Today was an interesting day.  I had an eye appointment to get my annual prescription and maybe a new pair of glasses.  They asked me whether I wanted a full checkup, so I enthusiastically said "Sure!".  I discovered that "full checkup" apparently includes a pupil dilation.  They gave me these drops that burned like I would imagine getting lemon juice in your eye would feel like - those were the anesthetic drops for the actual dilator (I can only imagine how nice things would have felt without the anesthetic drops first).  Then they left me to wait while the medication kicked in.

At first, things were fine and I had no noticeable change in perception.  Slowly, however, my vision altered - it can best be described as drunk vision (not to be confused with beer goggles), because I could see far away reasonably well, but I was suffering from an inability to focus less than about six inches in front of my face, with or without glasses.  They completed the checkup and then offered me the "wrap-around" sunglasses.  Damn my pride - I turned down the offer, stating that I usually don't have issues with sensitivity to sunlight.  As soon as I got outside, it felt like I was staring directly into the sun, from about ten feet away.  I neglected to consider that when your pupils almost entirely engulf your iris, they let in quite a bit more light than normal.  Well, needless to say, I had a four-block walk back to the train that felt like an eternity.  The light was so intense that my nose was running and tears were just shy of streaming down my face - it felt not unlike the last time I watched the episode of Futurama with the 7-leaf clover (I believe only Futurama fans with brothers of their own can fully appreciate).

I eventually made it home and my vision slowly returned to normal, but I believe I have learned a valuable lesson - wearing the goofy sunglasses has a lot less potential for embarrassment than walking down the street sniffling and tearing up uncontrollably.

Feel free to share an embarrassing story of your own with the masses who subscribe to my blog.  :-)