I went to the optometrist today. It was the usual fun: Looking for cobwebs in the far corners of the room, while someone pokes at my eye.

Today for my appointment, I went to a school of optometry. At a school of medicine, they always take me from the big waiting room into a little room, where a student can walk me through the preliminary steps of the consultation. I never know what to expect. Sometimes these students are nervous, so they don’t talk very much. Other students I’ve run into seem pretty sure they are the most intelligent people in the building. They could probably stand to talk less. Then there are the times, like today, when the student is bright and friendly, with an interesting story, to boot. The young man who helped me today said he used to be a waiter. He absolutely loved being a waiter, and felt that helping people was the best thing in the world a person could choose to do with their life. He realized after awhile, though, that he wasn’t likely to be able to make much of a career out of delivering orders to tables. So he went online, looking for a job which would suit him. This young man told me how he put in an entry for careers consisting of serving people, since he enjoyed it so much. A list came up. What was one of the things in that list? You guessed it. Optometrist. He said the idea took hold of him, and he has never regretted it.

Now, of all the jobs in the world that would come up in a list related to being a waiter, optometry is w-a-a-a-y-y down at the bottom, at least in my opinion. I’m glad he’s happy, though.

Come to think of it, taking orders for dinner is a little like checking eyes.   Have you ever been to a restaurant and had the person serving you point at something on the menu?  “Just look there”, is what they’re saying.  Well I can’t even begin to count how many eye doctors’ ears I’ve had pointed out to me while they’re looking into my eyes.  “Just look at the tip of my ear,” I hear every time.  And both waiters and optometrists leave me feeling as if I’ve been looking at the sun.  With the doctor, it’s a tiny flashlight.  With a waiter, it is a huge, toothy grin.  Either way, I’m almost blinded sometimes.  I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, either.  Another way that I suppose the two careers are alike is in the “down time”.   After you give your order, you don’t know how long it will be before you get your food, so you might as well read the paper.  After the student does all the preliminary necessities, you don’t know how long it will be before the top person comes in.  In that situation, I usually lean back and take a nap.  Well, if they insist on having thickly padded chairs with headrests, they’ll just have to live with it.

I only wish the doctor and student wouldn’t go out into the hall and whisper about my eyes, coming back in a few minutes later, talking at their regular level again.  Why don’t they discuss my eyes where I can hear?  It makes me nervous when they mumble and whisper. 

Don’t they realize I have a hard time napping when I’m nervous?