When You Shudder At The Thought of Going to the Mall

I love to shop.  Just not for certain things.  And just not at this time of year. Going to see Santa and going to get new eyeglasses are two completely different things.

Recently I decided to take advantage of our eye insurance and get new glasses.  Not to mention that our yearly FSA expires on December 31st.  It had been over two years since I had got new ones and since it was almost the end of the year, I figured I had better shake it to the doctor's office especially since I had started getting more headaches and I suspected it was because my prescription had changed.

Can I tell you that I am pretty decisive when it comes to clothing shopping and even car shopping but eyeglass shopping ranks up there with deciding on what new haircut to get.  I rely on Consumer Reports and friends recommendations when car shopping.  Clothes are easy-just pick whatever looks good and is comfortable.

Glasses?  They are another story.  I can spends hours trying to pick out a pair of frames.  I've had gold wire frames, clunky black Ralph Lauren ones, and in high school (long before Harry Potter ever came along and these glasses were in vogue) small round brown wire frames.  Looking back I shudder at how ridiculous I looked in those glasses and my prom dress.  Recently I was faced with it on Facebook when a friend had posted pictures from our senior prom.  Lovely.  Just lovely.

Then they throw in the choices of whether or not to get insurance (I have toddlers after all) or special lenses (deal with the glare or get no glare-whatever that means or get ultra thin lenses) and it makes it even harder.  Apparently my lenses (even though my doctor says my eyes are not that bad) would be thicker than most and that limits the types of frames I should get unless I get special lenses.  That is according to the salesperson who helped me.

Normally, I wear my contacts but since I have astigmatisms in both eyes my contacts are thicker than regular ones and dry out easily.  There are some days where my eyes get easily irritated or dry and I end up wearing glasses so I want to like whatever I get.

My choice?

The color of the metal frames reminds me of maple syrup.  They also have an abstract pattern on the sides.

I have decided that glasses are like shoes.  You might have several pairs but you can always use a new pair.  You get comfortable with them and it isn't until you need to that you venture out to replace your favorite pair.

Thank goodness I won't have to do this again anytime soon.