I love my local grocery store and for the purpose of this story, let’s call it Sam’s. It’s a small chain in the Southeast Michigan area that has good quality, great variety and very nice people. They seem to carry higher-end stuff at prices that are pretty much in line with the other chain stores. We’ve tried the other stores and for the most part they are dirty, carry poor quality, and many of their low priced items are things I would never buy and if I had, I’ve found it to be under par.
Every Friday is grocery day. Most people would probably find Friday night as the worst possible time to shop but I have lived with my boyfriend for over 4 years so it’s no longer necessary to put aside Friday night as a ‘date’ night or as a ‘go out with the girls’ night. We have also found it to be a great time to work out. Post workout we shower up and hit the store. We rarely feel like cooking that night so we pick up prepared foods at Sam’s to bring home for dinner. For the most part, Sam’s is not too crowded. If it is a particularly nice evening which has brought people outside, there might be a bigger crowd picking up beer or bar-b-que ingredients but it’s never Saturday crazy which suits me just fine. I don’t like battling crowds anywhere. If I could get myself to ship late at night or early in the morning I would prefer that even more but Friday night has turned into almost a tradition. It almost makes me feel mature, giving up the Friday night urge to party and instead spending quality time ion the meat department with my boyfriend.
So the night was usual, we get to the far corner of the store where the wines sit next to the long deli counter that extends to the other corner. It covers all the necessities: deli meats, deli salads, prepared food including fried chicken, mashed potatoes and fries, prepared dinner foods such as quesadillas, barbeque ribs, scalloped potatoes, half rotisserie chickens and ends with a beautifully decorated dessert case filled with sweets I am too intimidated by to even try. As my boyfriend wandered down to the rotisserie chicken I asked the young kid behind the counter for a half pound of Sahlen’s ham. I recently discovered that Sahlen’s turkey did not have msg and I assume, and still assume that the ham doesn’t either. Either way, it’s good quality and reasonably priced. I mentioned to the kid I didn’t see it in the case and he said he would cut me some. He pulled the ham out, laid it on the slicer and continued talking to the other young kid behind the counter. Both looked to be barely in their early 20’s, so their conversation of baseball (I think) and recent trading of players (possibly) was nothing noteworthy, nothing worth paying attention to. Sometimes when the employees start talking you can get some juicy gossip: the fender bender in the parking lot last night, so-and-so who didn’t show up for work today will be written up, etc. He turned from the slicer toward me and the scale and said, “You wanted a pound? Uh-oh, he sliced twice the amount I wanted. “Oh no, sorry I wanted half a pound.” I know it was an innocent mistake, I wasn’t mad; it’s the type of mistake I’ve made. Your mind is somewhere else and you’ve half heard the directions. I was about to say ok, I’ll take the whole pound (because what that meant for me was more meat on my five lunch sandwiches for the next week) and he said, “No don’t worry, no problem.” He lifted about half the meat and started the scale. He pushed the button for the price sticker and threw down the remaining half pound he was holding and gave me a quiet ‘shhh’.
Now ordinarily I would be having a little celebration in my head. Technically this is stealing because I am getting more than what I pay for, but as a regular customer of the store and a generally honest person, I feel little guilt getting this half pound of ham for free. Sadly, there is no celebration. I am much more focused on the dried booger hanging in the kid’s left nostril. It’s dried and barely clinging to what I assume is nostril hair. It moves very slightly with the inhales and exhales and I hold my breath in hopes it doesn’t break free. All I can think of is my ham; my wonderful Sahlen’s ham that I will be eating Monday through Friday around 1:00. I manage to crack a smile and thank him. As he wraps it up with priced sticker, I can focus on nothing else other than his nose. I toss the lunchmeat in my cart and slowly roll away.
There is a new member to my little family: Wondering Jorge. Jorge came into my life on Lasik day. His uncanny resemblance to Curious George resulted in his name. My mother chose 'Jorge', Jim added 'Wondering'.
Now when I'm at work Chandler has someone to keep him company. When Jim and I went to Chicago recently, they decided to take advantage of their time together and they stayed behind. They have assured me that nothing happened while we were away, there were no parties, and they were in bed before 11 every night.
So I did it. I went for Lasik. I was tired of wearing my contacts and didn't have an up-to-date prescription for my glasses. I would hit the 12-13th hour and my contacts would go on strike. My eyes would dry, the contacts would spontaneously fold in half or just pop out. I would then be faced with the decision: should I keep putting drops in and deal with it until it gets late enough for me to go to bed or should I take them out, sit bored on the couch unable to see the tv, the couch, the bf? 8:00-9:00 is awfully early to turn in. Once the contacts came out I felt helpless and unable to do much of anything. When my glasses were up-to-date, they were not much help because my eyes never liked the transition. I got dizzy, disoriented, and laying on the couch watching a movie was out of the question.
