Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

My dilated eyes

I had an eye appointment bright and early on Monday morning, in Central Pennsylvania. You might wonder why I was in Central PA, and not in the Philadelphia area, where I live. Good question.

I kept my eye doctor when I moved, mainly because I have an issue with my left eye, something called surface wrinkling retinopathy. Basically, it's a wrinkling of the retina caused by a thin scar tissue on the surface of the macula.

It's generally caused by aging and is typically seen in much older patients, but it can also be caused by a severe blow to the head or eye. In my case, the doctors aren't certain what caused it, but I first noticed it seven years ago, a day or two after the Luser hit me in the face right next to my eye, knocking off my glasses, the night I kicked him out of my apartment and out of my life.

I never told the doctors this, because originally they were talking about it as a spontaneous form of premature aging in the eye, and I didn't realize it could be caused by trauma to the head until years after the problem was diagnosed. It's impossible to tell if there was any connection.

In my case, the visual disturbance is minimal. There's a dark crescent "floater" in my left eye that I rarely notice unless I stare at something white for awhile. And there is some blurriness that I never notice until I do the annual eye tests. Both of my eyes are corrected to 20/20 with my current prescription, and nothing has changed for years.

Every two years, they dilate my eyes so my doctor can get a better look. I drove the appointment, since there wasn't an easy way for my parents to drop me. We would just have to pick up the car later.

The receptionist was particularly taciturn. I'm always a little shocked at first when I come back to Central PA, because people are so much less talkative than in Philly. If you're used to Philly, it even appears a little rude.

All the other people, the nurse practitioners in the office, were much friendlier. They got me in on time for my exam, checked my vision with the glasses on, then added the dilation drops.

The doctor took a look and informed me that the left eye was stable, and there are no problems with my right. I was relieved, even though I'd anticipated good news.

When you get your eyes dilated, you're incapable of focusing on close objects, so I had made out everything on my check ahead of time except for the amount and even marked the place to find it with Post-it tab.

A check of the time revealed I had some time to kill before I was being picked up. I stepped outside into blinding sun.

I walked across the street to a shopping plaza that used to be anchored by Ames until the chain was killed by Wal-Mart. The Fashion Bug was still around, so I decided to give it my support.

My blurry vision got a little better inside the store, which wasn't so interminably bright (how could I have forgotten to bring sunglasses?) They were having a sale on jewelry, buy one, get one for 50 percent off. So with my limited vision, I looked through the offerings and chose four. I also picked up a pair of sunglasses, of course.

Then I walked down to the browse in the Dollar Store, where I bought a fluffy pink and purple plush dog for my dad to keep at his place as a dog toy. I knew Una would appreciate it. I also got a Nutrigrain bar. Although I couldn't read the nutritional info, I knew from memory it was a pretty healthy snack.

I'd pretty much exhausted that plaza, so I doubled back across the hospital parking lot and entered Wal-Mart. I stopped on the way at another plaza, in the Staples, and bought more writable CDs to backup my computer.

In the parking lot of Wal-mart, I gave The Gryphon a call.

He had stayed home from work that morning due to a really bad bout of allergies. He gets seasonal allergies which are worse in the spring and fall. This time, when I spoke to him, he sounded a little better, and he told me he'd taken some medicine.

In Wal-Mart, I picked up a couple Father's Day gifts I knew Dad could use: some photo albums for organizing his family photos, and a shoe organizer for the multiple pairs of shoes he had piled up in his bedroom.

Back at Dad's place after getting picked up, I presented him with the gifts, early. He was happy to receive them. While I waited for him to take care of some errands, I took Una for a nice walk. It was a really bright day, but the sunglasses helped. The temperature was mild enough that I only needed a light sweater.

I took some pictures while I was out, mainly of pretty things like flowers.

Una sniffs the daffodils in a church garden

As you can tell, she was very happy to be outside

Evidence of tulip fanciers

Una enjoyed this spring display, even the baskets of silk flowers

Red gravel is pretty!

