A final thought on the whole contacts/glasses thing: it suddenly occurred to me the other night that I am actually quite fortunate. In a round about way, not being able to wear glasses is a consequence from my small stroke. If I had not stroked, my left eye would not be so damaged, if it were not so bad off, then I could have worn more affordable lenses. Since having that stroke I have met people on-line, my age, who have suffered much more long-lasting effects from their strokes. I know some who have permanently contorted limbs, live in constant pain, suffer from aphasia (inability to speak), and have to wear Depends. I can't complain about my life-long eye problem and I won't anymore.
Besides, it also occurred to me that one of my personal heroines, Sarah Palin, wears glasses. Now maybe she only does it to look intelligent, but at any rate, I've never seen a photograph of her without them. I mentioned that to Paul and he replied seriously, "That's true!" And then he grinned and said cheekily, "And she's a hot mama, too!" I'm done whining!
That's a picture of Laura and me yesterday. I had a nice time. As it turned out, the day was cold and rainy so Paul didn't have any work, so he was able to stay home with the boys. So I was able to take off for Cedar Rapids without a care in the world (other than trying to drive in pouring rain). I met Laura at her sister's apartment and the route took me by a number of "slummy" houses. A lot of them were boarded up and graffitied and I really began to wonder about what part of town I was in! But her sister explained to me that the area I had just driven through was the part that flooded so badly in '08. All those houses I had just seen had been submerged. They just haven't been taken down yet. I'm so thankful we were spared that!
Laura took me to lunch and we spent the day shopping, as we used to always do in Waterloo during our high school and college days. I've missed her! Our lives have taken such divergent paths but there's always that point of reconnection when you are old friends.
This past week was SO busy and I do want to post more about it. I'm going to have to do it in short little blog posts in between housework, cooking, and fetching Ben from respite care later today. I have to go back to Pearle Vision today to get my card credited. I am so tempted to show up in my long black trench coat, collar turned up, and wearing sunglasses! I don't want to go in there!
One bit of sunshine from this past week: I love lilac bushes. It's unfortunate that the lilacs themselves make me sneeze terribly. But they're so pretty and smell just heavenly! I had just had the thought this past week that I should mention to Paul I'd like to have a bush for our yard. He's more into landscaping than I am and I know that if I put in a request like that, he'd get it for me, sooner or later. I happened to look out this week at one corner of our deck and I saw a blooming lilac bush! I couldn't believe it! That bush has been there since we moved in in '04 and we didn't know what it was. It has certainly never bloomed before. But for some reason, we have lilacs this year - great big purple ones!
And I think I need all the sunshine I can get. They are saying storms should be rolling in again this afternoon and tomorrow is going to be cold and windy. I'm just not a big fan of spring, I have to say!
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