Blind

After an exhausting week thus far, I felt my eyelids getting heavy as I was driving home. I needed to stay awake for ten more minutes to get safely to my bed. To keep from dozing off at a red light, I rubbed my eyes. Mistake!

My eyes are nearly worthless. I used to walk into walls when I was little. Apparently this was a red flag for eye problems. I got my absolutely adorable (dorky) glasses at the ripe old age of six. They were thicker than coke bottles and have only gotten worse with age.

So with a good rub of the eyes, my contacts popped out. Uh oh! This could cause a problem. My range of vision without the help of contacts is about an inch and a half in front of my face. Ten miles to go on somewhat windy roads, unable to see. This is certainly not an ideal situation.

My contact vision allows me to see this:

Not even all that great, but manageable, right? I think so. I haven't had too many problems that high beams weren't able to solve. However, the lose of my contacts turned my world upside down. That beautiful vision above turned into this:

Not so comforting. Is that a car up ahead? Honestly, I'm not to sure. How am I supposed to see where to turn? How will I see a curve? God forbid a deer run in front of my car. This was not good! I did all I could think of. I stuck those dirty, air drying contacts back into my failing eyes. They burned! It felt like someone had just thrown a handful of sand at my face. Somehow, using all of the willpower I could muster up, I was able to keep my eyes slightly open and find my way home.

It is not easy being blind! Once contacts, glasses, or coke bottles are taken away, illusions run rampant. There are some things that immediately become unrecognizable.

You can go from this:

to this:

Pretty bad. But it gets worse. At least I can figure out what that thing might be. The worst is at night. Laying alone in bed when all is dark. I look around and the things that were there when my glasses were on, have transformed.

A coat thrown over a chair:

Literally transforms:

A simple table lamp:

Becomes my worst nightmare:

No person is more grateful for contact lenses. I would hate to have to live my life in fear. Without my contacts I would have much to fear. You would too, as I would be extremely dangerous on the road. Jeff has bad eyes too. But he is lucky, he looks good in his glasses.