Two little surprises

First:

I called up the local eye clinic (a very long-standing one, well-known and well-respected in my part of the state and a friend of mine is actually the widow of one of the long time doctors there). I expected to hear "Our first available appointment is in late July" but the receptionist asked "Are you in town right now? Could you come in now? We have a 9:45 open" so maybe they had a cancellation. But hey, I'll take it.

Different doctor than I had seen before but that was fine - she was good, and she may have taken my "I can't comfortably thread a needle with my glasses on so I just take them off" a bit more seriously because she said "Let's adjust your close-vision prescription, then maybe some of the needlework things will be more comfortable for you and maybe you will be comfortable again reading with glasses on"

The biggest good news is my eyes are healthy - I have a family history of macular degeneration, so they always do that scan thing that lets you see the macula of the eye, and she showed them to me. The one little drusen that they found before was still in its place, but she said that could have always been there (some are genetic) and it's on the periphery of the area, so it's not of concern. And the pressure in my eyes is still good.

She did emphasize the importance of UV protection, but I'm pretty strict about wearing sunglasses when outdoors, and even when driving long distances on a sunny day, though that's more to prevent headaches.

(She laughed when she was doing the thing with the slit lamp and I remarked, "Freaky. I can see the veins in my eye" because you can...it's a weird sensation).

Distance prescription didn't change at all in one eye, changed minimally in the other, and the close-up was more of a 'tweak' than a big change. So I guess my eyes are pretty stable, which is a good sign.

And then, time for new frames.

I remember as a tween, when I first got glasses, how my dad's insurance would only pay for a couple different frame styles (as you might guess, at the bottom of the line). And it was hard to pick a flattering one from what was on offer. (I still cringe at the seventh-grade photos of me because of those glasses). Now that I'm a grown-*ss adult buying my own frames, I can decide that it's worth it to me to splash out on a pair that costs more than what my insurance would strictly cover. Because I wear these things every single day....in a way, they're as much an accessory as the color of lipstick I choose or the jewelry I wear.

I figured I wanted to go with something close to what I wear now; it seems to be a good look for me. (Still, I tried on a pair of true cats-eye frames - they have a few - and while I think they are cute, they are not specifically cute ON ME, so I put them back.)

I wound up with a pair of frames ("Dior" branded, like I said about splashing out) close to what I have now, except the lenses are a bit larger (probably better for the progressive lenses to work right) and they have wire rims around the bottom....the top is still the "eyebrow piece," but on these it's a lighter brown and more of a tortoiseshell and when I tried them on the optician helping me exclaimed "Oh, those really bring out the color of your eyes!" I was already strongly leaning towards those frames and that just cemented it.

It's nice to have something to look forward to. My new glasses should be in ten days or two weeks. They are super-cute and I think I will look super-cute in them.

(And I realized, when I thought that, driving back to campus - well, I've come a long way. Twenty years ago or more, I would not have ever used "super-cute" as a descriptor for how I looked, because I believed "cute" or "pretty" were not something I could be [thanks so much, grade-school bullies]. But down through the years recently, because of support from friends and also things like people at church remarking that I look "cute" or "lovely" or even 'gorgeous" in some of my clothes, I've kind of gotten over that. And heck, yeah, maybe they are saying those things because they are seeing the person inside instead of the exterior, but I don't really care: having a "cute" soul and a meh body/face is better than having a cute body and face and a "meh" personality or soul.).

Second:

The Corps of Engineers e-mailed me back! With the information I need. So even if the person I called and left a message with doesn't call back, I can complete the manuscript. My plans for the rest of today are to do a little editing/tweaking and add this new information in.