ironic, ain't it?

I precariously held them to my face, let it rest above my nose. As I moved forward to see my reflection in the mirror, my sister was gracious enough to shout the words that I was thinking.

"Ewwwww!" She yelled, her voice as if a pungent aroma was permeating the air. "Those glasses look horrible (she said, rolling her "r"s) on you."

I had looked at almost every single pair of glasses at the eye doctor's, but none of them were good enough. I grunted and put the tenth pair back on the rack. In a repeating cycle, I scanned the shelf of glasses, picked up one, tried it on, and then hastily put it back down.

My 14 year old brother, with perfect vision, was torpidly sitting in the corner, rocking back and forth to a song playing in his head. My dad and mom were pensive and distant as they "listened" to the Chinese owner praise his store as "the cheapest you'll find around town". My sister, who had picked out her pair of glasses, took on the role of a bratty sister, following me around, taunting me and the countless glasses I tried. Like I said before, it's just so hard to pick.

And, the reason it's difficult is not because of the vast amount of options for glasses (because, honestly there weren't), but that I couldn't see. Yes, I'm at an eye doctor's place and I can't see.
I mean, when I take off my glasses, try on the pair at the eye doctor's, which obviously have no power, I (with awful vision) can't see what I look like from afar. I need to move so close to the mirror that my nose is inches away from the glass. From that view, yes, I can see my face and the glasses, but not on earth do I get a true description of how I look. I listened to my mom's advice, and put the store's pair of glasses over my pair (so I could see from a good 2 feet away), but I just looked ludicrous. This glasses-shopping was futile.

Eventually, I decided to reserve one pair of glasses and return tomorrow -- wearing contacts so I could try on glasses and see how I looked from afar. Glasses-shopping is just so annoying. And I find it very ironic that a place where, as the Chinese man said, "you feel the most comfortable with your eyes" is the place where I feel the most troublesome and irritating.

-AA