I have an eye exam this morning. I'm hoping that third time is the charm. I am covered for some vision under E's insurance (free exam, one pair of glasses) but there are only select places that accept the insurance. The first place I tried, I didn't realize you HAD to buy contacts from them if you got a contact exam (was thinking I could get it cheaper from Costco). There are some legit reasons for this - need to check the fitting, etc. but I think it's mostly to make money. Anyway, the high cost of contacts was unexpected and the guy just wasn't very nice.
The second place I went to was in Harlem. I really didn't want to believe that because of its location it would be a lower quality place. But it was. I cried. They said they couldn't tell me what my insurance covered (wanted to double check because I didn't trust the first place) over the phone but that I needed to come in. So I did, but then they assumed I wanted to get an exam that day (first come, first serve, no appointments, just a bunch of people waiting). Incidentally I was the only Asian person in the place. The only white person was one of the optometrists. The exam was brief, nothing was explained to me, and he send me to sit down without even correcting my vision to 20/20 (seriously, I could see better with my glasses on). When they called me to select frames I said I wanted to leave and that I had a bad exam. They allowed me to see the owner. He seemed much more with it than the guy I got. He offered to do the exam over. But at that point I just wanted to leave with a clean slate. So they said they would cancel my authorization so I could go somewhere else. It was a bad waste of two hours and emotional trauma.
This third place, I found a good review by somebody on-line at yelp.com. I'm hopeful and resigned to the amount of money I'm going to have to pay out of pocket for my contacts. I've been wearing my glasses every day - I keep thinking, maybe it was just dirty or had something on it, but every time I try my left contact in particular bothers me to no end.
Yesterday I had meetings with two profs about papers/chapters I'm writing with them. One told me the draft I'd sent ahead of time was really good. I thanked him. But I didn't really believe him. I mean, I think that I got the logic and structure down, but the actual writing is my weak point....
Yesterday afternoon I also had a talk about spiritual journeys with my officemate. I was really glad for the opportunity which came out of my asking about what got her interested in research on religion and depression. She's had a very ambivalent relationship with God, her family, and particularly the church. I recommended to her Disappointment with God by Philip Yancey. I said I would loan it to her. But now I think maybe I read my old roommate's copy and will have to go out and buy one to loan her. But this way she'll have to eventually return it and maybe we'll get to talk about it. :)
Another recommended book: Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. It's a history book that reads like fiction - amazingly researched and good writing.
It's been a week of seeing lots of people -- hosted the mentoring ministry leadership team potluck, E's brother's family came over for dinner, celebrated birthday with E's whole family, had lunch with the lab, helped paint a NYC public school with church people.
And did I mention that I had my first victory in Settlers of Catan (board game). :)
Off to California today (Mom's 60th birthday, sister's 25th) with a stopover in Chicago on the way back (friend's wedding)!
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