Saturday, January 24, 2009

Getting Used to My New F$&#*ing bi-focals

More than ten years ago, during a visit to an eye doctor to have him remove a foreign something in my eye, he told me I needed glasses. Quite a shock to me, as I thought my vision was fine. Sure, they seemed to be making street signs smaller, but in general I didn't have a problem with running into things, so all was well - I thought.

Until that visit.

Not only did he say I needed glasses, but he recommended bi-focals. Bi-focals!!! me??!??? I'm too young to have bi-focals!!!! I can still read menus in the darkest of restaurants!! He said "yes, now you can, but you are getting older and your eyes will have trouble refocusing near and far, so you really should get them". He wrote out the prescription and off I went,thinking him ridiculous and only getting the regular part of the prescription filled.

Fast forward to now. I lost my glasses over the summer and needed to replace them (hello, can you say procrastination???). Off I go to a store near Ariana's school that was recommended by a friend for their pleasant English speaking staff. Reality had sunk in and after those ten or so years, I really did need bifocals. They were ordered and last week I picked them up.

Now comes the getting used to them part. I have a brand new awareness of the way my head moves as, for those not yet so fortunate as to have these, you have to move your head in the direction you want to see. No more just moving one's eyes - either the whole head moves, or you see a blurry version of whatever is in front of you. At one point I felt like one of those bobble head dolls as I slowly tilted my head up and down to get the right angle to read.

The good news - finally, I can crochet and watch TV at the same time.

The bad news - I am old - old enough to have bi-focals. That's where the F*&#)#&!!ing part comes in.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

I couldn't read your post without my glasses, which, by the way, I didn't need until the day...THE DAY... I turned 45, oh so many years ago. I can't even see Mia's face without them. Now that's depressing. Oh, and Evan's niece just had a baby. Does that make me like a great-aunt or something? Oh brother. Well, at least I'm not 50 yet. ;-) (sorry, low blow)

mama J said...

Thank you so much for revealing my age (almost) - something I try so hard not to act......