New Specs

Got a call on Thurs. last to pick up my new glasses. Actually, the glasses were ready two weeks ago. When I first saw the thick lenses, my thought was I was being fitted with lenses meant for the Hubble telescope. I tried the glasses on. Everything and everyone I looked at had a rainbow aura with a shift towards the bright yellow part of the spectrum. That's because there are prisms in my lenses because I've been seeing double. Though seeing everything with a rainbow aura was cool in a My Little Pony sort of way, the bright yellow was more than I could take. (Though if the shift was towards the blue part of the spectrum, I might have kept them.) Turns out the lab read the prescription wrong and put the total amount needed for the prism in both lenses instead of splitting them between the left and right lens.

I picked up the corrected lenses on Friday. Was relieved to see the lens thickness was normal. And I could see clearly with no aura effect and no double vision. Now comes the part of trying to get used to the new prescription. Even though I've been wearing bifocals (with graduated lenses) for 9 years, it still takes me a few days to build up to wearing them full time. After a few hours, I end up with a headache and a sensation of vertigo. Weird as it seems looking through them for a couple of hours makes me motion sick.

I'm learning to like the new frames. I had wished they were more square like my old glasses. But the square-ish magnetic frames didn't come in blue. I just had to have blue frames. Why magnetic frames? So that I don't have to spend another zillion dollars on prescripted sunglasses. The frames come with a sunglass frame that attaches by built-in magnets and doesn't look as dorky as the old clip ons. The earpiece metal is twisted which makes a nice decorative element. Downside to my frames is they are two-tone. Blue on the outside and pink on the inside. Yes, pink. Deep sigh. Forlorn look. Pink. So not my color. Since I had to have blue frames, this is what I had to go with. Happily the frames are a lot darker than they appeared in the catalog so the pink is more of a deep magenta. Since it's on the inside of the frame and the curve of the earpiece hidden behind my ear, the pink won't really be seen.

Ms. CJ Bear is modeling my glasses. She was a gift from Himself when I first started teaching at the museum. In her left paw, she's holding a hand-turned wooden, nib holder. A gift from the delightful Catherine Whiteman in Scotland. I always thought the handle was too pretty to get mucked up with ink. The nib Ms. Bear is using is a gold plated Eiffel Tower nib, it's in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. Though the nib writes well, for me it's more decorative than functional.

Time to remove the new glasses, pop some acetaminophen, and go lie down for a bit. Do you wear glasses? Bifocals? Does it take you a few days to get used to your new prescription?