Lisa Loeb in the House

My hubby is responsible for this super up close picture of my niece, Meredith, and myself

So over the weekend, Lisa Loeb was in our house. Well, not the real Lisa Loeb but the image of Lisa Loeb. (Speaking of Lisa, where has she been lately?) The last I saw her was on a Food Network show that faded into oblivion after a few weeks. Guess she didn’t have much “STAYing” power.

This all started last Thursday when my right eye got very red and very teary over dinner, so on Friday my hubby takes me to see Dr. Reiner (my ophthalmologist). Turns out my right eye has a bacterial infection (caused by my contact lens), so along with antibiotics, I’ve been prescribed not to wear contact lenses for a week. I’ve had to go back to the dark ages and unearth my old eyeglasses. I thought that for 7 days I can make do with my old pair – or at least use the old eyeglass frames since my lenses needed to be upgraded. Unfortunately, my new lenses (which are quite thick) can not fit into the old frames, so I had to pick out new frames.

This is where it gets tricky. Without my contact lenses/glasses, I have really, really bad vision. So you can see how picking out a new pair of eyeglass frames can be very problematic. I tried on about 10 different pairs, while the world’s most unhelpful store clerk looked on. I swear she would take one frame out at a time and every time I pointed to another one I wanted to try, she would make a big deal about polishing the previous pair, opening the glass case, returning the glasses, unlocking another glass cabinet, taking down the new pair, polishing that with a little cloth before handing it over. All this in slow, deliberate motion. And having two pairs out at the same time to compare them was unheard of! Only one pair at a time could be brought out. I guess the top-level security was necessary cause of the rash of dummy-eyeglass-frames-with-plastic-lenses robberies across Los Angeles!

My hubby was no big help either. Every (and I mean EVERY) pair I would try on, he would have the same “it looks fine” comment. And the sales person, well, she was hardly Miss Enthusiastic after I turned down a pair of Prada frames that cost $400.00. So I, along with my terrible eyesight, was on my own, which is how I ended up with my Lisa Loeb frames. Check out her glasses at www.lisaloeb.com.

I guess apart from looking a bit funky they aren’t so bad. They kinda grow on you and I did get some compliments from family and friends (at a surprise party for my sister in law, Marik, over the weekend). BTW, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Ate Marik! This is the second year we’ve had a surprise party for her and I think she was less surprised this year -- so maybe we’ll have think of something else next year.

Anyway the point is, I came to realize this is exactly what “someone” and I have been talking about very recently (I apologize for taking credit for what you said – but honestly I can’t recall who I had this conversation with. How sad is that???). Anyway the conversation was about how we totally overlook certain things and only realize their value when we lose them. Classic example -- my contact lenses. I remember being so thrilled when I first wore them since it relieved me of wearing glasses, but over the years wearing them has really became second nature to me. But now, being told not to wear them, well, the world just does not seem right anymore. All of a sudden, I’m noticing how my glasses fog up in the bathroom, how I can’t wear them in the shower, how the bridge of my nose is getting red/dented marks, how I need to wipe them with my little cloth every so often …

Same idea as how you are never thankful you don’t have a headache until you get one. I’m not trying to be existential or philosophical here. Nor am I suggesting that we have meaningful conversations with all the little modern conveniences in our lives. (Thank you Mr. Coffeemaker, thank you Mr. Computer …). But rather realizing that we do often take things for granted and only really realize their value when they are gone. And yes, I think it is even more relevant when we think about the people in our lives. Of course … this is by no means a novel idea, in fact it is an age-old fundamental truth. Funny, though, since it is yet something else we have also been guilty of overlooking. (Yup, ironic how we have overlooked the things we overlook).