ve worn glasses since 3rd grade and am used to having a barrier between my eyes and the world. I can’t wear contacts either. Touching my eyes freaks me out. My Opt Dr. has a new thing that that takes place of the puff but it’s still unnerving. It’s a microscope that gets THISCLOSE to your eyeball and it’s kind of creepy. I do have to do deep breathing and concentrate on my happy place until he’s done. Eye things…Blech!
I think my doctor using something like Amy’s does. It’s some contraption they put on your eye, but he does it once you’re looking through that big periscope thing so I don’t even notice it, really.
My comment is about Target, not the eye doctor, can you believe it? I totally agree with you about Target. A new Super Target opened near my house a few months ago and I haven’t been to Wal-Mart since. In fact, I get a shiver thinking about every having to go back….
Catgirl said: ….I haven’t been to Wal-Mart since. In fact, I get a shiver thinking about every having to go back….
Boy oh boy Catgirl….so do I, and I have the distinct privilege of attempting to master the cluttered aisles at our local WallyWorld in the morning, chasing down special games to go with the latest edition of Game-Boy for my grand-daughter’s 11th birthday present.
The things we do…the sacrifices we make… 8(