Dallas signs off on helping King’s with loan

Cameron R. Pajalich

First Posted: 12/12/2014 I&#8217;ve come to the conclusion that eyeglasses are much like girdles: They&#8217;re NOT supposed to be comfortable.
They are, simply put, a necessary evil that you have to get used to.
After wearing contact lenses exclusively for a long time, I finally reached the point, er, age about two years when it was time to bring back the spectacles.
After much groaning, I looked at the frames available after my eye exam, and I was pleasantly surprised. When I first started wearing glasses as a child, there were two options: Black plastic frames and wire rim frames just like John Lennon. Boring. It seems like only Elton John had the pick of outrageous frames.
A lot has changed since then. Someone (with the poorest vision in the world) finally realized that maybe we should have some fun and some fashion while we are trying to see.
So now frames sport endless colors and some even have fashionable detailing which looks to me like wrought iron railing on a porch. Even designers like Liz Claiborne, Kate Spade, Prada and Gucci have entered into the market.
Maybe this wouldn&#8217;t be so bad after all, I mused as I meandered through the racks of frames.
I narrowed down the choices to several pairs that were actually pretty, because to me pretty and eyeglasses don&#8217;t usually end up in the same sentence. The pair I selected had blue undertones and small blue flowers etched in the metal frames.
I actually couldn&#8217;t wait until they came in two weeks later.
And then I put my glasses on, and ouch, I was very unpleasantly surprised at how much it hurt my face physically than my psyche. Part of the uncomfortable feeling wasn&#8217;t the &#8220;Men Don&#8217;t Make Passes at Girls Who Wear Glasses&#8221; stigma. It was real.
So I removed the frames myself for a quick break and remembered all too well the God-awful red mark that imprints onto the bridge of your nose and stays there the rest of the day and night. And all the four-eyed females among us know that no amount of foundation or concealer will cover it.
I often feel like the frames are a nutcracker and my head is the nut and someone is squeezing real hard trying to crack it. Several headache relief tablets later, I still feel that way.
Some people don&#8217;t like glasses because it cuts their peripheral vision. Another reason has to do with the actual image you are seeing. There are many things to get used to with glasses like bifocal or progressive lenses, other types of lenses and plastic or metal frames. There are instructions on how to point your nose or tilt your head to see. I feel like I&#8217;m bobbing for apples. The glasses hurt your nose, behind your ears and give you headaches. But, hey, you can see, right? So, stop that complaining.
I&#8217;m not the type of woman who can stuff herself into ill fitting but beautiful shoes for the sake of fashion. I like my glasses loose &#8212; real loose &#8212; so loose that if you bend down they just may fall off and hit the floor.
After two years, I decided to splurge and buy another pair of glasses, and put the others still in good condition on the side as a backup, just in case. I thought I had this glasses thing down pat and would luckily hit upon a good looking pair of comfortable spectacles &#8212; maybe more comfortable than the flowered pair.
So, imagine my surprise when I put on the newly purchased pair and hated them at first sight. Now they looked as nice as I recall when they called out to me amid other competing pairs on the rack. But they were heavy on my face. They hurt behind my ears. My nose is pinched. Not to mention that despite no change in my prescription, I just can&#8217;t see as well out of the lenses as I can with the old pair I was looking so forward to replacing.
I&#8217;m told there is always a period of adjustment in getting used to a new pair of glasses. But I don&#8217;t have time and patience to be systematically killed by a pair of specs.
But they are still pretty as far as glasses go.
The frames are all plastic, brown with purple trim and purple hearts etched on them.
The design seems all too fortuitous as it now breaks my heart to say I hate them, but I do. Just as much as I hate the people who wear non-prescription lenses in their frames just because they want to wear glasses.

Being uncomfortable for the sake of fashion: I can’t see doing that