The Luck of Job

It is such a fantastic compliment when people say "she has the patience of Job"....I however, do not have Job's patience. I have his luck.

I am not a lucky person. I don't win contests, I don't find pennies, I don't happen upon great deals or opportunities. I am the 33rd person in line for 32 free tickets. I am the runner up after the last person to get a ribbon. When it comes to luck I am always a near-miss....unless it's bad luck-in that case the target sometimes locks it seems.

Late last night my glasses broke-literally snapped in half at the nose-for no apparent reason. I just went to take them off my face and rather than come all the way off one side got tangled in my hair and they just cracked. I didn't even see it coming. And my back up pair? GONE. Vanished into thin air. So I had to wrap red duct tape (yes RED the only color we had) right in the middle across the nose section to just barely keep them together enough so that I can barely see. I say just barely because they are basically continually falling apart while on my face. They bend so completely they even look like a frowney face:This was very upsetting. We don't have vision insurance until December and there is no way I'm walking around with duct tape on my face for 4 months (no matter what Hubby says!). So this afternoon I called around and made an appointment with the cheapest optical center in town.

First thing they did was make me take the glaucoma test. I have been wearing glasses for 18 years, but I have never been successful at taking one of those tests-I have a weird phobia about things touching my eyeball-and yes, "things" includes air. All of the doctors I've ever seen just have me sign a waiver and then continue on with the eye exam, but not these doctors. They absolutely refused to perform an exam without first giving me the glaucoma test. Even though I don't have diabetes. And I'm only 23. Oh well, the joke is on them-it took nearly a half hour and in the end the actual optometrist himself had to come in and HOLD MY EYELIDS OPEN in order to complete the test.

Torture? Yes. Worth it? Sure-this is the cheapest place in town. They said they could get me two complete pair of glasses with a free eye exam for a total of $69.95!

Yeah, that's not happening either. You saw that coming didn't you? I should have, but I didn't. Turns out my perception has gone from "bad" to "might need a dog for occupational purposes" and my lenses are now so thick that they will not appropriately fit into regular sized frames unless they are compressed into spiffy high tech (read:TOTALLY EXPENSIVE) lenses. The price went up from 69.95 to $230! GRRRR! Still, the frames I picked were cute and I chose my second pair to be a pair of prescription sunglasses which is exciting because I've never had sunglasses before!

Then I left the doctor's. That was my next mistake. There I was minding my own business, driving along, wallet $230 lighter and stomach feeling a little queasy about it, when KABLOW-my front right tire blows out. I nearly have an accident and I pull over to look at it. It's not shredded but it is totally flat. I cried right there. I couldn't call anyone to come and get me because, as you may remember, Hubby and I are the last two living adults with no cell phones, so I limped my poor broken car to the nearest gas station with minimal help from my pathetically broken glasses. Then came problem number two:

I don't know a single thing about cars or flat tires. I don't know how to inflate a tire, let alone change one. So I cried at the gas station too. I tried to call Hubby so that he could explain how to do it over the phone, but he wasn't answering. So I cried some more. (That's my go-to solution now. Total lack of sleep+Stress=Tears.) Thankfully, some very nice gas attendants saw how hysterical I was and offered to help me. They got everything out of my trunk and did all of the work. I bought them 1L bottles of water and a pack of smokes. They didn't speak English very well, but they were super nice to me and eventually I was off-driving home on my little donut tire.

I'm kind of waiting for lightening to strike at this point. In less than 24 hours we have had emergencies that have/will cost us nearly $600. Have I mentioned that our rent is due on Friday? Yeah, add another $50 onto all that new debt for a late rent fee.

I know I should look on the bright side. I AM getting new glasses sometime this week (whenever they come in). I didn't' get into an accident, even though I very well could have, and I am safe and healthy. No one is sick at home. We do make enough money that we can pay rent late and bounce back from that....eventually. I should be looking up!

Instead I'm pouting.

So I'm going to do something to make myself feel better. I wasn't going to officially open it until later when it's all the way done (it's been put on hold so that I can focus on the blog makeover winners) but I want something to cheer me up so I'm going to go ahead announce the

Bloggy Friends Community Pages!

Basically, it's going to be a place where we can chat, share ideas, and get to know each other better. I have some stuff up already-including a chat module, a 'getting to know you' area, a section about parenting broken down into forums by age group, a 'house and home' section for recipe swaps, craft ideas, homeschooling/unschooling talk, and household tips and more. It's still not as pretty as I'd like it to be and not all of the categories are up yet, but dang it I want to do something fun!

So everybody~please go over and visit. Sign up, start posting around, and have fun! I will be on there often tooling around and when I am I will always be logged into the chat system....so if we're ever in the neighborhood at the same time we should have a nice chat~maybe we'll even have to schedule one sometime for us all to sit down and visit!

Just thinking about that is making me feel better already. Thanks guys!