Seeing Clearly

About a year ago, I went to the eye doctor for the first time in 3 years or so. My vision hadn't really gotten worse, but I decided I wanted new glasses. Also, I had a coupon for 15% off. I decided on a pair of brown plastic frames very similar to what you see to the right. You know, the sexy librarian look. I was coming off a pair of serviceable, if unexciting, pair of wire frames.

When my new glasses were finally ready, I had a bitch of a time getting them adjusted correctly. The receptionist/glasses adjuster heated and bent (wo)manfully and I finally had them contorted into a shape that was an acceptable fit for my apparently warped head. Within one week, they were sliding down my nose and twisted up enough to give me fits. I went back for readjustment and started the whole process over again. I thought I was good.

Flash forward 10 months: I hate those fucking sexy librarian glasses. Sure, they looked good but goddamn, did they hurt my poor head something fierce. I spent some time each day bending the stupid right-side ear piece in the vain hope of getting it into a position that wouldn't be painful to the point of distraction. As I was twisting and cursing, I noticed that the hinge on that side was all cockeyed. I thought I could fix it with my ever-handy mini-Leatherman, but was spectacularly unsuccessful. Finally I decided I couldn't take it anymore and broke out my old wire-frames. This happened Friday night and I've been wearing them since.

Thanks for sticking with me. Here's my point: Not one of the people I saw this weekend noticed that I wasn't wearing my old glasses. Not my gay-bff, not my parents, not my 2 closest girlfriends, and none of my coworkers. Here's a pic of wire-frames so you have a frame (heh) of reference:

The shape of my glasses isn't exactly the same as those at the left, but you can easily see that there is a significant difference in style and shape from the brown frames above.

Just so we are clear, this isn't a judgement on my friends. I'm not implying that my friends, family, and coworkers don't pay enough attention to me. I swear I'm not that kind of self-involved. It does give me an idea of how generally unobservant the average person is. I'm guessing that I'd have to show up not wearing glasses at all for people to notice. Since I've been wearing glasses for most of my life, people expect to see them on my face and don't pay any special attention to what the glasses look like.