Purple dress: Old Navy ($5!) * Mustard cardigan: BDG at Urban Outfitters, remixed * Tights: We Love Colors (Charcoal) * Flats: Target, remixed * Scarf: Forever 21, remixed * Glasses: Burberry
Here's a story about glasses:
Like many members of the sub-species of homo sapiens known as quattuor occulus, I blame much of my generally spotty social skills on the fact that I've worn glasses since I was nine years old (of course, it may have just as much to do with the fact that I make stupid jokes using Latin translations of "four eyes" to describe people who wear glasses, but I don't really want to go down that road). I distinctly remember getting glasses for the first time. My best friend had just been fitted for this marvelous pair of purple frames, and I was thrilled that I was joining her ranks. My first pair of glasses was large, so large, too large for my tiny nine year old face. But they kind of looked like Lauren's purple ones, so I was sold. So I remember picking out the frames, but I mostly remember what it was like to see. I hadn't even realized that I couldn't see. I think everyone has a story like this for the moment when they first got glasses; they see leaves on the trees instead of big green blobs, they see cracks in the sidewalk, they see shoelaces on their classmates' shoes. For me it was raindrops. I distinctly remember being amazed that I was able to distinguish individual raindrops as they fell, and I was immediately enamored of these big, goofy, unflattering glasses, because they let me see.
Sine then, for almost two decades, I have worn either glasses or contacts every day. My eyes have consistently gotten worse, and today I truly can't function without them. I actually get a little bit nervous about it sometimes, when I'm traveling or something, that I'll lose or break my glasses and be shit out of luck until I can get myself to a 24-hour Lenscrafters (now that's an idea! 24-hour optometrists!). But mostly I'm used to it and don't really think about it anymore. It's just part of my day. Over the years I've cycled through a veritable carousel of variably attractive frames. I have a hard time, typically, balancing my need to look "cool" with the fact that some frames just don't look good on me. Recently, I started to notice that my eyes had gotten a bit worse again, so I was due for a new pair of glasses. For the past few years I've had these frames, which I truly love, but I thought I'd go back to my old standby with these new frames, the classic black-frame nerd glasses. I have some sense of deranged pride that these are legitimate nerd glasses. I am absolutely, unequivocally, a nerd, and I am also absolutely, unequivocally, blind as a bat, so the nerd glasses fill two very real gaps in my life. The other rad thing about the big ol' goofy nerd glasses is that they're way bigger than other frames, which means that a lot more of my field of vision is covered. Call me crazy, but I like having my peripheral vision in focus.
Any other blind fashionistas out there? Do you adore or abhor your glasses? What's your glasses story?
Title song: Blind Melon, "No Rain"
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