Thursday, October 02, 2008

you can see into the future with those glasses

That is what my brother says about my glasses.

I am a blind mofo. Not really, but probaby as close as anyone you know who isn't actually blind. So you can imagine my shock - nay, HORROR - yesterday morning when I heard the "snap" as I was cleaning off my glasses. Yup. Right. In. Half.

I freaked. I truly cannot see without my glasses. It's not that I just need them to drive, or read, or work - I need them to walk across the room. I don't have a backup pair, because, if you all remember, Jimmy chewed those up a couple of years ago. I do have contact lenses, but, ever since I was about 22, my eyes have completely rejected them.

However, yesterday offered me no other option. Greg had a very early morning meeting so I had to get Jane ready for the day, to daycare, and myself to work before I could even deal with trying to get in touch with my eye doctor to schedule an exam (oh, yeah - I was two years overdue for an eye exam). I plopped the contacts in my eyes, braced myself for eyeball agony, and went on my way.

I was able to get a doctor's appointment at noon (my eye doctor is in an office at LensCrafters). All was well, so I brought my prescription to the store and picked out some new frames (but I didn't really wanna - I loved my old frames!). Now, I know you're thinking - LensCrafters is great! They can make glasses in about an hour! Not with my suck-ass eyes, they can't. They have to order special lenses that are ground down so they're not super thick, with the special non-glare coating, blah diddy blah blah blah - and I was given the bad news that it would take a week for them to come in.

The very nice optomitrist suggested I pick out some discount frames, and they could put the thicker, glare-y lenses that they can make on the spot in that afternoon. That way, I would have a backup pair for the week, and then in the future, when I inevitably break my nice ones again.

There was really no other option. I couldn't bear to wear contacts for a whole week - at that point I just wanted to rip my eyeballs out as it was - so I picked out some (fugly) frames and got my (fuglier) lenses and now I'm walking around with what looks to me like laboratory glasses. A face shield, if you will. People have been nice to say that they look OK, but they are lying liars.

The whole experience cost me over $600. Six hundred dollars. I hope everyone's looking forward to their framed pictures of Jimmy pict for Christmas this year, because that's going to be about all I can afford. And that's only if I make the frames with popsicle sticks.

3 comments:

lgaumond said...

Could you put macaroni and glitter on the frames, too? That would be AWESOME.

Seriously, check Zenni (once you have your new glasses and can see). Unless you have a prism correction, they can probably make your lenses. They make high index lenses and may be able to help you cheaply! Call them to verify (1-800-211-2105) but I bet you can get another (non-fugly) backup pair for less than $100.

Dwayne "The Train" said...

i am not a liar.

Flann said...

I agree 100% with Zenni! I've been recommending them all over the place for a few years. Got my last two pairs and my sunglasses there. I think we have a similar prescription/predicament (remember when I stormed out of the LensCrafters at Westfarms cause the kid behind the counter wouldn't stop saying "I've never SEEN a prescription this strong! WOW!"?) and I've gotten glasses for $30-40.

Also I want a pic of this faceshield.