The most colorful building in town,
appropriately enough, houses a tattoo business

But I also found it interesting that "No Trespassing" signs have appeared throughout the area where we were walking, in alleyways and on fences. Don't know why, but I'd guess to prevent teenagers from cutting through yards.

No tiptoeing through these tulips, buddy

I had time for a quick nap before Dad returned. We socialized a little bit before he had to go downstairs for his usual office hours. His osteopathic practice is on the first floor of an old 1800's office building, and his apartment is on the top floor.

He returned at 1:30, so we had nearly an hour to catch up. We talked about the medical conference coming up next week, and made plans to get together. I updated him on my eye, and he was happy to hear it was stable.

After he walked downstairs for office hours, I hoofed it to the local Subway, where I bought a 6-inch turkey sub and some light lemonade. I checked out the Salvation Army thrift store across the street, but I've never had much luck there. They gear their clothes towards a clientele of mainly elderly women, and there were a lot of silky blouses in floral patterns with attached neck scarves and such.

I walked then to one of my favorite places to visit when I'm in town, the American Rescue Workers thrift store.

This time, I didn't have as much luck as usual. Maybe it's because I'm pickier now than I used to be about how my clothes fit me. I don't buy anything unless I love it and think it flatters me, according to tips I picked up from watching makeover shows like TLC's "What Not to Wear" or "A Makeover Story". So I often find myself looking in the mirror at a garment I might have grabbed up a couple years ago, saying to myself, "I don't love it" and returning it to the racks.

So after I spent a lot of time trying things, I only bought a lightweight silk nightie for summer, a brightly colored silk scarf, a Sixpence None the Richer CD and a silver clutch which will go really well with a black Michael Kors dress I just bought on sale at Lord & Taylor's.

Just as I had returned inside from letting Una out again, I got a call that it was time to for dinner with Mom. She'd told me that if I had dinner with her, she'd consider it our time together for Mother's Day and I wouldn't have to make another trip. She'd been paying attention to gas prices and didn't want me to follow through on my plans to do the Mother's Day celebration over Memorial Day weekend, when prices will likely skyrocket.

At Mom's suggestion, we ate at Friendly's. I had a lot of trouble finding myself something healthy to eat on the menu. Finally, I settled on an oriental chicken salad, and Mom ordered a beef dish with lots of veggies. For dessert, I had one scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

We had a nice time, talking about what was going on in our lives. We talked especially about my brother expecting a second child, a daughter and what they might name her. Before driving home, we stopped in the nearby mall at the Boscov's so Mom could buy a new set of sheets on sale. She also browsed the clothing department but saw little that interested her.

On the way back, she dropped me off at my car in the hospital parking lot. We met again at her house, where she showed me some of her recent paintings and drawings, one of which was based on a photograph I took of a bee on a wildflower. I loved them. She's getting better all the time.

I drove back to Dad's in fading evening.

Dad and I watched one of the DVDs I'd brought. The choice was between Crash and Rittenhouse Square, and Dad chose the latter as soon as he heard the name. He said he'd read about it in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and since it was only ever in limited release, he was anxious to see it. The film is the latest movie by Robert Downey Sr., a documentary about a year in the life of one of Philadelphia's most beloved parks. We both enjoyed it, especially the music performed by live performers in the park. Particularly impressive was a young violinist, who played as well as any of the adults.

We stayed up a little later, watching his big-screen TV. I fell asleep during a program about cat fanciers preparing their cats for a cat show. Early the next morning, I got up in time to have breakfast with Dad and then drove back home in time to do my usual afternoon assignment.

The early morning mist was just burning off the trees in the rest stop when I took this picture.

Una, who had spent the last 24 hours fending off my dad's cranky cats, ran happily to our kitty, Luke, and gave him a welcoming lick. He purred and rubbed against her, glad to see us back.

Una, happy to be heading home to her favorite kitty

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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