12 years is a pretty good run
last week i stopped by the Eye Care Center (adjacent to the Somerville Hospital) for an eye exam. i had been noticing that when driving around with chaiya, she generally seemed to be able to read street signs sooner that i could; couple this with my officemates observing that they can tell i'm working hard when i'm leaning increasingly closer to my monitors, and i wasn't particularly surprised to hear that
i need glasses again!
many of you may not know that my vision was abominable during the first half of my life; i wore pretty substantial glasses starting during the first grade, and my prescriptions got increasingly stronger until my freshman year in college, at which point i was wearing veritable coke-bottles (11.75 diopters in on eye, 13.5 in the other IIRC) to correct for myopia with a hefty side of astigmatism. without my glasses i could focus to about five inches from the point of my nose, and everything beyond that was a blur. i couldn't read the clock on my nightstand when i woke up in the morning; i put my glasses on before turning on the light in the morning, and after turning off the light at night.
then, in the summer of 1996, i underwent LASIK at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary. the experience was both stressful and darkly comical (ask me to tell you the "Obserrrrve the strrriations!" story sometime), but afterwards my life was profoundly different; i remember, the evening after they untaped my right eye, looking down while taking a shower and realizing that i could clearly see my own feet, and that i couldn't remember a time in my life when i'd been able to do that.
by comparison with my old glasses, my current pair feel like nothing; the prescription is barely a diopter in each eye, and they're made of titanium and (as best i can tell) condensed air. i would forget they're there at all, except for the familiar light pressure on the bridge of my nose that makes me think i've forgotten to take my sunglasses off indoors, and then makes me wonder why the room doesn't seem darker.
they really make a difference, though. my optometrist said that i was only required to wear them while driving (and that i shouldn't be able to pass the eye exam at the RMV) and while using the computer (to guard against eye strain); however, i suspect i'll be wearing them pretty much always, except when engaging in some sort of vigorous activity (or perhaps when taking photos, though i'm still up in the air about that issue). the world is just too full of wonderful little details that i've apparently been missing for quite some time.
in summary:
- i'm mortified that i drove for as long as i did without getting my eyes tested; i'm fervently glad that i didn't screw up behind the wheel.
- chaiya is truly gorgeous; i've been missing out.
-steve