Just My Luck

I've been to the eye doctor a lot lately because I'm getting fitted for contact lenses. I have brown eyes, and while I love them the way they are, I've always thought it would be so cool to be able to transform them to green. So I am getting color contacts. I was there again on Tuesday. Jacob was with me, he loves going and is such a good boy the whole time we're there. The main attraction for him is the fish tank (plus we go to the train store afterwards). I've always had a little trouble feeling ok with fish being trapped in a tank. They're just such a hard animal to read. Are they happy? Are they pissed that they keep bumping into glass? Do they even know the difference? But I have to admit it's a pretty cool menagerie of fish.

I'll never forget the first time Jacob saw the one who's job is to suck up all the debris (don't know the name of them) with it's wide, open mouth pressed up against the glass. He didn't know I had come up behind him when his curiosity got the better of him and was about to test his courage. Pointer finger aimed and slowly making progress toward the glass, he looked nervous. I couldn't not do it. Just as he made contact I grabbed him by the shoulders and made a deep boo sound. Hehe...he jumped a mile. And then we laughed about it. I do it every time, like entrapment; "Go ahead, you can touch it," I coax. Then he does and I do the scary thing again. You'd think he would come to expect it by now.

First I had bad luck, then I had good luck, so I kind of broke even in this situation. Last time I was there (2 weeks ago) I got new lenses for my glasses. I got my first ones 2 1/2 years ago, and in all that time, and with all the close calls, they never broke or anything.

I was filling in for someone at work later that evening so Jacob was able to come with me. That's not the policy at my work, but we're short-staffed and desperate times call for desperate measures. I think now that I'm needed more Jacob is going to be coming with me a lot. I feel so lucky that I have a situation like this because Jacob loves going there and being able to take your child to work with you is a pretty good deal. Anyway, I was just closing up and getting ready to leave. I had my bag on a chair by the door along with my keys and glasses. I was in the other room when Jacob asked for something that was in the bag. "Be careful of my glasses," I yelled from 40 feet away. I was heading back to where Jacob was to assist when I saw him perched on the chair in the exact place I left my glasses. I picked up my pace in fright, thereby completely missing the fact that my glasses lay on the floor right in my impending path. Crunch. It was sort of a circular causation thing, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like The Gift of the Magi.

That was the bad luck part. Jacob was being careful, but because of my lack of confidence in him, I was the one who crushed them. Should teach me to be more confident in him, which I usually am, I was just in a hurry that night because we had to be back there again in 13 hours. The good luck came 5 minutes later when I was driving home with my flattened glasses held to my face, steering with the other hand. I approached the place where I got my glasses 2 1/2 years ago (a different place than where I've been going recently). I still have the frames I got there so they'll fix them for free, and they were open late that night! Jacob was in a good mood so we went in; no one else was there, I was helped right away. The lady bent them back into place with her little tools and we left in under 5 minutes! It was so cool. I couldn't believe my luck because I didn't think they were fixable.

When I was almost home something fell on my lap. I freaked for a minute because I thought it was a bug, but when I pulled in the driveway and turned on the light I realized it was the little pad thingy that holds the glasses on your face that had fallen onto my lap. Oops. They're still wearable, but I look silly so I've only been wearing them while I drive. On the flip side of that, I left the eye doctor that day with a trial supply of contacts so it turns out I have a backup. And in this way I am forced to wear them and begin to get used to the weirdness of it. I'm not the type of person who generally likes to have foreign objects in my eyes. I'm squeamish in that way, like I think they're going to fall back into my brain or something.

For that day at least my luck seemed to balance itself out...