Glasses

Glasses are a huge part of our daily lives.  "D, where are your glasses?"  Shrug of the shoulders.  "O, where did you put your "eyes"?" Shocked look - "Someone STOLE them!"  (In terribly adorable toddler speak!) "B, please go find your glasses - NOW!" With a goofy grin in response.  We have had three kids in glasses for a few years now.  You would think we have this down to a science, but sadly, we do not.  D's glasses were eaten by the monster under the bed.  With all of this packing, I have yet to come across them.  B's glasses were destroyed and O can't live without hers - snot, smudges and all. Solution - eye exams and new glasses.

I made the appointments - all three back to back.  I was smart this year - I did it when J was off!  Last year, they put us in the last appts. of the day - ending at 8:30 pm (not smart with a 2 year-old!).  And of course, it was while J was in the academy - don't think he was home even after we got home from that traumatic experience.  We did the exams this afternoon and that was AMAZINGLY smooth - even the Doc was surprised at how well it went.

Then came the hard part - ordering the glasses.  First crisis - D doesn't need them anymore, her astigmatism has corrected.  Sounds good, right?  WRONG!!  She had the most adorable glasses picked out and was HEARTBROKEN that she was not going to be able to get them.  NOT FUN!  B's eyes have gotten even WORSE.  And O's are still pretty far off from one another - one being significantly worse than the other. Then, came the ineptitude of ordering them.  I have vision insurance.  It should not be this hard.  But instead, the lady - not sure of her title - pushes me to go for their in-store special.  Never running it through my insurance.  When I point that out, she does the math - WRONG - and is a bit insulted that I questioned her judgement.  REALLY?? I requested their scripts - and that fell on deaf ears.  I left SO frazzled.  We got home and I started looking for another place to buy the kids glasses.  I do, call them.  Give the girl a heads up, tell her she will have to call for the prescription and we head in.

By this time we are nearing the witching hour.  O is DONE trying on glasses.  B just wants to be his usual chatty self.  The girl  at the 2nd Optical Center can't get anyone from the first to give her the prescriptions - after being accidentally hung up on - TWICE - there is a refusal to answer the phone on the end of the original store.  It is MISERABLE.  We get a pair for each picked out and Brittany - the lovely patient girl in the optical dept - says go home, I will call them and then call you.

We get home, get the 2 muppets fed - yes, they had not had the chance to eat through all of this craziness.  Get the girls to bed, the phone rings.  She will have to call me in the morning - out of spite, the girl at the original place got the approval from the insurance - which she told me she "could not get" with her computer program, hence the suggestion of their program.  It would have to wait until morning.  SOOOO, we are going back in tomorrow.  With just O.  I have some glasses picked out, but it was too hard to tell if I liked them or not.  We'll try it again.

Any Nook users out there??

As I am sitting here, believing myself to be so tech savvy, I am arguing with my PC.  I LOVE my Nook - it keeps my pages, allows me to have to bring my textbook back and forth from work.  In theory - I can read any of my books on my e-library on my phone, PC or Nook.  So no matter where I am, there is something to keep my attention.  Sounds good - I love toys - was so sad when I have to give up my grade program that allowed me to sync it with my PDA, have gone through several generations of i-Pods.  I love gadgets.  The tech department at school loves me - I will pilot anything.  When there was no money for a SmartBoard - I made one, literally - out of duct tape, PVC pipe, magnets, a Wii  Mote and Bluetooth dongle.  So when I cannot get something that seems to be a no brainer, it bugs the Begeezers out of me.  It should  be as simple as downloading the software and logging in, right??  NO!

I put it off until I had time, I have time and cannot get it to play nicely - with my phone or laptop.  There are 3 titles (free classics) that appear - none of my purchases  or "real downloads".  I have searched their help section, posted on the FB Nook discussion tab, called them - only to have them tell me to, "Come on in!"  I laughed at the poor clerk.  They couldn't figure out what was so funny.  I asked if there was anyone who could work with me on the phone - No, I must come for customer service.  So...does babysitting come with this customer service? Now she laughed, of course not, why would it.  Ummm, because I have 4 kids - 2 of whom will demand my complete and undivided attention while I am trying to troubleshoot this lovely program.  Her response - "Just leave them with their father!"  Well - duh, why didn't I think of that!!  Oh yeah - "BECAUSE HE IS WORKING A 48 HOUR SHIFT AT THE FIREHOUSE!!" my mind screamed.  In this day and age, how do you presume there is a father, or that he is available.  If he were in Afghanistan would you feel bad??  Anyway, I smile at the phone and tell her politely that he has to work until Friday.  Her response - "Then I guess we'll see you then."  No think I might have to bug my dad to take the Muppets for me, so I can fix this tonight AND speak with the Customer Service manager.  The selling point for the Nook was the personalized service - this was not service at all, much less personalized.

So, in the mean time.  If anyone is a Nook user and has a suggestion, toss them my way.  I have installed and uninstalled the software, restarted the program, asked it to play nicely - all to no avail.  Let me know what your thoughts are.