Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Eyes Have It.

I finally got around to randomly choosing the winner of my book giveaway. And believe it or not, that winner is Melissa! Mel, you seem to strike gold on my giveaways. Good for you! I'll try to get that book out to you next week, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Pass it on when you finish!

More housekeeping: Are you a Facebook fan? So many of my wonderful friends and family are, and even some friends of friends who I've never met! Thanks! Now, are you a "follower" of the blog? Blogger has a great following system that lets you see which of your favorite blogs have new posts - go try it out! Well...what are you waiting for?

Okay, that's just about enough self-promotion for today.

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Today was just filled with randomness. It started with an eye appointment at 8:30am. I'm getting LASIK eye surgery next week, when I will finally be done wearing my glasses. Because I have an astigmatism, I get to wear them for 3 weeks, presurgery. I'm convinced that this is a sales tactic. If you were allowed to wear your contacts right up to your surgery, it wouldn't seem like such a big deal to wake up with nearly perfect vision. But, if you have to wear your hideous, greasy-nose making, zit-inducing, ear-hurting, six-year-old glasses for almost a month first, well, THEN that nearly perfect vision (minus the hardware or contacts) seems nearly miraculous.
I haven't figured out yet how cell phones can get the Internet (or how the Internet even works, really), so I'm really trying not to think about how a laser cutting my eye is a GOOD thing.
After the eye appointment, I was a guest at Leah's school at 10am for the Mom's Valentine Tea. Okay, we didn't have tea (it was cherry 7-Up, I think) and the treats were chocolate-frosted donuts, but it was fun to have this special morning with Leah, since Aaron had the boys. The moms helped decorate Valentine boxes, tried to identify ourselves from the portraits drawn by our kids, and found out what they REALLY think about us from the answers on a brief survey. I was really bracing myself, but Leah's answers were very sweet.
Then ANOTHER eye appointment right after lunch. Ack. This one was brutal, but mostly just because of the dilating eye drops they had to use. Do you know what happens when your pupils are dilated? They let in a lot of light. Which is good, if you are trying to put a pacifier in a crying baby's mouth at 2am, or staggering to the bathroom in the early morning hours. It is NOT, however, good when you are trying to drive home at 2:30pm in a town filled with really white snow drifts. I drove home with one eye open, and was very glad that we live close to the clinic. Yikes. Thank you, Mr. or Ms. Driver who let me turn onto the street in front of them and didn't get all bent out of shape. Of course, the 3-foot drifts don't really help with the visibility.
After getting home, my eyes were still bugging out - I couldn't read any print, and a headache was forming. So I retreated and let my eyes have some self-defense in the form of a nap while Aaron took Leah to gymnastics. My very kind next-door neighbor woke me after half an hour, but I don't remember answering the door. And I think I chatted with her for a few minutes before fully comprehending who she was.
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We are heading out of town to visit some family this weekend, so I'm taking a short break from the blogging business. Ben will be wearing undies on the vacation, so if you see a minivan screeching to a halt in front of the gas station and a mom flying out with a little boy, just let us into the bathroom first. You won't regret it.
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What's the worst physical conditions you've ever driven under? You know, those times that you were debating calling for a ride? Or, if that answer may be too incriminating...How do you feel about your glasses? Or having your eyes cut into with a laser? Are your snow drifts taller than you yet?

13 comments:

Kim said...

my car got crunched today by a guy backing out of his driveway who couldn't see me!

Lyz said...

Oh noes! These drifts have got to go! (But hopefully with no flooding...)

Noel said...

The piles aren't as bad as in '97...yet. As for stories: Arrived by air from Minneapolis about 10 PM one night that year during a blizzard, rattled the security gate until a guard (the only person left at the airport)opened up and let us out, spent 45 minutes digging out my truck, and then slowly made it home via Dakota Drive which was nearly drifted shut. I was glad a neighbor had blown out our driveway so I could pull in. We have a picture of our two year old sitting on the roof with her feet by the top of the snowpile by the driveway.

Anonymous said...

Last night I had my first experience with a child puking all over the car. What an experience I hope to never endure again!

The snow is so deep up here that we have serious snow curbs practically everywhere we go. Yes, the valley will flood again this year. Start the sandbagging, ya'll! Speaking of snow and moving into the sight issues, wouldn't it be great if optometrists could create a special lens for winter driving to help us see drifts and measure their depth and density? There has to be a way.

Good luck with the lasik surgery, Liz. I agree on all of your sentiments towards glasses (and I've been wearing mine for a week now - yuck!)

Your cousin, Katie!

JJ and EJ said...

My worst driving experience was when I was preggers with morning sickness. I threw up ALL over myself one morning, after trying to swallow it just to make it somewhere to stop. It was n-a-s-t-y. Yup. I'll just let everyone savor that visual.

: ) EJ

Terri said...

Actually B's first trip without diapers was with my parents to Bismarck and she did very well Hint is to stop every couple of hours depending on the amount of liquids and when you see a rest area ask if they have to go. My parents stopped in Jamestown figuring B needed to go to the bathroom and she wound up making it to Bismarck just fine. Also I had lasik a 2 1/2 years ago and was the best money I ever spent not having to have a kid hit me in the face and mash my glasses into my nose. Also the vicadin also does wonders, my hubby watched me the whole time and yes driving with dialated eyes is really fun and my husband wasn't happy with me when I got home as I couldn't really see luckily I didn't have the mountains of snow to see around but still not very safe when you can't see the speedometer and I at least knew where my speeds were at.

Anonymous said...

Worst physical condition for driving...I was miscarrying. Bobby couldn't drive me to the hospital because of his DUI at the time (yeah great I know) and it never crossed our minds to call a cab..so I just drove us to the hospital ER, then home again, and up to Galesburg later that day for Tracer's 1st bday party.

I hate my glasses and contacts too..but the whole laser cutting my eyes creeps me out WAY more than my distaste for glasses and contacts.

Noel said...

I'm wearing my bifocals pretty much full time after first getting them 2+ years ago. I freak with eyedrops, let alone lazic. I have the smooth transitions which have worked well for me, but I may be needing a new prescription.

Lexie said...

Wow, next week is your surgery. For me, your time went fast. And yes i've had my eyes dilated and the lovely people @ the eye clinic said it'd go away in about 2 hrs. Well about 6 hrs later and pretty sure i was still trying to wear a hat to keep out the light. Our piles of snow out here are taller then me and I hope don't grow much more. :-)The drifts are just as bad.

Rhubarb and Venison said...

Good luck with the lasik! I'll be curious to hear how it goes. I love my glasses, but my mom got Lasik and loves it, no problems.

Anonymous said...

Well, just remember that boys have the "handy tool" so making it to gas station or rest area is not always necessary. Oh wait--you are in the frozen tundra where it might freeze if you do that. So I guess you will be doing the screeching halt to a restroom.

:)
Lisa in Texas

Noel said...

"Northanger Abbey" is on Masterpiece Theatre tonight in the absence of a new blog post about "Zombie Children of the Tundra" .

Lyz said...

Wow, you all should NOT be driving. And puke is just plain nasty. Multiplied times 10 in a vehicle.