I can see clearly now the pain is gone...

I'm not a stupid person, I'm just a person that does stupid things, kind of a lot.

A couple of weeks ago I came down with a horrible case of pink eye. At one moment I was enjoying breakfast, and the next moment my left eye was on fire, itching, hurting, oozing green gunk, and more. As the day progressed the pink eye worsened. Late that night I ended up at an Emergency care clinic, and I would have given them my debit card and PIN to help me.

The doctor put drops in my eye that made it glow a weird green color and passed some device over my eye and diagnosed pink eye as I expected. He gave me drops and told me to follow up with my eye doctor if it didn't improve, and informed me of how contagious it was and to wash my hands frequently. He also listed all the things that I should and shouldn't do. Don't scratch your eye, don't touch the other eye after touching the left eye, change your pillow case every night...the list went on. I scratched my eye, touched the other eye, and didn't change my pillowcase. And yet...it improved, didn't move to the other eye, nor did anyone else catch it. Hmm. That's curious. Oh well.

After almost 2 weeks I decided I needed to seek that follow up they mentioned. My eye doctor was busy, so I saw his partner. He explained to me that some pink eye cases either bacterial or viral could last for weeks. Oh hell. He then looked in my eye and said, "Do you wear contacts?" Well, I've been trying to wear them again, trying mono vision but for some reason, we can't get the vision corrected in my left eye, to which he said, "You have a contact in your left eye." No, I don't. Hey, I've watched ER and House, and I've diagnosed several fake illnesses on WebMD, so I'm qualified to tell this doctor with his years of training that he's wrong. "Well, yes you do, let me put some numbing drops in your eye, and I'll show you." I needed the numbing drops because without them I would have felt the suction as my contact was released from bondage pulling half of my eye with it. Minutes later with some effort, he pulls the DAILY WEAR contact off of my eye and shows it to me. Imagine my surprise. I have absolutely no idea (well I do have a couple of ideas) how that happened, and I think it had been in there for over a month and a half. Let that sink in, daily wear contact, month and a half. I didn't have pink eye, I had a case of stupid. The ER doctor didn't have the proper equipment to see it, nor did the lady in the bathroom at the Pancake House that looked in my eye to see if anything was in there.

He told me my eye should begin feeling better quickly (no sh*t), but he also gave me some drops for the irritation still going on in my eye. To try and make me feel better he told me there was a woman in the UK that thought the contacts dissolved in your eyes, so she ended up with 27 of them in one eye. Knowing someone is dumber than you is not comforting, I also knew that I would be telling my family and friends. Sure, I could have kept this to myself but, I didn't, and now I'm sharing it with the world. OK, not the world, just about 50 people that might read this blog.

How did this happen you ask? It's a mystery, but I have some guesses. I am easily distracted. It's possible that I took the right one out and decided at that very moment that I needed to know the difference between a donkey and a mule. I would not have been able to wait 10 seconds to look this up but would have to have the info immediately. Also, had I waited 10 seconds to look it up I would have forgotten how much I wanted to know the difference between a donkey and a mule. Thank you, Google.

It's possible I took the right one out and decided I was thirsty and must get a drink that very minute. I'm not really patient.


It's also plausible that at one point I had 2 contacts in my left eye and removed only one.

My family will tell you that it's difficult for them when dealing with my foolishness, but I assure you it's way harder for me.

We are not all the same...

I attended college on a full academic scholarship, to this day I don't know how I won it other than there were not that many applicants. My parents were obviously thrilled because they wouldn't have to pay for college.

My first major was Business Administration, then I took Business Math, and knew it was time to move on. I switched to Social Work, yikes. Too depressing. Then there was something else that I don't even remember (the counselors knew me by name), then I settled on an All-Level Education degree in Physical Education and English because yeah, that was a GREAT idea. My student teaching experience was terrible, and the degree was worth less than the paper the diploma was printed on, but at least it was FREE, and I had a degree!

When Paul and I had kids we assumed that they would attend college, it was a given. Katy went to college and then got a job, exactly like she was supposed to do. She's not working in the field that she received her degree in, but that often happens. She's successful, financially independent, and happy.

Amelia did exactly what was expected of her too, she went off to college after high school graduation. Some students know what they want to do when they are still very young, for others it takes longer, or in my case, I never figured it out. She started in Nursing and then switched to Computer Science. Midwestern State did not have a good CS department, so she returned to Dallas, rented an apartment with two other girls, and attended UTD as a CS major. Then, her world turned UPSIDE DOWN! She had two major surgeries within 3 months of each other, one of which was retina detachment. She also had an illness that took a long time to diagnose and even with medication it still troubles her. She lost two grandmothers in less than a year and is now facing cataract surgery next month. I'm not trying to make excuses for her, but good grief, she's had a rough time of it.

When I discovered that Amelia wanted to quit school, I was unhappy and disappointed. I knew it was a terrible mistake that she would regret. That was NOT the plan that we had in mind for our girls. That was not what EVERYONE else was doing. What will people think?

I can tell you what people think; she'll never find a good job, she's smarter than that, why did you allow her to quit school, she didn't try hard enough, she will never earn over minimum wage and won't be able to support herself (she is supporting herself, and she is making well over minimum wage thank you very much), and she'll always hold dead-end jobs if she gets hired at all. The lack of support from friends AND family was astounding. People judged not only her, but Paul and I for this egregious (was that an SAT word?) lack of commitment.

Amelia and I went out to lunch after my mom's burial, and she explained to me how she felt about college. She had taken several courses that she hated and ended up dropping because they weren't the right fit and she didn't want to waste money trying to find it. College is expensive y'all, I mean really costly, and I appreciate that she realized at this time, it's not right for her. Will she ever return to college? I feel like she probably will, but she wants to work for a while and find a degree that is relevant to her job. If she never returns, that's ok with us. Above all else we want our girls to be financially independent and happy. Isn't that what all parents want for their kids?

Leaving school was the right thing for her, as soon as she quit, she became a different person. I had not realized how stressed and unhappy she was at school. Amelia is the nicest person I know. She's kind, compassionate, caring, and loving. These are qualities that cannot be taught at any level and are traits that should count for something in her life, in my opinion, they're more valuable than a college degree. I'm not dissing college at all. It can be a critical part of growing up and obviously for specific careers it's required. But, it's not for everyone, and I believe in her, and I know she will make the right decision for HER.

So the next time you look down on someone for not doing what is expected, check yourself. We are not all the same, the world would be boring if we were.