rain = no need for sunglasses :(

so today . . .  it rained.

it rained.  here i am, with brand new prescription sunglasses...  and it rained.

the cosmos hates me...

new glasses = a big smile :)

so today . . .  i got new glasses :)  actually, i got three pair of new glasses :) :) :)

i've had issues with my eyes since i fell and broke my glasses a couple of year ago.  before that, i would get my eyes checked, get a pair of glasses, wear them until i noticed i couldn't see anymore, and then lather, rinse, repeat...

but that cycle was broken when i fell and broke my glasses last year.  my new glasses just didn't seem to work as well as the old ones.  but the problem was, i had my glasses made at a different place than i had the exam.  so, who to blame?  were the glasses made incorrectly?  was the exam faulty? or was the prescription written incorrectly?

 i sort of have my suspicions...

i sort of think that perhaps there was a mistake with the prescription.  but by the time i realized that there was maybe a problem with the glasses and i wasn't just adjusting to a new prescription, it was too late to get anything done.  and i really loved the glasses, so i learned to live with it.  but i was determined that when i was ready for another eye exam, i would get both my exam and glasses at kaiser (where i have insurance.)  then, if there was a problem, i could get help.

so, i made an appointment for an eye exam at the beginning of march.  my plan was to keep my frames (which i love) and just get new lenses.  i had the exam.  i was the first appointment in the morning, because i am convinced that my eyes are worse in the morning.  the doctor said there wasn't much change.  this should have been my first clue that things were not going to go smoothly...  i know i have trouble seeing, especially close up, so when he said there wasn't much change, i should have realized that something was wrong.  but it was early, my brain wasn't really percolating yet, and i needed to get back to work.

i went out to see what it was going to cost to get new lenses, only to discover that my insurance benefit wouldn't kick in until november.  november.  that's seven months away!  and that wasn't the only problem.  the bigger problem was that i only have this one pair of glasses, and since kaiser sends their glasses out for lenses, i would be without any corrective eyewear for two weeks.  which is just impossible.

clearly, i needed a new pair of glasses.  right now.  i took a few minutes to look at kaiser.  i pulled the frames off that i had seen the day before (apparently the woman i helped decided to go another way...)  i asked about the price, and decided nearly $600 was too much for a back up pair of glasses.  because, again, i really like the glasses i have!  i needed another solution...

i scoured the internet.  i checked out target (did you know they have an optical department?  i'm telling you, target has EVERYTHING!)  i found glasses i liked, but the prices were still too high.  and then i saw an ad for glasses at sears. (SEARS has an optical department?!?!?)  it was a screamin' deal for two pair of glasses.  so i went in.  just to check it out...

and i met danielle.  danielle is about 12 years old, and contrary to my previous experiences, didn't wear any glasses at all!  i asked danielle about the special and she explained it to me, finishing with, "look around!  see what you like, and let me know when you are ready for me to figure out the price for you."  ok, i could do that.  because while sears does have an optical department, it is about the size of my bathroom, so it wasn't going to take long...

i was by myself.  shopping for new glasses.  this is usually not a good idea.  except, i have very definite ideas about what i like, so even when someone else is with me, i am pretty much just looking for them to say, "oh yeah, i like those."  danielle was able to fill that need for me, and by the time i was done, she had written up an order for two pair of glasses and a pair of prescription sunglasses (which i have never, ever had before!  good bye fit-overs!) and all for less than it was going to cost me for one pair of glasses at kaiser...

(to be fair, these are not designer frames, and one of them was on clearance.  but i like them.  and did i mention that i also got sunglasses?!?!?  they aren't sparkly.  but, i can take them to the oc swap meet and have the lady who does the very expensive phone covers encrusted with swarovsky crystals add some bling for me.  which is my evil plan for saturday morning... and it is only an evil plan, because i am not telling rollie that i am going.  he has to work on saturday, so he can't go.  and i'm taking diandra, which means it will be fun.  but i don't want rollie to be sitting in meetings, thinking he would rather be with us at the swap meet and feeling all bummed.  so i'm just not going to tell him we are going until we get back.  and that is why i have to label my plan as evil...)

