Friday, April 21, 2006

"Is it okay to cry over spilled contacts?" OR "Why Sam's Club Just Might Save the Day"

I mean, I know milk is off limits, but what about those little plastic discs that make the blind to see? Well, valid reason or not, despite resolutely telling myself "this is silly and I will not cry again," I've succumbed to puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks for the third consecutive morning.

It all started Wednesday morning when, in a not-really-awake-yet stupor, I accidentally washed my contact lenses down the drain. (My emergency plumbing efforts turned up some stinky green gunk, the kind my friend Lynn would term "nasty mafungoo," and a corroded earring I lost who knows how long ago, but sadly no contacts--apparently the recovery my father made when I made the same mistake back in high school was a one-time miracle.) Now, if I wore disposable soft contacts like the majority of the vision-impaired masses, it would not be that big of a deal. However, I am among the minority who wear rigid gas permeable lenses, the kind that last for years but are far more cumbersome to replace and tend to be quite expensive.

I'm not really sure where all these tears have come from, since I'm not much of a crier in general, but it's been a rough week, and they've seemed to recur each time I've hit a brick (i.e. monetary) wall trying to get them replaced. Which is where I think Sam's Club Optical is going to save the day, because I discovered this morning that I can get an eye exam AND a pair of contact lenses for over $100 less than my regular eye doctor was going to charge me for the lenses alone. How about that!? As my hippie heroes on AR would say, "Hot Dog!" I remain a little skeptical, given the various metaphorical doors that have slammed shut in my face this week, but I am hoping to experience a little wholesale club redemption this evening. We shall see. Or I should say, I will see, and hopefully through affordable little lenses.

No comments: