I can see clearly now…

… or relatively so, anyhow.

The eye exam went quite well yesterday. I was somewhat nervous initially, wondering if I was going to get flogged with a wet noodle for putting off an eye exam for nearly five years.

Whoops.

Fortunately my prescription didn’t change drastically.  It got worse by only a quarter point in the one eye, and a half point in the other.  And no, I couldn’t see the big E at the top of the chart without my glasses on.

Stop laughing.  It’s true.

I really liked the optometrist too. He was a man in his 40s, I’d guess, a little on the pudgy side, but in my opinion rather teddy-bear-ish and adorable. Plus he had a good sense of humor. He and I laughed and giggled throughout the exam, which is always a good thing.

He named his eye clinic “Knight Vision.” I noticed it at the top of my prescription for new glasses and complimented him on having such a cool last name for an optometrist. He told me his mother wanted him to be a dentist, but “Knight Dentistry” just doesn’t have the ring that “Knight Vision” does.

I love people who come up with good puns.

Anyhooo, the doctor wanted to dilate my eyes to look inside, which was fine with me as Kurt could drive. Since it was also somewhat overcast as well, I wasn’t worried. I had forgotten, since it’s been such a long time since I had my eyes dilated, that you can’t focus close up when your pupils are so huge. Talk about frustrating! I was attempting to cross stitch last night at 9pm and I was still having issues focusing.

The doctor also suggested a new brand of contacts for me to switch to. Since they are a mere $5 more than the old-skool lenses I was using prior to this (they’re increasing the price of the damn things every time I turn around to try to force you into buying the newer and cooler lenses), I figured what the hell. He even gave me a trial pair! He told me I can sleep in them, but I just can’t do it. Every time I’ve slept in my lenses, I wake up feeling like my eyes are glued shut.

I finish up with the doctor and head out to the main area of LensCrafters to investigate the possibilities of new glasses. I asked what specials were running, and the saleslady informed me that if I buy one year’s worth of contacts, I will receive $100 off a pair of new glasses. They were even willing to price-match my contacts with my online source, which had them for $10 a box cheaper than LC. Then I asked how much the lenses in my glasses were going to run me, thinking that with the $100 off, it would be sort of like a 50% off coupon for the complete glasses.

Two hundred and ninety dollars, the saleslady informed me. $290 for lenses. That doesn’t include the $200 or so for frames.

I about fell off my chair when she told me this. The last glasses I’d gotten at Wal-Mart ran me all of $212, frames and lenses! I even splurged for a coating or two on the lenses, and having the lenses polished on the edges as they would be exposed on the bottom of the glasses where they’re rimless.

When I came home that night from getting my glasses, Kurt had a fit on my spending $200 on a pair of glasses. He felt that was highway robbery! I had to explain to him that most people spend between $300 and $500 for their glasses.

He hasn’t paid for glasses on his own since he was in high school. For the last fourteen years, the Navy has been supplying him with several pairs of glasses per year. He gets his “cool” glasses (because the Navy now has a much better selection than they used to), he gets a pair of what’s commonly known as “BC”s, and he gets a pair of safety glasses, the kind with elastic that goes round the back of the head instead of using temples to keep them on your face. The BCs are so named because they’re so incredibly ugly, they function as birth control to keep the girls away from you. For a few years, Kurt was taking his BCs into another glasses store and having them tinted to function as sunglasses. Now he just uses the clip-ons, which in my opinion look so much better.

But back to my glasses. $290 just for lenses is outrageous. I know they provide a service, in that you get your glasses in just an hour, but I really don’t need them that quickly. My old glasses are just fine for the week or so it’ll take me to get the new ones. Plus I think my prescription is too strong for the LC lab to grind the lenses correctly. I’d rather send mine out to a lab who’s going to take a nice long time to grind my lenses just so.

Now we’re going to the Navy Exchange to see if we can find a good pair for cheap. My best friend Caroline informed me she bought glasses a few months ago that included magnetic clip-on sunglasses for a measly $150 at the NEX. That’s a much more reasonable price for glasses, in my humble opinion.

So I’m off on a mission to find new glasses!!!

I’m so excited.