why I wear glasses
Sep. 11th, 2004 02:59 amTo understand this story you have to get a sense of just how near-sighted I am. My focal point is something like two inches in front of my nose. Before the invention of high-index glass my glasses were thick and heavy and left indentations on my nose.
I've been close to blind since I was about 11, and I got really good at navigating without being able to really see where I was going. So when I lost my glasses I never bothered to replace them. I just put my contact lenses in first thing in the morning, and then I could see like a normal person, so I never really thought about it.
At the time this incident took place I used to live in a semi-detached house that had been converted into apartments. I lived on the main floor, and my bedroom was in the back of the house, with a door that led out to the back porch. The porch also led to a couple of other apartments in the building, so I was used to hearing footsteps outside my window at all times as my neighbours went in and out.
What I wasn't used to, however, is things climbing through my bedroom window. I woke up in the middle of the night in response to a noise and sat bolt upright - and there was this bright yellow thing sticking out of the wall above my bed where the window was located.
The yellow blob bounced off my bed and headed for the door. Next thing I know, more yellow blobs are running into through the backdoor and out the bedroom door into my apartment.
To say that I was confused would have been a bit of an understatement.
I mean, I knew that these moving shapes were people because they were all talking to each other - shouting, actually. But they were running very loudly around my apartment and paying absolutely no intention to me. And the fact that every one of them was the same neon yellow colour was throwing me right the hell off. Burglers don't normally wear such flamboyant camoflage.
So finally one of the yellow blobs came over to speak to me and when he realized that I honestly had no idea what was going on, he explained it all to me. One of my neighbours had called 911 saying that she had smelled smoke coming from my apartment. The yellow blobs were all firemen.
I now have a pair of glasses. They live on the shelf right next to the bed.
I've been close to blind since I was about 11, and I got really good at navigating without being able to really see where I was going. So when I lost my glasses I never bothered to replace them. I just put my contact lenses in first thing in the morning, and then I could see like a normal person, so I never really thought about it.
At the time this incident took place I used to live in a semi-detached house that had been converted into apartments. I lived on the main floor, and my bedroom was in the back of the house, with a door that led out to the back porch. The porch also led to a couple of other apartments in the building, so I was used to hearing footsteps outside my window at all times as my neighbours went in and out.
What I wasn't used to, however, is things climbing through my bedroom window. I woke up in the middle of the night in response to a noise and sat bolt upright - and there was this bright yellow thing sticking out of the wall above my bed where the window was located.
The yellow blob bounced off my bed and headed for the door. Next thing I know, more yellow blobs are running into through the backdoor and out the bedroom door into my apartment.
To say that I was confused would have been a bit of an understatement.
I mean, I knew that these moving shapes were people because they were all talking to each other - shouting, actually. But they were running very loudly around my apartment and paying absolutely no intention to me. And the fact that every one of them was the same neon yellow colour was throwing me right the hell off. Burglers don't normally wear such flamboyant camoflage.
So finally one of the yellow blobs came over to speak to me and when he realized that I honestly had no idea what was going on, he explained it all to me. One of my neighbours had called 911 saying that she had smelled smoke coming from my apartment. The yellow blobs were all firemen.
I now have a pair of glasses. They live on the shelf right next to the bed.