but i had to go home and think it over.  it seemed like a good deal.  and i would finally have an actual pair of prescription sunglasses with non-glare coating on both sides of the lenses--a major benefit when you have to deal with the califoria sunshine nearly every day!  but you know me,  i needed time to percolate, process, and ponder...

which i did, for over a week, until danielle called to remind me that the sale would be ending in two days!  so i quit percolating, processing, and pondering, and talked it over with rollie.  we made a decision (which included the sunglasses-yay!) and the order was placed.  which meant i had to wait.  again.  i am terrible at waiting...

i woke up this morning feeling the anticipation that new glasses always brings.  i went to work, and then i dashed to sears as soon as i clocked out.  danielle wasn't there (which is probably just as well.  she keeps telling me how i HAVE to go see 'the hunger games,' because it is 'the best movie EVER!!')  but i was still able to pick up my new glasses.  all three pair.  and i do think the prescription is better, even if it is only a little bit different...

i certainly hope that these glasses work for me, because once again, i had my eye exam at one place and puchased my glasses at another place.  and i did this mostly because i needed glasses now and kaiser has shut me out until november and sears had such a sweet deal.

but next time... next time i am going to get my act together.  next time i am going to keep track of when my insurance benefits actually benefit me.  next time i'm going to get my exam and my glasses at the same place. next time i will take someone with me to offer a second opinion...

... because now that i have my new glasses at home, i am kind of wondering if a purple sparkly frame was really the best choice...

rain. it skews my thought processes...

so today . . . it rained. thank goodness.

when i left for school this morning, i knew rain was in the forecast. i had checked my weather app which shows the weather prediction hour by hour, and it said there was a 50 percent chance of rain during recess today. i thought those were pretty good odds, so i wore my lightweight raincoat because i knew i had to do a few errands after school and my raincoat would keep me dry. but it isn't very warm. which is usually fine, since our daytime temperatures rarely dip below 60 degrees, and i was already wearing a sweater and a scarf.

i left the house, got into my car in the garage, and went to school. i parked in my usual parking space, got out of the car, and was hit by a freezing cold wind. (this is the problem with keeping your car in the garage--you don't have to actually feel the weather until you get where you are going.) i immediately knew i was in trouble... there were hardly any clouds in the sky, probably because of the wind. rain did not look imminent. in fact, rain didn't even really look like a possibility. i was suddenly wishing i had worn my warm coat instead of my waterproof one.

i spent the morning praying for rain by recess...

fifteen minutes before recess i went to check the weather. it was raining! well, sort of... the ground was a little damp. there were clouds in the sky. if it wasn't exactly raining, it was sure looking like it was thinking about it... that was good enough for me. this is southern california after all.

we spent recess in our warm, dry classroom :) sometimes it is good to be the adult.

after school it was still threatening to rain. and it was still cold. at least i had on my warm boots, because i had to go pick up my new prescription. fortunately for me, my pharmacy is in the same building as my eye doctor. i have an eye appointment early thursday morning, but i will have to rush to work afterwards, which won't leave me much time to look at new glasses. so while waiting for my prescription to be ready, i ventured to the second floor and the optometrist's office.

there were a lot of frames from which to choose. a lot. and yet, i found that the frames i kept choosing looked a lot like the ones i already have, which i LOVE, which is maybe why i kept choosing similar frames! but i currently only have one pair of glasses, and i can't be without them for two weeks while kaiser sends them out to have new lenses put in. so i need a second pair.

i walked up and down the wall of frames more than once. i found a few frames i liked, but of course they were all over $300 just for the frames! and my lenses are not going to be inexpensive--that's what happens when your eyes get to be of a certain age. and then i heard the woman next to me mumbling. she was not happy. she was there to have her new glasses replaced, but she was there alone with no one to give an opinion. she was afraid she was going to end up with another pair of glasses that didn't work for her. pretty soon she turned to me and said, "what do you think of these?"

please don't ask me that! please, please, PLEASE don't ask me that! i mean, i have opinions about fashion and accessories, but my bubble tends to be a bit off level. i like things that are a little different, quirky, unexpected. my taste is not for everyone. but how do i explain this to a perfect stranger in the next 30 seconds. so i took the easy way out. "i think they look nice," i said.

let this be a lesson to you. don't ask a stranger what they think. they don't know you well enough to say, "that looks hideous! what were you thinking??" obviously she thought they looked pretty good or she would have already rejected them. should i be the one to tell her they weren't that great? i don't think so!

