My Eyeballs! They're Saved!

I am very sensitive. My senses, that is.

I can't STAND loud noises like garbage trucks or Harley Davidson motorcycles that obnoxiously fart their way through traffic with a flagrant disregard for the public's sense of peace. Is it necessary that you be so effing loud? Ugh, my poor ears. Your noise pollution.

Smells? Don't get me started. I can smell a cancer stick - er, cigarette - from miles away. And my sense of touch? Well, I can't sleep if someone is cuddling next to me, interrupting my personal space, and breathing on me. I need a bubble (and THIS is why I decided not to teach abroad in China). And I have very random cravings. My palette just knows what it wants, I guess.

But perhaps my most delicate and easily affected sense is that of sight. My eyes take after my mothers' notorious tendency of becoming bloodshot after...well, really, anything that's irritating. Tiredness, a wee bit of alcohol, SMOKE, people who chew with their mouths open (kidding), too much light...it's terrible. So many times I've been asked if "I'm alright" because my eyes have said otherwise. I'm fine, it's just that my eyes are pansies. In the simplest of terms, they just turn BLOODSHOT RED. That's the only way to describe 'em (but I don't even wear glasses!).

I started a desk job and for five weeks straight have been staring at a computer screen for a good eight hours a day. No joke. In addition, my work place's ambiance is a recipe for eyeball disaster: the outside light floods in because the office has windows rather than walls on one of its sides; the boss insists on turning on both fluorescent lights; the computers are probably from prehistoric times and their monitors are tiny and poorly placed, leaving the text to be itsy bitsy and pixelated. Bugh! No wonder, with all the brightness surrounding the computer, that my eyes had to strain so hard to concentrate on the screen. Sooner rather than later, my left eye started twitching incessantly -- and when I say incessantly, I mean for three days straight, including Saturday; I started getting headaches and a throb in my left eyeball (wonderful, reaallly attractive) even when I wasn't looking at the screen, my eyes were red (duh), dry, and Visine wasn't doing SQUAT. Nor was Advil. I sat their for a good 10 minutes a day either pressing on my temples or massaging my shut-eyes. A few times I turned melodramatic and thought what might happen if I turned blind. But really.

But praise God! I was at the USC bookstore a few weeks ago and literally did a double take as I walked past this display of yellow, futuristic glasses called Gunnar Optiks. Turns out these suckers are glasses made for people who basically stare at screens for prolonged periods of time. Think gamers, web designers, or people with weak eyes like yours truly. Fast forward a few weeks, with much researching on my behalf, conversing via Twitter with @GUNNARForce (they're AWESOME on Twitter, btw), and minus $108 from my bank account (but well worth the money), I now have a beautiful pair.



Yes, they lenses have a yellow tint but I really don't care. I love reading articles and blogs on the web but never was able to after work during my hellish-eyeball days (lol). Now, I can! My coworkers have tried them on and I believe one is going to get his pair soon. My father was stunned: "Woahh...how...SOOTHING" he sighed in awe.

Thank you, Gunnar Optiks. A great investment on my behalf. Now I don't have to worry about eye strain (or the possibility of prescription glasses, yikes!) any longer!

http://www.gunnars.com