I will spare all the tedious details of the doctor appointments but I learned several things in the process that would have been good to know going in:
- You will need to be out of your contacts to 2-4 weeks before the 3 hours of tests (to see if your eyes can be fixed by Lasik and to map the eye for surgery). You need to continue to be out of contacts before the surgery as well. For me, this meant spending $80 on new lenses for my frames. Because of my problems transitioning from contacts to glasses, this three weeks seemed like a lifetime. Some doctors say 2 weeks, other 4. I split the difference. I found that wearing glasses changed me a bit. I had trouble putting make-up on (usually you do that with the contacts in but you need to have your glasses off to apply eyeliner) I had trouble styling my hair, I had more headaches, days of dizziness, no peripheral vision, etc.
- Lasik surgery does not mean you will never have to wear glasses again. The older you are, the more likely you will need reading glasses.
- My particular doctor had a mandatory video, quiz, 6+ pages of cya (cover your ass) which had to be initialed, copied in my handwriting (some sentences) and signed. Not everyone gets this much work but I found it interesting that when I followed the directions and took notes fro mthe video, asked questions before I initialed things, the nurse/doctor were a bit taken back. Had no one ever read this stuff? Do people just sign all this stuff out of their excitement of having the procedure? When the video mentioned to talk to your doctor about eye allergies, I noted that, and when the video was over, everyone proceeded with me as if I had no questions. When I brought them up, they stumbled over their words. I was told I could return to work the next day but the paragraph I was to initial said I would be off 1 week. I had to initial next to the specific prcedure I was having (one eye or both - which is necessary as you get older to keep both near/far sightedness) I had no idea which they planned to perform. The paragraph said that starting at age 35, the doctor will determine which is best for you and as you get older, the chances are higher they will do the one eye procedure. No one had even talked to me about this. When I asked the doctor, he said that I was far too young to be considered for that but the form seemed to disagree. I started to feel like not only did patients not read this, maybe the doctor hadn't either.
- People who I spoke with about their personal experience with Lasik talked about how wonderful and easy it was. Many times I heard that I would feel silly about being afraid to go through with this and ultimately I would laugh about my fears. You know what? They tape your freaking eyelashes down, put a metal speculum to hold your lids open and press a suction cup on your eye for slicing a flap on your cornea. You don't feel it because of the wonderful numbing drops they give you but you hear the buzzing as it cuts and you smell it. Burning cornea smells like singed hair. The do each eye seperately and for both eyes, I started to feel woozy and faint when they pressed the suction cup down. They had given me a valium prior to the procedure but I'm not sure that did anything, maybe help me sleep when I got home. None of this really hurts, there is discomfort, and pressure but no pain. Ultimately it was not as easy as everyone said it would be but that doesn't mean I regret having it done, I would definitely do it again.
- Your eyes have to be protected for at least a week after the procedure. You sleep with goggle/shields. You shower in swimming goggles. No make-up, no swimming (for several weeks), no heavy lifting, no strenuous exercise, no rubbing your eyes. Four times a day you use three different drops in your eyes. In my case, one of the drops, artificial tears, is needed every hour because my post-op appointment the next day revealed a severe dry eye problem. I was not 100% the next day but within 24 hours of the procedure I was 95%. Your vision goes in and out for a bit, somethings get blurry depending on how bright it is, what ytou are looking at and if your eyes are dry.
What really makes this whole procedure wonderful is waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and being able to see the alarm clock. I don't have to feel around for the walls to get to the bathroom. I can lay on the couch watching tv and as I feel myself fall asleep I don't have to worry about taking my contacts out. There would be this dry eye signal that would send me to the bathroom to deal with my eyes. Take them out or use drops? I don't have to make that part of my nighttime ritual and I love that.When I wake up in the morning I don't feel I need to put my eyes in/on which inevitably makes the decision for me as to whether I am up permanently or up temporarily, with an option to go back to sleep.
I've been back twice to see the doctor and I think he's happy with the results. My vision is officially 20/20. I have another appointment next week and within a few days I'll be able to put make-up on again.
You must see this movie. It's one of the best I've seen in a while. The main character, a lobbyist for the tobacco companies is both a man you can love and hate. I think it's both entertaining and educational. I love the idea of spin doctors. I love what they can do and how they can play either side of any coin. I have been told I play devil's advocate too much but I think I do as an exercise in spin. I would've kicked butt on the debate team.