"ok," she said, "what about these?" and she put on another pair. "those are nice, too," i said. when she asked me about a third pair, i finally said, "look, i like glasses with a bold frame. i do not like half frames, skinny metal frames, or frameless frames. i want my glasses to say 'look, i have eyes!' so that affects my opinions. if you like something that blends in with your face, i am the wrong person to be asking!" and then she said, "i like your glasses!"

oh sheesh. now i had to help her. so we compared several frames, and i told her what i thought. and she chose the frames i liked the best. i hope she is happy with them...

and then i realized SHE CHOSE THE FRAMES I LIKED THE BEST!! now what was i going to choose?!?! because i'm pretty sure kaiser doesn't keep several pairs of that particular gucci frame in the back room! and my appointment is on thursday! what is wrong with me?? why did i have to go all gaga when she put that frame on?? why didn't i push her toward the guess frame so she would leave my gucci frame alone?!?!?! now what am i going to do????

maybe i am too nice...

let this be a lesson to me. don't talk to strangers. even ones who need help. i teach tiny children that lesson every year--you would think i would know it! now my only hope is that they will get some newer, even better frames in before i have to make a decision...

...yes, by thursday.

another step closer...

so today . . . MY NEW GLASSES CAME!!!!

ok, well sort of. the frames came. do you remember on friday when i said i spent almost half an hour on the phone with customer service and they promised my frames would be delivered today? well, they delivered on their promise...

so this morning, there i was, slogging my way through music time. i lead music every monday. this is not my favorite part of the day. i don't think it is the kids' favorite part either, but it is part of our curriculum, so we do it--day after day after day. some days are fun. the kids really get into the music and we dance and sing, and it is kind of fun. and then there are other days... the days when all they want to do is lay on a table or talk to their friends or annoy the kid standing next to them. yeah, those are the days i dread.

today was kind of a middle of the road day. most of the kids were engaged, some of them were smiling at me, but i was feeling a bit sluggish and slow--monday mornings tend to be like that. and then the director walked in with a small box. at first i didn't know what she was saying... sometimes we have communication issues--she is chinese and has a bit of an accent, and my hearing is not perfect. and of course, this morning while she was telling me about the box, we also had music blaring. she repeated herself repeatedly, until finally i got it! my glasses had arrived!!

i was so excited. suddenly i felt a bit better. i finished up music time, sat the kids on the rug, and grabbed the scissors to open the box. we talked about when i fell and how my glasses broke. i took them off my face and demonstrated how broken they were. the kids were excited to see what was in the box, so we opened it. and inside was another box. we opened that one, and inside that was a case. we opened that up and inside that was a cleaning cloth, and then finally the long awaited glasses!

the kids all ooohed and aaaahed.

they are so great--the kids, i mean! if i am excited about something, they will get excited too. i finally sent them off to work and put my box away.

temporarily. but i kept thinking about them. and taking them out and looking at them. pretty soon, i took off my broken glasses and put the new ones on--even though they only had plain, clear lenses in them. they were so comfortable. and beautiful.

but i couldn't see very well. that was kind of a problem. so i put them back in their box and did some more work.

at lunch time i got them out again, just to look at them. i really, really like them.

after school, i took them to kaiser for lenses. i didn't get my exam at kaiser, because i needed an immediate appointment (i thought--that was a month ago! it is a good thing rollie managed to sort of fix the broken ones!) i took a number, waited my turn, and finally sat down at a desk with an optician.

he did not like me. i think he was offended that i had my exam someplace else. he squinted at my prescription. he questioned me about it. he acted like it couldn't possibly be right. i was starting to think i should have just paid $5 more and had another exam... he kept reaching into the inside of his lab coat, and i thought, "what is he doing?!?!?!" he finally came out with a pack of gum--which he then chewed. RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! (i mean, i didn't want a piece of his gum, but i think it might have been better to wait at least until i wasn't looking...) he cautioned me that the lab might destroy my beautiful new frames (they'd better not!!!) he told me it would probably take at least two weeks to get them back, since i didn't choose one of their frames. i am telling you, he did not like me. he finally sent me to the cashier (gulp!) and then sent me on my way.

