a new perspective

I just picked up some new glasses today. It’s funny how when trying on different frames by looking in the mirror I’m supposed to be able to see what I would look like with them on, when in fact I can’t see for crap because the display lens on the show frames are no where near my eye prescription. So I end up moving my face real close to the mirror, which I think in reality distorts the way I look with them on, since the darn thing isn’t big enough to see the entire picture.

I have to admit that this time, I didn’t really spend a whole lot of time picking the frames. I just didn’t care as much as I did the last time I went for new glasses… which was about 5 or 6 years ago? (Wow, I didn’t realize it was that long.) It was about time to get new glasses – the old ones were starting to get scratched up and the metal parts were starting to accumulate that green gunk despite my best (or worst?) efforts.

At the eye exam, I didn’t think I did too bad. No, I didn’t cheat and memorize the letters. I don’t think I did too well either. For some odd reason, I find eye exams fun. You get to sit there in the chair and just say better/worse or pick a number.

“Which is better? One? Or two? One or two?” I think eye doctors secretly get a kick out of doing eye exams. They make it seem like the easiest thing in the world.

So a week later, I finally got the call the glasses were ready, which was yesterday. I went to pick them up when I noticed that there was a wire sticking out between one of the lens and the frame. So of course the technician wouldn’t be in until the next day. Soooo cloooooose.

Today pretty much dragged on until quitting time. Long story short(“Too late, S!”) I made it back to the eye store.

When I finally put my new glasses on, it felt weird. Really wierd. See, (no pun intended) my old glasses had larger frames and lenses, which my eyes were accustomed. The new frames and lenses are about a fingerwidth smaller, which I suppose is a lot. So the “wide” vision that I was used to with the old glasses feels compressed with these new glasses. I guess the best way I can describe it is like taking a TV (4:3 ratio) image and squashing it to a wide format (9:5) image. Since the lenses are smaller, my angle of vision gets squashed a little – it tries to fit all the same information into a smaller window. So instead of seeing more of the ground plane as i look straight ahead, it appears at a slightly more horizontal angle – which basically means the ground plane appears closer to my eyes. The resulting effect is I somehow feel shorter.

I mean, wow. It feels like I shrunk or something. Even when I’m driving, it feels like the road is closer. It made me think of how close I actually sat above the ground when I’m driving. A little scary.

I’ll get used to it. Maybe in another 5 or so years I’ll be ready for a new pair. Maybe I’ll go for goggles or huge ass frames again. Or maybe by then I’ll need telescopes for my eyes.

Maybe I’ll just get an eye exam for the fun of it.

I better start practicing.