M makes a spectacle of herself

Following on Tuesday’s optometrist visit, M got a new prescription for glasses, which she needed to fill.  As her old frames were (1) bent, (2) pink, which she detested, and (3) Barbie designer label, which she despised, she and I got together this afternoon and went on a trip to get her new glasses.  I decided that since she was the one who’d have to wear them every day, she got the majority vote on questions of taste and color, and I would intervene only if she picked something really pricey.

And after we got our other errands run (library day, leave my spectacles to be patched again at the shop, Goodwill, Half Price) we set out for Barton Creek Square which, when we got there, was a mob scene.  It was the first really pretty day in a week, and every girl who wanted to show off her new sunsuit or shorts or baby-doll top (with obligatory navel piercing), plus half the families who had been cooped up together for too long, had come out.  We consulted the mall map, located the three opticians, and started looking.

The first place we went, Bellingrath Optics, was probably too designer chi-chi to suit M’s ideas; at any rate, it took her about ten minutes to decide they had nothing for her, and we left.  It was the same story, but took longer to come to the same end, at Eyemasters.  M ran the clerk all over the shop looking for this frame, or that color, but in the end we left empty-handed again.

Lens Crafters was more promising.  M got taken up by the general manager, who was run off her feet, but said to give her a few minutes to finish a couple of short repairs and she’d be with us.  She also handed M a tray to use as a shopping cart and left us to browse, which we did.

By this point M was pretty sure what she was after:  rectangular lens, probably not a plastic frame, half-frames would be a plus.  I suppose she tried on twenty pairs while we waited, and by the time the manager came back to us she had five possibles.  I turned it over to them, and went over to help hold the counter up—today is my first day out of bed, and I was running down.  The two of them ran all over the store for another quarter hour, but at last M came over and said ’It’s between these two; I want a second opinion.’  She tried them on for the counter associate and me to look at, and we agreed on one—a mid-line Anne Klein wire-frame, anodized purple, with medium temples and the Klein lion-head logo stencil-punched in each temple.  The associate took us over and got the final width measurements and entered the order, and we left.  LensCrafters doesn’t take the vision insurance that M’s on (it’s the state plan, which is pretty indifferent), but they offer half off the entire pair—lenses AND frames—for under-12s, so the final price of $200 was about what we would have paid with insurance somewhere else.  I’ll have to run out there tomorrow or Monday and get them; M’s lobbying for tomorrow so she can wear them to school Monday.

Once we were outside, I told M that she’d obviously been a Young Woman of Vision Making a Spectacle of Herself, which is what I expect really.  She ran the whole show save for the money part, and ended up with something she wanted and is more likely to wear than otherwise.

Conditions at 20:03

Temp 53° F. (12° C.), dew point 12° F. (-12° C.), humidity 19%, winds calm, barometer 29.69”↓, sky clear, visibility 10 miles.

Fnord led to the foundation of 163 monasteries in Europe.