so. apparently i will have my new glasses in two weeks. i, of course, expect they will be ready in three days. which means i am going to be disappointed every day for week and a half after that, until they show up. i do not really have hope that the prescription will be right--the optician has shaken my confidence in that. and i did not get the transition lens, so i am going to have to get sunglasses. and soon...

...because we are going to las vegas for thanksgiving. and rollie says he is going to read by the pool while diandra and i run around doing wedding stuff.

diandra and i. running around doing wedding stuff. in las vegas.

you can hardly wait for those blogs, can you...

:)

the payoff postponed...

so today . . . was mostly consumed dealing with the aftermath of yesterday's "incident..."

my elbow hurts. my knee hurts. my glasses are crooked. my feet are cold.

there's not a lot i can do about most of that, but after yesterday's ordeal we decided new glasses were on the agenda for today. as usual, nothing is ever as easy as i think it will be...

i had to go to work this morning, so rollie checked on our vision insurance coverage, and found that somehow we have two plans. neither plan is all that great. if we could put the two of them together, we might actually end up with a good pair of corrective eye wear at a reasonable price. but of course, we can't use them together.

which really didn't matter anyway, because if we used our insurance i was going to have to wait at least two weeks for the new glasses to arrive. and although rollie managed to shove the temple piece back onto the pin so that i could wear them temporarily, my glasses keep trying to slide off my face whenever i move. i'm really not excited about having to put up with that for two more weeks. so the only thing i could think of was to go to lens crafter's and get a pair of one hour glasses.

but first i needed an eye exam. and for that, i did have to use my insurance. i was fortunate enough to get an appointment right after lunch. i arrived a little early and foolishly began to look at frames. i say foolishly, because i was not going to buy glasses there today--i was going to lens crafter's to get one hour glasses. remember?

but while i was waiting, i thought maybe it would be good to just randomly choose a pair, and get a price on the lenses--you know, for comparison when i went to lens crafter's. but the cute little optician was not going to go for that. instead, she tried to help me find something i liked.

(did i mention i was alone? with no second opinion?? i didn't know how long i would be, so i had left rollie at rubio's with his kindle and refillable soda. and diandra was busy today. so there i was, alone with my low sales resistance, and the optician.)

i finally chose six or seven frames that i thought were ok. i tried them on, but nothing miraculous happened when i looked in the mirror. i casually mentioned that they all sort of looked the same, and that i was really hoping to find something with some jewels... at this, the optician's eyes lit up! she quickly went to the LOCKED GLASS CASE and came back with a pair of frames. they happened to be the same glasses she was wearing. (it has been my experience that opticians generally wear the most expensive glasses in the store. i'm still pretty sure that is true.)

i made a huge mistake and put the glasses on my face. and of course, the angels sang...

shoot!

i could no longer see any other pair of frames in the store. everything else disappeared. my eyes were glued to this new frame. i was afraid to ask how much they were. but then i decided it was ok, because i wasn't going to buy them today anyway--i was going to lens crafter's to get one hour glasses. she went to work figuring out how much these beautiful, sparkly glasses would cost after the pittance my insurance company was going to kick in, and gave me the total.

i just about had a heart attack.

she must have sensed that my knees were about to buckle, because she quickly said, "but i'm sure we can get you approved for credit, and then you can take 18 months to pay for them. that way they aren't very expensive at all!" yeah, and i will have a whole six months after they are paid for before it is time for me to get another pair...

and btw, they cost just as much whether i pay for them all at once or in 18 monthly installments...

i took some deep breaths, paid my $25 for the exam, said i would think about it, and escaped back to rubio's and my original plan. and lens crafters...

i kind of knew what to expect from lens crafter's. i had just been there with diandra when she was on the quest for the perfect corrective eyewear. it seemed like when i went with her, i saw lots of frames i liked. today it didn't seem to me like they had much to choose from, but i wanted glasses right now, so i decided i just needed to choose a pair and be done with it.

