For pretty much the last 20 years, my eyes have been problematic. A lifetime of playing video games, watching too much television and an career pursuit and occupation that requires me to look at computer screens for way more than I’d like to admit, have rendered my eyes in pretty bad shape. My vision is poor, I have perpetually dry eyes, and when things are really bad, light sensitivity, ranging from mild annoyance to being incapable of being outside on a sunny day.
Needless to say, I got glasses at a pretty young age, but by high school I was wearing contact lenses, and have been wearing them pretty much ever since. Because I was a dumb teenager with erratic sleeping habits, I fell asleep with my contact lenses on way more times than any person really should, which led to exacerbating my eye problems at times.
Since then, I’ve done well enough in caring for my eyes, as far as staving off infection or bacterial problems; as well as I can considering my job requires me to be staring at computer screens all day long. But there are still bad times like when I play too much LoL and/or don’t get enough quality sleep, where wearing my contacts isn’t always the best idea.
For the most part, I’ve avoided wearing glasses unless I absolutely needed to, or I was in the comfort and privacy of my own home. I have a pair of glasses that aren’t terribly dated in style, but the prescription is flawed, due to it having come from a quack of an Uncle Tom Korean doctor who treated me like shit, told me that I’d go blind, and that I should never wear contacts again. (Seriously, I can trace the start of my resentment towards Uncle Tom Koreans LITRALLY back to this doctor.) He prescribed the glasses based on my shitty vision prior to any sort of medical treatment, so needless to say that when my eyes are doing better, they’re off enough to make them nauseating to wear. So, it’s safe to say that I pretty much don’t wear them. Like, at all. Frankly, I’m not entirely sure why I still have them.
Needless to say, when I need to wear glasses, I have a pair of glasses back from when I was in the eighth grade that I can wear which won’t cripple my vision. Given the fact that they’re LITRALLY twenty years old, you can imagine to the dated style in which they might look. Because there is no way in hell I’d show anyone them. Seriously, like when I go out or to the store on non-contacts days, I’ll wear them as far as my destination, but they’re staying in the car, blurry vision at the destination be damned.
Anyway, now a few years removed from the arduous life of permanent freelance work, I have insurance, to which I can capitalize on stuff such as co-pay and partial coverage on things like medical exams, and in this particular case, vision care. Seeing as how I’ve got a stock of contact lenses for the foreseeable future, I figured that now was as good as time as any to get myself a pair of glasses that aren’t 20 years old, nor look like it either.
But most importantly, a pair of glasses that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen in, and that I might actually be able to wear out in public. Because I’m narcissistic like that.
And pictured is the end result. Initially, I wanted big dorky nerdy wayfarer style of glasses, but because my head and face are big, they don’t have the shrinking effect on my noggin, and the bottoms of them rest on my cheeks too closely, which I know would agitate the ever-loving shit out of me in time.
So I dialed back my desire for some overly-hipster spectacles, and ended up with something that makes me look more like I should be on Food Network, critiquing dishes in an overly exaggerated studio kitchen.
Either way, I’m amazingly pleased with these new glasses. I actually don’t feel embarrassed about them, and although I’m still wearing contacts as my daily default, I’d say don’t be too surprised if you see me wearing these more often, especially at late-night things, and when the season changes.
Now I can look like the hipster I act like from time to time.
