"instead of a big dark blur, i see a big bright blur."

[jazzfish]

The morning light seemed a little less light than usual when I woke up but I figured it was just that I'd not noticed the days getting shorter. O, no. I stepped out the door and nearly cried with relief. Clouds and a fine mist and chill air and finally, finally, some relief from the interminable heat of summer.

If, gord forbid, I am still here this time next year, I'm going to have to see about being elsewhere for at least some of July and August.

---

The Key West trip is going to involve snorkeling. Somehow it didn't occur to me until this weekend that that's going to be a bit more difficult for me now than it was, um, eighteen (!) years ago. Thankfully ancientsong noted that most places will rent goggles that do some amount of vision correction, so I probably won't be restricted to seeing "coral in front of my face" and "brightly-colored maybe-fish-shaped blur five feet away."

---

I've had corrected vision since I was in first grade. I'm told that my parents started suspecting I needed glasses when they realised I was sitting about three feet from the television. I /do/ remember being really mad that after wearing my glasses for a week I could no longer see much of anything without them.

Sometime in Fayetteville I succumbed to the magical thinking of "if i didn't wear glasses then everyone would stop thinking i was such a nerd," and contact lenses became a holy grail of sorts. I finally got them in January 1991, and had a few months of glasses-free junior high before moving back to DC for high school. (I did have a much better time of things for those few months. It's anyone's guess as to whether this was due to the Dumbo's feather effect, or knowing that I'd be in a better place soon, or what.)

(A couple years into high school I read an article in the opthalmologist's office on this new thing called "radial keratotomy." I asked him about it and he said "Eh, maybe, but I'd wait another couple years until your eyes stop changing." Hasn't happened yet, and I'm getting towards the point where I'll likely need reading glasses anyway in a few years. Oh well.)

I wore contacts for a good many years. It was just so neat to have peripheral vision, or to see things in the shower. Not to mention not having to worry about keeping them clean, or having them fall off my face at an inopportune time. (Losing contact lenses has never been a problem for me.) Eventually, though, the price started to wear on me. One of my eyes is exceptionally nearsighted with a moderate astigmatism, and the other has a severe astigmatism and is moderately nearsighted. So not only do I have to have specially-made contacts, but at times each lens has had to come from a different vendor. None of this "off-the-shelf disposable" nonsense for me.

Finally in winter 2003-04, when money was exceptionally tight for a variety of reasons, I gave up on them altogether. I've been wearing glasses constantly since then. I can't say I miss the maintenance of having to take them out every night and lug around a bottle of saline solution every time I travel. I do sort of miss the other things about them, though, and this snorkeling issue has reminded me of that.

Plus, my father has just gotten contacts again, after twenty years of wearing glasses (he stopped originally because nine months in the desert with contacts seemed like a bad plan), and... he looks twenty years younger. It's kind of startling.

So, I'm curious, and also prone to occasional fits of vanity (because I don't think I can separate contacts from "appearance"): for those of you who have some idea what I look like, what do you think? I've so far heard from one person who prefers me in glasses, but a sample size of one isn't all that rigorous.

(And those of you who don't know what I look like, this is the internet! Never let something as trivial as a lack of knowledge stand in the way of making your opinion known!)

Comments

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

I've had corrective lenses since 4th grade, when I was diagnosed with chronic iritis and started seeing and ophthalmologist. (A few years of steroidal eyedrops and it went away, without a host of specialists ever determining why I had this "rare for anyone, especially rare in children, and almost always associated with some systemic ailment like rheumatoid arthritis" condition. Probably would be a couple inches taller if it weren't for that treatment, but I'd also probably have gone blind, so there's that.)

I had glasses from 4th grade on--near-sighted and astigmatic, worse in the right eye than the left--and though I've worn contacts off and on (and prefer the field of view and non-need to clean), I always end up reverting to glasses because they're just -easier-. And I can get prescription contacts from 1-800-Contacts for not too much money, of the 2-week-wear-but-don't-sleep-in-them variety.

As for you.. I think you look fine either way, and I'd have to see photos side-by-side to do a more specific comparison. :)

[jazzfish]

How very odd. Bodies are weird.

I've also never had any sort of extended-wear contacts, it's always been "take them out at night or else they'll glue themselves to your eyeballs."

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

I never quite understood that effect--intuitively, one would think that your eyes/lenses would stay extra-lubricated under closed eyelids, though apparently gas-permeability and oxygenation are the presiding issues.

