April 02, 2007

Aubergine & Glow-in-the-Dark Green


These are my everyday glasses. I've had them for over ten years, and they are as close to an extension of myself as anything I've ever owned. (I wore contact lenses for a significant portion of my 20's, but camping and childbirth put me back into the habit of wearing glasses.)

I am extremely nearsighted, and have been for almost as long as I can remember. My joke about choosing glasses is that if I chose a pair with a large eyesize, the resulting weight would probably shear off my nose.

So these glasses are not large. But they do make a statement.

I can still remember the day I bought them. T and I were on vacation together in Montreal, one of our favorite cities, and had stopped into this fabulous eyewear store with what seemed like an unlimited selection of frames. This was still in my "mostly contacts" period, so I wasn't so much seriously shopping as I was flirting with the extremely gracious and helpful saleswoman. But then I saw these glasses, and tried them on. They were expensive, imported from Paris. Almost immediately, T surprised me by saying, "I think you should get them."

"What? No, they're too expensive. And they're kind of 'out there,' don't you think?"

"You'll wear them forever, it's Canadian dollars, and you should get them. They make you smile."

Already learning to bow to my partner's occasionally superior wisdom, I smiled one last smile at my favorite sales clerk and plunked down my credit card.

Three apartments, two houses, and a kid later, I'm here to say that the "get them if they make you smile" philosophy of eyewear purchasing seems to have worked out well for me.

I rarely think about the glasses anymore (except when I have to take them in for repairs due to an over-zealous bout of tickling or some in-home wrestling practice), but I do still get an occasional comment. The most common among these is a question... "Do those glow in the dark?"

"Yes they do," I reply with a smile. "But only if I recharge them."

(Thanks to Patti Digh of 37days for her
fabulous essay on wearing pink glasses,
which partially inspired this post.
And thanks to the good folks at Piknik,
who make a great suite of free online photo editing tools!)


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

ooh. aubergine is one of my favorite words (and colors). I love these! I decided when I went back to glasses (very thick, the glasses of someone who used to read with a flashlight under the covers at night) that I would consider them jewelry and bought red ones, leopard print ones, green ones, orange ones, turquoise ones (ahem, this is when I was gainfully employed). I love this love song to your fabulous frames! I think we both need pink ones now...

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

Oh I'm hankering for new glasses (and well overdue)--these are lovely :)

JAXTER said...

I have always loved...and secretly coveted them as well...your awesome glasses. They become you in so many ways.

Nancy Bea Miller said...

I love your glasses, and miss them from your Blog photo (not that your current silhouette isn't cool and artsy)! But the glasses are very "you" somehow.

Unknown said...

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