and then i experienced the defining moment of the day. i knew they could make single vision lenses in an hour, but i wasn't sure about progressive lenses. so i asked the optician if i could get progressive lenses in an hour, and she said yes! unless i wanted the anti-reflective coating on them--then it would take a week to ten days...

what?!?!? how could that be??? all their advertising is about getting your glasses in an hour. and i know when diandra got hers, they had that coating on them. so why can you get the anti-reflective coating on single vision glasses in an hour, but not progressives???

now i was bummed. i was not going to be wearing new glasses today. i was not even going to be wearing new glasses by this time next week! i was going to have to wait.

(i hate waiting--especially for something new. when i order something from shopping tv, i start checking the mail for it two days later--even though i know it is going to take at least a week to get here...)

so we came home. rollie tried to get me to go out look at some more frames. he wanted me to find something i loved. today. but the problem turned out to be that i had already found something i loved--it was just way more than i thought we should spend for glasses.

we watched some tv. i was mindlessly clicking around on my computer. i started looking for glasses online. i uploaded a picture of my face so i could "try" some glasses on. i kept clicking around from site to site, with no particular agenda.

and then, there they were... the horribly expensive, beautifully sparkly glasses! they were online, and even cheaper than if i used my insurance! i was encouraged by this. the online price was almost down into the reasonable range. i started looking at lenses. there were pages and pages of different lenses. and most of them were significantly less than the prices i had been quoted earlier in the day. now i was starting to get excited. maybe i was going to get the glasses i liked after all.

and then i started thinking... what if the prescription wasn't right? what if i picked an awful lens that was heavy or distorted? what if i changed my mind and decided i wanted the transition tint? what if it turned out that the glasses weren't what they were described to be? what if i decided i really wanted something way different than what i already have? what if i really didn't love them? if anything was wrong, there wouldn't be real person to deal with--it would just be the internet.

so now i don't know. is it worth the risk of ordering online? should i just go to costco, even though it takes so long to get the glasses back? should i go back to lens crafter's and just choose something there?

or should i just get out the hammer and super glue and try to fix the glasses i have. i do really like them. and they are only three or four years old. i could probably get by without them for two weeks while new lenses are put in... my vision isn't that bad...

sigh. some days i just wish i was a dog...

what evil lurks in the closet...

so today . . . my fake ugg boots are toast. they are done. they will no longer get to clothe my feet.

they tried to kill me.

i should have seen it coming. i don't think it was their first attempt. they have sort of been testing the waters of my limits for some time now, but today they gave it their last, best shot. damage was done, but sadly for them, i am still alive. and able to have the last word.

it all started a few years ago. i wanted ugg boots. they looked so cozy and warm, and even in california, my feet get cold. i went online to check it out, and decided ugg boots from australia were not going to be in my future. so i did the next best thing--i looked for something similar. i bought a pair of "bear paws." i put them on. they were so comfy and soft. and warm. i immediately loved them, and wore them often.

but as time went by, they got a little too comfortable with my feet. the furry lining squished flatter. the suede stretched. and soon i didn't so much walk in my boots, as schlump around in them. you know what i mean--i would pick up my feet to take a step, but since my foot was loose in the boot, the boot would sort of drag along. it drove me a little crazy, but the warm coziness still called to me, and i continued to wear them...

last winter i noticed that they were pretty loose. in fact, a few times the rubber sole caught on the carpet and tripped me--not enough that i fell, but just enough to make me stumble. i should have realized right then that they were starting to think about doing me in. i should have known it was only a matter of time until they made their move...

summer came, and i put the boots away until cooler weather returned. as the weeks progressed, two new pair of boots (compliments of diandra) joined the old ones. i think that is when they decided it was time. they must have been worried that they might no longer be my "go to" boots. i think they spent the rest of the summer plotting and planning and waiting for the perfect opportunity...