[nixve.livejournal.com]

I think you look quite attractive with and without glasses. I am not sure whether I would say one style makes you look older or younger, though.

[jazzfish]

Why thank you. :) I'm not so much interested in "older or younger," just noting how much of a difference it made, seeing Dad without his glasses.

Of course, it may also have been that a) that's the first time I'd seen him since he got back from the repeatedly extended START II negotiations in Geneva so he probably /was/ feeling more relaxed, and b) seeing him without his glasses made me automatically think of him as being twenty years younger.

[pictsy.livejournal.com]

Everyone looks cuter without glasses, imo.

For various reasons, I was stuck in glasses from about 2003-2008. It sucked mightily because my eyelashes brushed against the lenses, so I had to clean them constantly. My world was an oily blur.

[jazzfish]

Hm. In general I think I agree with you but I'm not quite sure. In specific, Dave Chubb always looked very odd to me without glasses and I've never been able to put my finger on exactly why. Something to do with how his eyes are set. And so I wonder if I'm the same way, at least these days. I dunno. Appearance is weird.

And, yeah, the world does tend to be a lot sharper and less smudgy around the edges when I'm wearing contacts.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

I wear contacts for dressup, and rarely otherwise. But in the last 18 years there've been major advances in things like daily wear or two week disposable lenses.

If you have time it might be worth getting a box to bring to Key West just in case they don't have goggles that will work for you. I counted myself very lucky that the place I went dolphin swimming in NZ could help me. They kept 4 sets of Rx goggles, and found that usually one would work. I think I ended up with the strongest; what with the visibility only being 2m anyway they were good enough.

[jazzfish]

If I'd thought of this the weekend before last, I wouldn't even be hesitating. As it is, the optometrist wants an eye exam (over a year since my last one) and a fitting and a followup appointment before they'll even order the contacts, and there aren't enough days in the week. :7

I plan on contacting the snorkeling place tomorrow and making sure they have a mask/goggles that'll help at least a little.

[meghatronn.livejournal.com]

I think that it has less to do with vanity and more to do with your own idea of who you are--that is, what external assets assist with your identity?

I don't have a strong opinion to render, but for the sake of convenience and being at a new stage in your life--it just might be worth a shot. You can always change your mind again.

[jazzfish]

That... is very much a possibility. Will have to ponder that. Thank you.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

I have had glasses since 5th grade. Got rid of them a few years ago. I wore contacts for a while, in high school. I had the leave them in kind, and that's a bad idea for a careless teenagers. If you leave them in for too long, they don't glue to your eyes, but they do develop protien deposits that scratch your cornea, and the oxygen thing causes your eyeball to grow blood vessles where they should't be. Not Good. But the good thing is, your eyes heal really fast. Contacts were not allowed for a week, but not comfortable for much longer. I never got the contact habit back.

My father got RK back in about 1986. He had good results, but wears reading glasses sometimes now. At his age, that's no big deal. My vision became stable while I was in college. My best glasses were still my best glasses after ten years. So I looked into the laser and the results were fantastic. I have only found eye charts that go to 20/15 and I can read that line with either eye, and my vision is better with both. I had some halos at night for the first few months, but that went away.

[jazzfish]

1986, /wow/. That's seriously the dark ages of RK. I am impressed.

And, yeah, pretty much everyone I know that's had the surgery (which is, um, I think three people now) has been incredibly happy with it. I'm honestly kind of miffed that my eyes never stabilized enough for it to be worthwhile.

[lilac-breeze.livejournal.com]

Ack, sorry for the HTML blowing up.

I've never worn contacts because the thought of touching my eye is enough to give me jitters. Putting something in my eye? Auuuugh, no. That being said, there have been lots of times when I wished I had at least one pair that I could wear on certain occasions, like swimming or cosplay and the like. Also I am always running late, and it is far easier to roll out of bed and put on my glasses than it would be trying to fight with contacts and saline solutions and such, so.

I think you look quite handsome with glasses! Of course, I've always had a bias toward guys in glasses, so... take that as you will. XD

[jazzfish]

heh, no problem, and I appreciate you fixing it. :)

I never had the "no not in the eye" response. Well, I did briefly; at my first fitting they tried to get me to wear hard lenses because they were way cheaper, and I responded with "take this windowpane out of my eye right now." Fingers and such seemed a lot less imposing after that.

And, aw, thank you. :)