I can see clearly now

I can see clearly now. Literally. It's so nice! Like almost everyone in my family, I wear contacts, because without them, I'm practically blind. It stinks, but what can you do? I mean, other than Lasik, which I am way too chicken to ever do, despite knowing many people who have had it done and love it. Something about the thought of lasers cutting into my eyes just freaks me out too much.

I wear disposable soft contacts, the ones you are supposed to wear no more than two weeks or you risk going blind. Since I'm almost there anyway, I generally push my luck and wear them at least 5 or 6 weeks or until they get too cloudy or dried out. But there's this pesky rule about having to have a valid prescription (which only lasts a year) to buy the contacts, so when I went to order them online last week, hoping maybe they wouldn't check with the eye place, I got a message back that my prescription had expired (shocking news!) and I needed to see the eye doctor before I can buy any more. So off I went to the eye doctor this afternoon with the two daughters in tow.

The first thing they ask me to do is take out my contacts, even though I clearly told the lady I didn't have my glasses along. So I had to sit in the waiting room watching all the colorful blobs that the girls tell me were people move around until the first part of the exam. Fortunately, it wasn't too long of a wait - moving blobs get boring pretty fast. And being a homeschooler who always takes advantage of those teachable moments, the girls came back with me and got to see my eyes get measured, push the button to puff the air in my eyes (which they seemed to enjoy a little too much, since I always jump even when I know it's coming), and determine whether or not I still have any peripheral vision (apparently I do).

Then we went in to the actual eye doctor dude, who actually seemed to enjoy his job, which makes me a little suspicious, but since he gave the girls a running commentary on what he was doing, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I found out that I have a slight astigmatism, which was news to me after all these years of wearing glasses and contacts. But the good news was that I didn't have to get my eyes dialated, because I said I had to drive and hadn't ever driven with them dialated before (which was true, but I really didn't think it would work since my dear husband had gone to the same guy a couple months ago and had to drive himself home with dialated eyes). At any rate, I didn't have to do it today and now have a brand new pair of non-cloudy contacts, plus a follow-up appointment next week.

After wearing the old pair way too long and enjoying the dramatic difference a new pair makes, I've learned my lesson - always stock up on contacts right before the prescription expires so that you don't have to wait for an eye appointment to be able to see clearly. This was clearly the mistake I made this time around. I'm thinking if I time it right, I could be looking at every other year visits. Since I'm already risking being struck blind by wearing them more than the recommended 2 weeks, I'm going out on a limb and betting that I probably won't also be blinded by a horrific eye disease if I stretch those annual visits into 2 year visits. I'll let you know if I do go blind from either of these scenarios, but otherwise just assume that no news means...well, no news and that I'm seeing as clearly as I am today.