Optometrists

The optometrist's office isn't a nice place to be, in my opinion. I am always annoyed, conflicted, and downhearted there.

The annoyance is both from the atrocious interior design of my optometrist's office (that wallpaper makes me want to sob sometimes) and that little eye-puff machine. That one where they tell you to stick your chin on a ledge of some contraption and look at the lights while they sends puffs of air into your eye. I know it's coming, but I can never stop myself from blinking, which annoys me. Even though the whole point of the machine is to make sure that your eyes do blink when something comes at them, for some reason, I always want to do my best not to blink.

Once I enter the examiner's room and they start testing my prescription with the face-piece-of-the-many-lenses, the internal conflict begins. They always ask whether 1 or 2 looks clearer, A or B, or some other combination. Some days I'm in the mood for everything to follow a pattern, so I get annoyed when the clearer choice doesn't fit in with the pattern. Then I have to decide if I want to follow the pattern or pick the clearer choice (don't worry, if the difference is definitely noticeable, I pick the more defined lens no matter what, but sometimes there really is no noticeable difference between the two options). Sometimes it's the inverse; I'm tired of everything following a sequence so I want to make the order of choices as unpredictable as possible. Most days it's a combination of the two, so I'm stuck with deciding whether to build patterns, break them, or just do what actually follows my vision best. In the end, I usually opt for the latter on almost all of them and even if I don't every time I end up with an accurate new prescription by the time they're done.

I'm downhearted because my prescription needs to be strengthened by at least a smidgen every time I visit. I wish I could keep my eyes from getting worse, or maybe for one day I could be able to see without my glasses or contacts. But the reality is that both those wishes are unlikely so I just move on with life. I can still see better than some by a long shot.