Seeing Clearly

Fun fact: I wore glasses my entire childhood.  I was born with a condition called strabismus that basically means your eyes don't work together, which causes problems with 3D vision and coordination.  I had surgeries as a baby to cosmetically correct the problem and doctors recommended thick prism lenses to try to force my eyes to link up.

My, ahem, storied childhood athletic record gives it away: the glasses did not improve my hand-eye coordination.  Flying objects and I have always had a somewhat adversarial relationship.  And since I was only a little bit farsighted otherwise, and sick of wearing glasses, I put them down at age 16 and went without.

That is, until this year.  My primary care physician found out I hadn't had my eyes checked in nearly 20 years (whoops...) and sent me off for an eye exam.  Although I hadn't noticed any vision deterioration, her logic is sound: eyes can often give preliminary warning signs of serious health problems.

My doctor recommended City Optix, and I had a great experience there.  It's one stop shopping: there are two doctors upstairs, each of whom perform comprehensive eye exams, and downstairs is a full shop of eyewear that carries everything from basic to designer options.  I was in, examined, frames ordered, and out in about half an hour.  Plus, they have the machine that does an air puff in each eye instead of having to get the drops that dilate your eyes and force you to wear sunglasses around indoors like a weirdo for the rest of the day - an experience I recall detesting as a kid.

In the end, the doctor recommended that I use glasses when sitting in front of a screen, and for night driving.  I still have only mild farsightedness, and this recommendation is more to reduce eye strain than to correct any serious vision problem.

I figured that if I was going to get glasses, I might as well get cute ones.  After a little bit of trial and error, I settled on a pair of contemporary, yet classic Chloe frames.  I like that they make a style statement but remain simple and streamlined, and the lenses are large enough to balance well on my face (seriously, these are the biggest frames they had, I have a ginormous head).

The good thing is, when you take the time to carefully pick out something you love, you're more likely to use it.  This is most definitely the case with me and my glasses.  They've become part of my work routine: sit down at my desk, put my glasses on, open my notebook and email, and get going.  This association means that I feel ready to work every time I put them on, and so I somehow manage to concentrate better and for longer periods than I used to before I got them.  The brain works in mysterious ways, folks!

LMW