...which came today. this is the fourth or fifth cold, cloudy, "rainy," day we have had. i find myself slowing down a bit more with each non-sunny day. today i didn't even wear my regular school clothes--i threw on skinny jeans, my "bear paws" boots, and a sweater, and slouched off to work... i daydreamed my way through the morning until it was finally time for my break. i made a cup of peppermint tea (i know, that doesn't sound very invigorating--i probably should have had an extra-strength coffee drink!) and headed back to the play area. i walked down the hall, conscious of my boots dragging their heels with every step. i turned the corner and started up the stairs. i made it successfully up the first flight... and then the boots made their move.

on the second flight of steps, the rubberized toe of my boot grabbed onto a step which sent me flying forward. i felt it happening and tried desperately to stay upright. i had my travel cup of tea in my left hand, and my right hand? where was it?? well i can tell you where it was not! it was not holding onto the safety handrail like it should have been!

(every single day i tell my students "hold onto the hand railing! be safe! if you trip, you need to be holding onto the hand railing so you won't fall!" every day i say that. but do i practice what i preach? apparently not. at least not today.)

my body was somehow falling UP the stairs. i thought i was going to be ok. i tried to get my feet under me. i grabbed for the railing or the stairs, or anything that would steady me and keep me from hitting the ground. i thought i had made it. my brain said, "ok, you are going to be ok. you are going to regain your balance and not fall. you will be fine." but my brain spoke before my body was really under control. my brain is sometimes the most optimistic part of my body--although not always the most realistic part. because just about the time i thought i was going to land on my feet, one of my traitorous boots caught the edge of the top step and sent me flying once again. through the air. straight toward the glass doors leading outside...

i knew i was going to hit the glass door. i knew it. there was no way to avoid it. my body was traveling waaay faster than my feet (yes, the feet encased in the evil boots.) i knew i was going to hit that door and do a face plant onto the concrete outside.

and that is probably what would have happened, except for one thing. somehow, i managed to stop trying to use my hands to break my fall, and instead grabbed for the crash bar on the glass door. fortunately the door opened. unfortunately my body still ended up smacking the ground. my face hit the door, sending my glasses skittering across the pavement. my travel cup went flying, spreading streams of peppermint tea everywhere...

i lay there, half in the building, and half outside on the damp pavement, momentarily stunned. i was alone. i needed help, but i didn't know how to get it. there was a guy working outside who had apparently seen me come flying out the door. "are you ok?" he asked.

really?!?! he had to ask???? did i LOOK ok?? i was pretty sure i did not! but i said i was fine, because i was still conscious, and he moved on. i sat up. i didn't quite know what to do. no one had seen me, but i was pretty sure i must be bleeding somewhere! thankfully in the next few minutes help arrived...

the director had heard the crash from her office and came to see what was going on. my elbow was severely scraped up and my knee is going to have an awesome bruise on it. miraculously my face didn't smack into anything abrasive, it seems to have just sort of bounced off the glass door. my jeans and sweater were ok--no rips or tears (yes, i was worried about that--i was wearing my favorite jeans!) but i think my glasses are history...(i loved those glasses...)

most importantly--i didn't cry.

so the evil boots are no longer a part of my wardrobe. i treated them like family, and they tried to kill me. i am not going to give them another chance. they are dead to me. my feet may never be so warm and cozy again...

...however, i just turned on the tv, and in an amazing coincidence, shopping tv is selling similar boots today. and they are sparkly!!! i think the perfect revenge would be to replace the malicious boots with a brand, new, sequined pair.

if only i didn't have to buy new glasses...

stupid, evil boots.

if it isn't jeans, it is glasses...

so today . . . diandra got glasses.

when she was a teenager, the most dreaded words for me to hear were, "i need a pair of jeans." because what she meant was, "you need to come to the mall with me while we go into every store that carries denim, and i try on every pair of jeans ever made, in 2 or 3 sizes, until we find a pair that is comfortable, looks good, and doesn't cost $100. and the $100 part might be negotiable if they meet the other two criteria."

it was not my idea of fun. it meant an afternoon of endless dressing rooms, occasional tears, repeated trips out of the dressing rooms to find different sizes, arguments about whether i would ever let her wear them out of the house, more tears, until finally, hopefully we would leave the mall triumphantly with a shopping bag containing one. pair. of. jeans. so a couple of days ago when diandra announced that she thought she might need glasses, i thought i might need some valium...

