Test Results

I started wearing glasses around age 7 because I was extremely near sighted and had severe astigmatism as well.  By the time I was in high school I had graduated to hard contact lenses, then toric, and gas permeable, and soft lenses.  If I lost a contact lens, I needed a seeing-eye dog.  If I put my glasses down somewhere unusual, I couldn't find them without help.  Remember Mr. Magoo?  I could really identify with him!  

For my fortieth birthday I got laser surgery to correct my eyesight.  What a revelation!  I can remember lying in bed, fascinated by the shadow cast by the ceiling fan over the bed.  I had only seen a white blur against the white ceiling, never the subtleties of shadows.  I can't even describe the joys of 20/20 vision after wearing some kind of corrective lenses for over thirty years.  The minor detail that I was now slightly far-sighted was not a problem, although I couldn't see my eyebrows or read price tags without reading glasses.

Well, time has caught up with me, and now I need glasses full time again.  The prescription is a fraction of my former correction, and I routinely go to pilates and exercise classes without glasses because I can see fine.  The problem is that I'm more far sighted so I can't read, or see the computer, or even my knitting and needlepoint without glasses.  Distance is fine, but mid-range and close are not.  I could go back to contact lenses but they would only correct distance and mid-range, and I'd have to wear reading glasses.  Somehow my appearance is less important over 50 than it was when I was a teenager.  Go figure!


I could re-use the glasses that I've had for the past several years.  I'm not hard on frames, and they're still in style, but I'm sick of them.  They are a raspberry wine colour, and match my hair perfectly.  I know this because almost everybody I meet compliments me about how well they match.  That was never the plan.  I've checked out some optical shops, but apparently fashion has caught up to my last frames and I can get any shade of pink, fuchsia, purple or burgundy that I want.   I need something completely different, and have a craving for turquoise glasses.  I have found several pairs of glasses exactly the colour I want but it's only on the inside of the frame, not facing the world.  The outside frames are metal or black.  How boring.  I even found a pair of cream coloured glasses with rose and aqua flowers (I was so excited) but again they're only on the inside of the frame.  What a letdown.  I don't understand why people would pay for pretty colours that nobody could see when they're wearing their glasses.


Thanks to my optician friend, Ben, I found the perfect pair of glasses today.  The shape flatters my face, the lenses are the right size for the correction I need, and best of all they are a teal-turquoise colour.  I think true turquoise would have been too trendy, but the slightly darker colour will age better.  They won't be ready for about 10 days, but I can hardly wait.  When I was a child I hated my glasses and tried to lose them when I was out playing.  When I was a teenager, I couldn't even see the frames I was trying on unless I had contact lenses on.  Now that I'm ... more mature, I have very firm ideas of what I want to wear and am looking forward to the change.