It's been forever since I've last written!
The bf has been out of town for the past week and I've been taking the opportunity to do some things I might not do when he's around. Nothing naughty....I went to the mall last night. That's something I would only do if he was working or the trip was necessary. At the end of my shopping I wanted dinner. It was 8:00 and I quickly thought about the contents of my fridge at home and decided to pick up dinner instead. Of all the wonderful foods out there, Mexican is not one the bf enjoys. The Detroit suburbs are lacking in good Mexican food so my options were limted. Baja Fresh is pretty good so I stopped in right before they closed. I got a combo meal, loaded up on the freshly made salsa (fresher than a store bought jar) and headed home.
It was good. It was just what I needed. It was fresh tomatos and cilantro and tortilla goodness. A few hours later I was reminded of why I don't eat much Mexican food. All I could smell was onion. This morning when I woke I tasted onion. After I brushed my teeth I tasted onion. As I sipped my coffee at work I tasted onion. I tasted onion all the way to Qdoba where I picked up my lunchtime burrito and you know what I taste? Yes, onion.
I wish there was a way to eliminate that day-after onion taste and the smell on your fingers that won't go away no matter how many times you wash your hands. When someone figures out how to get rid of that? I might start eating at Baja Fresh everyday.
I was stupid yesterday and didn't turn off my headlights so this morning when I left to get my nails done I found my battery was dead. I've never had a problem leaving my lights on until I got my current car a few years ago. There's something about the switch...where its placed...I think I turn off the lights and I bump it getting out of the car and the lights go on again. It was rainy, not dark when I drove yesterday so I didn't notice it. My car was parked in between two others and I happen to see the owner of one out there so I decided, why not.
Of the three guys, non of them spoke English and I know little Spanish. At first they thought I was saying something about where they were parked and they attempted an apology but I was able to explain my predicament. Within minutes my car was running and I was incredibly grateful. I was able to say 'gracias' and express to them that later, when they returned I would have 'cerveza fria'. They smiled and went on their way.
After my nails I headed to the Farmer Jack for the beer. I was staring at the selection in the cooler, looking for Modelo (I am somehow under the impression it is prefered over Corono) and a woman said, 'pardon me' as she passed in front of me. She wasn't in my way but she stopped and told me that she didn't want to be rude and pass by while I was looking. I giggled and said thank you but I thought it was intersting how she excused herself for an action I would've never seen as rude. Very polite.
I settled for the Corona and headed to the register with the case of beer and two limes. The lines were long at the registers so I stood behind the shortest one, which had a few people in front of me. The gentleman I was behind had a cart with a few cases of pop and about a seix more items and looked at me and insisted I go in front of him. He took my beer, set it on his cart as we started our wait. I told him it wasn't necessary. I'm not strong but a case of beer wasn't going to burden me no matter how long I stood there. He insisted again.
All of these things are very small in the big picture of what makes up a day but I think it's neat how one good deed lead to another, and to another. Isn't it great when things turn out like that?
I'm angry and it's getting worse. There's no point going into what I'm angry about, its not important. I've decided I need to listen to more music. I need to put the headphones on and listen to The Fall. Or Spoon. Something loud. Maybe some old punk.
This is the time of the year when my stomach would start to twist into knots and butterflies would keep me tossing and turning each night. I would spend the remainder of June and all of July like I had no cares in the world and when August hit, so did reality. I would count down the days until it was back to school and quickly make plans to do the things I never got around to in the beginning of my summer vacation. Even though I've been out of school for a long time, I still get this way. I still feel the anxiety and anticipation come August. I think my nervousness when I was young made me a more meticulous adult. I plan for Christmas in February. I want to know today what I am doing 6 months from now. If I can start early on a project I will. I remember the disappointment I felt each year because I failed to have everything perfect for when I started school and the fact I had nothing to show for my months off. Now when Labor Day rolls around and I'm still doing the same thing I was in May, part of me is sad I can't start fresh and the other part is relieved at the familiarity.
So Sunday night was yet another concert I did not go to. It seems like every time a band comes around I like, I find every excuse possible not to go. I made my decision for several reasons: I would have been by myself and heading to Detroit alone did not sound fun (I can handle Chicago by myself but Detroit?). It's a Sunday and a school night (ok so it was an all ages show but still...9:00 bedtime). It was warm and humid (standing around with a bunch of sweaty people in an unairconditioned venue, uh no).
So I've come to the conclusion that my worst fear has come true. I am old.
