Oh Say, Can You See?

So today I went to the eye doctor. It was my first visit to the eye doctor in about 3 years or so. I honestly can't remember exactly how long. And I didn't go because I was having pain or wasn't seeing well, but because I was running out of contact lenses. See, at my job before this one, which was more than 2.5 years ago, I had put a huge amount of money into my medical flex spending account that I ended up not needing. So I spent it all. On contact lenses. Thank the goddess my prescription didn't change while working my way through the approximately 523,298 billion boxes of contacts I had. And these were one-daily contacts, meaning I was to wear them all day and then throw them away. However, that is not what I did (have done) -- I found it much more economic to wear them for no less than THREE days, soaking them in saline overnight, before finally disposing of them. So they lasted me three years.

Anyway, I was finally on my last box of contact lenses, so it was time to go to an eye doctor and get a new prescription. In the past I've simply gone to JCPenney, why, I'm not sure. However, the past year Mike has been seeing a wonderful eye doctor right in our village, within walking distance of our house. And Mike REALLY liked this dude -- he is straightforward, knowledgeable, and easy to understand (yes, that's important. It's surprising how many eye doctors are of Asian origin with a tendency to have their lips in a straight line, even when talking). Given Mike's less than perfect eyes, I have been happy and impressed with the care he's received from this doctor. Plus, I already knew my (our) insurance covered him.

This doctor was great. I got the full treatment, read the line 'H G N Z T P' forwards and backwards about 20 times, got my eyes dilated, and told him that lens 2 was definitely clearer than lens 1. The great news is that my eyes are healthy and my prescription has not even changed!! So he wrote me a prescription for the exact same contact lenses I've been wearing for the past 3 years. Sweet.

Now why am I blogging about this? Because this doctor told me something that I still can't believe. Due to a certain, benign condition I have that is related to my nearsightedness and slight tendency to cross my eyes when focusing, if I should ever start doing small, detail-oriented tasks like needlepoint or going back to school and staring at textbooks for hours at a time, I should wear reading glasses along with my contacts. Yup, you read that right. Reading glasses. For 31 year old me. How bizarre is that? I didn't think I'd be picking out reading glasses until I was at least 45. And fortunately, I have a very active, almost 2 year old boy who makes it virtually impossible for me to visually focus on anything for more than 30 seconds at a time unless he is napping. But reading glasses. I would need the weakest strength they make -- 1.00. Actually, they make some pretty funky, fun lenses for reading glasses nowadays, so if I do need some, I think it would actually be fun to go shopping for some. You know, like ones with red and orange flames or purple flowers. Yeah. Me with reading glasses. Cool.