field notes: girls with glasses
It has probably not escaped your attention that I've been lax in my blogging duties of late. I've been preparing for a convention in San Diego next week, which will be capped off by a gala dinner and then a few hours of a surfing clinic. My organization sure picked a great week for a convention, I'll tell you what.

The problem is my glasses. I came to terms a decade ago with being a bespectacled person.

I've always tried to make the best of it. Today, I wear a pair of funky bright blue frames. I would really love to have a pair of these or these

But my funky glasses don't go that well with my pretty gala dresses or with surfing. I'll look like a throwback from a 1950s prom at the dinner. And, because I can't lose my glasses in the ocean, the surfing instructor might have to teach me as if he or she were teaching a blind person.

I know a lot of girls go to fancy parties without glasses, led around by the arm of their dates, but to me that defeats the purpose of going. I also know that taking a spill into the ocean is not the most visual of experiences for the spiller. I know that sight is not the only sensory experience in the world, but, speaking for myself, I know it is one of my favorites.

It's exactly times like these that the realities of my life don't mesh with the image in my mind. Because, while my imagination is crystal clear, my reality is blurry.