Saturday, November 13, 2010

"dude! i need some wicked cool shades..."

so today . . . was a perfect day in the o.c! and lucky for us, once again the planets aligned juuuust right so that we could go to the swap meet!

(i am just going to warn you, this is probably going to be a photo-heavy blog. so if you don't want to see a thousand pictures of sunglasses, you might want to log off right now.)

as you know, we love the orange county swap meet. i don't know why--it just sucks money out of our pockets. but we always have a fun time. and we always have an agenda...

today's agenda was mostly rollie's. he went to the eye doctor last week and is giving contact lenses a try for the first time. they are giving him fits, but he is doing his best to adjust to them, because he is concerned about his ability to see the basket when he plays basketball. (you notice his reason has nothing to do with anything even remotely humanitarian. it isn't like he is going through all this agony to save the world...) and so, now he needs sunglasses--really cool sunglasses--(which i think might also be a factor in the whole contact lenses vs. glasses debate.)

before we made it to the end of the first row at the swap meet, he had already bagged four pair of sunglasses, diandra had three pair, and even i had one. (i only bought one, because they were 2 for $10 and diandra had an odd number...)
it wasn't as easy as it sounds though. we had trouble before we even left the driveway. somehow diandra was in the car first, but when i walked out, she was already making a sad face. i whipped out my camera to take a picture... only to realize i didn't have my camera! thankfully, we were still in the driveway. i went into the house, retrieved my camera, and pointed it at her. but by then she was smiling... i tried to get her to make the sad face again, pressed the shutter on my camera... and nothing happened. as always, i pressed it over and over and over again, before finally giving in to the thought that my batteries must be dead. so, i went back into the house for fresh batteries... which also didn't work. now i was starting to get worried. i took the batteries out and put them back in again. i turned the camera off and on and off and on. and then i finally realized... my camera was set for viewing photos, not taking them.

maybe i should just choose a care facility now...

we finally made it out of the driveway, stopped at mcdonald's for an unhealthy breakfast, and made it to the swap meet by about 9:30--which may be the latest we have ever arrived at the swap meet. ever.

we have a set pattern for shopping the swap meet, but today when we walked in, there was a booth with sunglasses right in front of us. so instead of turning right and going up and down the rows in an orderly fashion, we went down the center aisle! i would have thought rollie would get hives over such a brash move, until i realized that we were following him straight to the center aisle...

at the first sunglasses booth, he was like a kid in a candy store. when you have worn glasses to correct your vision for your entire adult life, wearing regular sunglasses seems to be an unattainable luxury. you look at the cool sunglasses in the store, knowing you will never be able to wear them, (unless you are me, in which case you try to make the cool sunglasses fit over your regular glasses... with mostly disastrous results.) and so this was his first opportunity to put sunglasses directly on his face.

it was hysterical. he would put a pair on, look at us with a big smile on his face and say, "what about these?" to which one or the other, or sometimes both of us would reply with some form of "no." he had some very specific ideas about what he wanted, but we were mainly concerned with how they looked. rollie was all about function, and we were the style police. then diandra said, "here, try these!" this worked much better. we would choose glasses (and when i say "we" i mostly mean diandra,) and then rollie would try them on to see if he liked them.

by the end of the first row we had purchased eight pairs of sunglasses, (well, when they are only $5 a pair...) i had spent all my money (not just on sunglasses,) and diandra was ready for a soda. this was not our typical day at the o.c. swap meet!

rollie and i sat at a table while diandra bought a soda, and this is what happened.doesn't he look happy?did i mention how excited rollie was to have normal sunglasses? and lest you think he went a bit overboard, he was quick to inform me that each pair of glasses served a different function--one was for very bright light, one was for partially cloudy days, one was for driving the convertible on the freeway (the wind, you know...) and the last pair? ok, that was just because he liked the blue lenses :)

these are my new sunglasses. it is kind of hard to see it in this picture, but the side edges are all sparkly!! let me just say that i succumbed to peer pressure when buying these glasses. first of all, i do not wear contacts, so sunglasses are an issue for me. but these fit pretty well over my regular glasses, they were jeweled, and diandra said, "come on mom, get them!" so i did. (have i mentioned that i have very little sales resistance? especially on items costing less than $10?) and yes i was wearing a tank top--it was a beautiful day! rollie even wore shorts!!

as soon as we got home, rollie left to do an errand.
i think maybe he just wanted to take his favorite new sunglasses for a test drive...

2 comments:

mom said...

oh dear. I paid $50 for my one pair. If I had been at the swap meet, I could have had 10 pair!! Oh well, no more than the sun shines here, sunglasses are almost useless anyway...

Jewelielyn said...

that's the beauty of the swap meet. you can buy enough sunglasses to put them EVERYWHERE! then you always have a pair. of course, rollie will always know where his are at. diandra and i on the other hand...