“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 675 (Monday)

In all the chores and responsibilities and crap of adulting, there are pleasures. One of my favorites is having control of my environment. Another is getting new glasses.

The need for vision correction arrived in third grade, after not being able to read the chalkboard and then failing an eye exam in school. Those first glasses were dark brown plastic, the frames were called “Peanut Bar,” and I loved them because they were almost exactly like the glasses Mummu wore at the time.

Gotta love the cockeyed glasses.

It didn’t take too long with reading in bed and falling asleep with glasses on before they sat crazy crooked on my face. This was not something anyone in the family knew how to fix so I was stuck wearing cockeyed glasses. As a kid, this was usually the situation until that magical time when there would be another failed eye exam to force a new prescription. Or, if I was lucky, an epic after school latchkey kid brawl around fifth or sixth grade would happen and my brother would punch me in the face and crack the bridge of those cockeyed glasses enough that it took very little to snap them totally in half. Yes, that happened. Thank God. 

From third grade until freshman year of college when I finally started wearing contact lenses, eyeglasses were dictated largely by family finances. Choosing frames was a high-pressure situation, because the pair chosen would be the ones stuck with for years. 

Contact lenses meant freedom. It meant stylish sunglasses off the rack. Eyeglasses were reserved for emergency backup, worn only in the event of a torn or lost contact lens, eye infection, hangover, or time spent kicking back at home. About 10 years ago, age set in and contacts stopped being the perfect solution. Reading glasses became necessary, even with multi-focal contacts. Soon, even that didn’t help.

Returning to wearing eyeglasses as an adult with an income and a vision plan has been far superior to being a kid with no financial control and needing glasses. Being an adult in control of one’s own situation is amazing. Glasses are trendy and people don't call me "four eyes" and "window face" anymore, so that's quite pleasant. Having access to the Internet and online providers of eyeglasses is pretty awesome, too. Even with the eyeglass coverage in the vision plan, it is far less expensive to buy glasses online, which I learned the hard way. In the past eight years, at least eight pairs of glasses and two pairs of prescription sunglasses have been acquired, mostly from online sellers.

New glasses!!

The latest online eyewear shopping expedition started around Thanksgiving in preparation for the annual eye exam in December. “Favorites” were stockpiled on both the Zenni and EyeBuyDirect sites. Frame sizes were studied and compared to the fit of existing frames. Virtual try-ons were done. I was ready.

The newest prescription has a smidge of a change in one eye, so it was worth the wait. Just after Christmas, new frames with a new prescription were ordered. Despite the order never being updated in the order tracking, the new glasses arrived in the mailbox today, which was another Monday mailbox surprise. They were loose out of the case, but a quick check on the Zenni site for how to adjust frames produced the solution. 

Now, a new pair of glasses is in the rotation, and for a while they will probably be the favorite pair. Then it will swing back to another pair. Once in a while, it’s a pretty cool being an adult.