diandra gets headaches. frequently. i have been telling her for the last few years that i think she needs glasses. i wear glasses. rollie wears glasses. all four of her grandparents wear glasses. and she spends a lot of time in front of a computer or with her nose in a book. so it just seemed to me that there was likely a connection between her headaches and her probable lack of 20/20 vision...

but diandra didn't want to wear glasses. until a couple of days ago. a couple of days ago she said to me, "i think maybe i need glasses. i keep getting these headaches."

what?!?!!? really??? how many times have i said that to her?!?!?! probably 50 times!! and every time i say, "maybe you need glasses," or "if you had glasses you might not get so many headaches," she very emphatically says, "no, i'm not wearing glasses!" or "no, i don't need glasses!" (oddly, she doesn't remember me ever telling her that glasses might help her headache situation. she has apparently perfected the skill of selective listening...)

but for some reason, yesterday she decided that if she didn't have a pair of glasses on her face before she went to bed, she would be doomed to live the rest of her life wishing her head would just explode and put her out of her misery. and so, we spent the day looking for the perfect pair of glasses...

she made an appointment for 7:15 p.m. to have an eye exam. but did we wait until then to start our search? no we did not!

we started at costco, because you know, you can get a pair of glasses for a pretty reasonable price there. IF you can find some frames you like, which diandra could not. and IF you can wait two weeks for the new glasses to be made, which diandra could not.

our next stop was lens crafters. at lens crafters, the new pair of eyewear would be ready in an hour--a definite selling point for my instant gratification offspring. it came with a price--like three times as much as costco's price--but we looked anyway, with limited success...

...and then the angels sang!

diandra made the mistake of looking into the locked glass case...the one with frames by tiffany & co... (who even knew that tiffany had a line of eyeglass frames?!?!) and she fell in love. and then she looked at the price tag and stopped breathing... but then the sales person said they were having a sale which would give her half off the lenses AND she could get another 30% off with her AAA card. so she started breathing again, and smiled.

and smiled and smiled and smiled. now she was excited about wearing glasses.

but could i leave it at that and be excited with her? no i could not. i wanted to make sure that she was sure about that choice. so since we had some time before her appointment, i insisted that we check out a few more places. which we did. and she didn't see anything she liked as much as the tiffany frame...

we ate dinner, and she told her dad all about the perfect frames she had found. she had made peace with the price, and couldn't wait to get them! i was still unsure. but she is an adult, and i try to respect her choices (although sometimes she is forced to hear what i think anyway!) i took her back for her eye exam, and she was delighted to find that her eyes weren't too bad, so she won't have to wear glasses all the time. although, i was pretty sure she would want to wear them all the time, as excited as she was about the new frames. we returned to lens crafters, tried on the glasses again, and then it happened. the angels were silent. we were having second thoughts...

i'm sure she blames me and my incessant need to be sure i have exhausted all of the choices before making a decision. i blame my inability to make a decision in the face of all of those choices.

it was a lot of money. and while the frames were awesome, they didn't look as good on her face as some of the others we had seen. but she could get them in an hour!!! but they weren't the best choice for her face. but she loved them!! but that love was waning...

we debated. we compared. we talked about options. we looked at the clock and decided to go to another lens crafters at a different mall--just in case they had some different stock. and they did! but nothing that diandra was in love with...

by now it was 9:00 at night, and everything was closing. so i took a sad and frustrated girl home without new glasses, but with a plan...

this morning we got up and went back to an optical store, where she bought a pair of frames that she decided she loved. she loved them even more when they were handed to her in a pink leather case! but since that store couldn't meet her requirement of instant prescription lenses, we then took the new frames back to the mall to lenscrafters. (are you beginning to see a pattern here? we drove back and forth across town several times.) true to their word, in one hour her vision was corrected, she was happy, and most importantly, she looked cute!i wish i could say it wasn't that bad. but it was. and yet, it turned out good, we did have some fun, and i am glad i was able to help her...

...because soon, it is going to be time for me to get new glasses. and i think i know just who is going to have to come with me...