I can see! I can SEE!

Ohmigawd! I can see!

I have been going multiple rounds with my - well - I was going to say "ophthalmologist and optician" - but I think I will call them "my vision care specialists" because really - I make them work for their living! They deserve a fancy title.

Because some people have glasses, but I have a vision system. My purse is half-full with glasses cases. The other half is electronics, btw. I go nowhere without my GPS and MP3 player. Mostly because I would never get there without the GPS, and I would be too bored without the MP3 player to go a second time. But I digress.

About 5 years ago - I capitulated on the battle of the aging eyes - the battle where you finally succumb to the realization that your arms are not, in fact, getting shorter, and that you are going to need the dreaded bifocals.

Now - both my parents wore glasses, and in fact - I've been wearing glasses since I was two. Yes - two! - and those of you with small children can just imagine the hell this must of been for my mother to get me to wear them. Apparently I spent the first year taking them off and she putting them back on, and the second year running to her with them every five minutes to get her to clean them.

So, I am comfortable with the idea of glasses - it's not like I'm resisting getting them, not now. But, I just could not face the idea of that hard line in the middle of the lens - carving up the face and looking like a ledge you could throw yourself off - the "bifocal" look. Progressives for me! Of course - that's when I discovered what a massive compromise glasses become. Because it used to be: eye test, prescription, glasses, better vision. Repeat in two years. Now, however - it's all about what am I prepared to give up. Argh.

And I have been shopping around for a great "vision care team" for a few years now - utterly dissatisfied with the ones I have, garnering recommendations - trying out new places - all with abysmal results. When you have to return the glasses for the third time because they got the wrong prescription in - well - time to move on!

Apparently - my eyes are complicated. Gosh - who would have guessed?

So - the latest pair of glasses are lovely - delightful. Light as a sigh and frameless - nearly invisible - as close as I will get without going to contacts or surgery, neither of which I am ever likely to do. Contacts? Sorry - I've spent most of my life making sure stuff didn't get in my eyes - I'm not going to deliberately poke something into my eye. Too vain for bifocals, but not that vain. Surgery? Seriously? I don't think so. Mess that up and I might as well kill myself. Not even chancing that.

One issue with these new glasses - that area that I can read with is such a tiny and specific spot on my glasses that I'm giving myself whiplash trying to see an entire page at once.

For those of you who have not yet had to deal with progressive lenses - the idea is that instead of the entire lens changing your vision in one specific way like regular lenses, or like bifocals, which is functionally more or less like two separate lenses cut in half and glued together - the progressives have a series of different focal lengths - so you eventually learn to move your head up and down and side to side to find the spot that is appropriate to focus on whatever you are looking at. They do suffer from distortion in some places, and it takes a while to get to the point where you automatically adjust to look through the correct part of the lens.

Anyway - where I am going with this is - in my rather convoluted way - now you know why I need a GPS to find my destination! - is that while the new glasses were great - what they were NOT letting me do is see the entirety of the two monitors, the keyboard, the invoice, the beads and all the other stuff that I need to see, all in focus at once. In short - it was time to admit that I needed not just progressive lenses, but also a second pair of glasses. It used to be that you needed reading glasses. Now, I needed computer glasses.

Back to the optician, where we hauled out the catalogs of lenses - poured over diagrams of where the focal points where, reviewed the focal distances, and finally found a pair that seemed ideal. How long? A quick phone call to the lab - "oh, sorry - those are discontinued." ARGH! Not taking no for an answer - the optician called the lens manufacturer directly. "Yhey aren't discontinued at all." Aha!

One week later, the lenses came directly from Zeiss, and before being mounted in the frames, we lined them up to ensure that I will be able to focus on the things I need to see. Oh, and while we were at it - we slipped a little magnification into the prescription as well. Woohoo!

And I have to say - these new computer glasses are awesome! The first pair, for distance vision are so light and airy - I feel naked - like I'm not wearing any glasses at all. The second pair make everything that I need to work with sharp and focused. Between the two - I can see, and be seen! I'm sooo happy!

And for those of you who want to know who these wonder workers are:

The Goldberg Eye Centre: Dr. Goldber is an excellent ophthalmologist that really cares enough to get it right.

and in the same building on the ground floor: Eye Wear for You. Awesome, awesome service. So nice to find these days.

So - if you are straining to see your beads, or worse still - have put aside doing the beading that you love because you get a headache from trying to see - don't suffer or give up - go get some glasses that work!

We won't talk about the prescription sunglasses right now - that will be another story. I wonder if I can get them to make the protective glasses for flameworking . . . hmmm . . . .