yesterday i had my yearly eye exam (diabetes wreaks havoc on eyes). good news? all normal.

besides that, i also learned three things:

1 - i am not the only one to feel stress at eye exams. i feel they are like the old nightmare where you have a test and you didn't study for it. there's a lot of pressure to read the letters properly and get the right answer - so much so that my doctor says that people cheat all the time. he'll ask them to cover one eye and read the letters and they try to covertly uncover their eye. when he tells them not to, they respond "but if i don't it's all blurry!"

2 - james howe is a cool guy (i wouldn't expect any less from the author of "bunnicula"). when my doctor found out i was a children's librarian he asked if i knew "jim howe." (it took me a minute to confirm that i did, because even if i had met him, i would not have called him "jim"!) my doctor is good friends with him - his son appears in a book that james howe wrote!

3 - that pupil dilation stuff hurts your eyes for a while. (and is really inconvenient when actors and other "fiddler on the roof" people need to contact you) on the plus side, even if you are wearing a sweet summer dress and flats and look totally innocent, people will avoid sitting next to you on the subway if you are wearing sunglasses.