general nakedface(tm)

Posted June 23, 2005 • Comments Off on nakedface(tm)

Today I got contact lenses.

I had an eye exam on Tuesday, during which I was prescribed and ordered new glasses, which will be ready next week. I’m doing this, as should be obvious, to take advantage of my vision insurance before I quit. While I was there, I asked about contacts. I’d never thought seriously about getting them before; I was seriously squicked at the idea of sticking my fingers in my eyes.

The doctor measured the curvature of my eyes with a different instrument and said (news to me) that I have a slight astigmatism, so I’d have to use these certain lenses (for instance, I couldn’t get purple ones). And that if I was still interested knowing that, I needed to come back in to take a class, have a followup exam with the lenses in my eyes, and buy the lenses. So I scheduled that for today.

The class consisted of me and a girl with really big eyes. It was SO frustrating not being able to pull my eyelids as wide open as she could. She told me if I couldn’t get them in by myself within 30 minutes, I’d have to reschedule. I felt like it was a test or a deadline, and the frustration actually made me cry when I couldn’t do it at first.

But eventually I got it. The second one went in easier than the first one, and after the exam when I had to do it again, it was even easier. So it will get easier. I was pleased with myself for doing it, and she said I got it pretty quickly. I don’t think even 20 of my allotted 30 minutes had passed.

I’ve worn glasses every day since about 1991. Every goddamn day. And today? Today I am NOT.

Everything looks just slightly different. The computer screen, for instance, looks VERY different. I’m not sure why, but my theory is that I’ve been compensating for the way my glasses made it look, and I can’t do that now, because I can’t really focus my eyes independently of the lenses. It’s WEIRD. 🙂 But not bad.