Recently, Maine’s resident grump, 45-year-old Marla*, had a startling realization: her vision may actually be failing.
I sat down to interview Marla last week.
“Well, I was driving down the road when it hit me,” she said, adjusting the J. Lo reading glasses she bought for $11.99 at Target.
“That you couldn’t see anymore?” I nodded.
“No, the moose standing in the road. I thought it was a pile of leaves.”
Apparently, Marla had been suffering for years with poor eyesight but continued to live her life as if everything else was to blame for her affliction.
“Oh, I convinced myself it wasn’t that I couldn’t actually see the instructions on the Ex-Lax bottle,” Marla said. “Obviously, it was because every company in America suddenly conspired to start making products with tiny blurry font just to frustrate the shit out of me.”
Not soon after the moose incident, things reached a breaking point when Marla suffered an embarrassing incident at the local Grab & Get Out. She was talking to her husband for a good ten minutes, when she slowly realized it wasn’t him.
“I was telling him not to buy the unscented deodorant, but the extra-strength key lime pie one, when I noticed something strange,” she recalled. “He wasn’t responding with his usual, ‘Yes, dear. Whatever you say, dear. Just please stop talking for the love of god, dear.’ Turns out it wasn’t my husband I was talking to at all. It wasn’t even a man. It was a stack of paper towels in aisle three.”
Marla went on to admit her blurry vision probably was to blame for the unfortunate Chili Catastrophe of 2014. “I had spent all morning making a big batch for my family reunion,” she tearfully recalled. After serving everyone, she was about two bites in her own bowl of chili when she realized she had unwittingly mistaken teaspoon for tablespoon. And cayenne pepper for chili powder. And a lit candle for a glass of water. Her comments about that fateful day? “Let’s just say now I have to draw my eyebrows on with a Sharpie.”
Sadly, Marla also suffers from the little-understood disorder, BDP or Bad Depth Perception.
People with BDP have a difficult time accurately judging distances. Simply pulling up to a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru without completely taking out the speaker post is nearly impossible. Marla faces the shame of struggling with everyday tasks such as inserting a key into a lock, parking a car, and paying for a box of Thin Mints.
“I was handing a ten dollar bill to a Girl Scout when I noticed she wasn’t taking it,” Marla cried softly. “Because I was a good three feet away from her outstretched hand! I kept shoving the money closer and waving it around, still just out of her reach. I shouted at her to ‘just take the damn money’ but it was of no use because at that point she was crying. I was arrested for ‘cruel and persistent taunting’ and faced possible jail time. On the day I reported to the courthouse, I spent 45 minutes waiting for my case to be called before I realized I was actually standing in line at a Starbucks.”
After ordering a java chip frappuccino and attempting to pay with an old gift card from Taco Bell, Marla eventually made her way to the courthouse and was sentenced to 200 hours of community service. Unfortunately, she was ordered to pick up trash on the side of the road, a task unbelievably frustrating for someone suffering from hellacious depth perception.
“After eight straight hours toiling in the blazing sun, I managed to collect no trash at all, none!” Marla said. “And in the process stabbed myself in the foot several times.” But even the subsequent tetanus shot didn’t break her resolve to remain in denial about her poor eyesight. When asked if jail time would finally prompt her to seek treatment, such as a stronger prescription or LASIK surgery, Marla responded with the scoffiest of scoffs, “What? No! My eyes are fine! Just fine, dammit!” And then she scoffed some more.
Although her story is tragic, there is hope that someday she’ll buy better glasses, or at least ones that don’t come in a tacky pink leopard print. How many more Girl Scouts will needlessly suffer in the meantime? One can only guess, and my guess is a crapload.
Please, if you or someone you know suffers from either piss-poor vision or BDP, help them get help to help you help them before it’s too late. The moose and that guy that works at the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru thank you.
*not her real name (but it’s pretty damn close if you catch my drift, and I think you do. OK, I’ll shut up now. But first, can you read me the back of this pill bottle?)
[…] Despite Increasing Denial, Woman’s Eyesight Continues to Decline. […]
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Your posts always make me laugh, Darla! I’ve never heard of the condition called BDP, but I know it exists. As for Marla, she might get cataracts one day and HEY! No more straining to see how many doses of meds to give your kids (2’s and 5’s look a lot alike when the font size is 1.1).
Life without astigmatism never felt so good. While all my mid-life-crisis friends were getting their boobs done, I opted for the eyes instead. Worth every penny to NOT spend another $10 for reading glasses ever again.
Cheers, D. Have a warm and early spring. Sending it up your way.
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(Looking down at my fake boobs) Dammit!
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Oh, and thanks Shan. I think we might have a spectacular early spring this year. Wahooooooo!
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It’s springing down here to be sure. Stay warm!
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As a person who gets paid to actually read those labels, I can tell you for certain that they do use a special blurry font for the lots sent up north. You see, Ex-Lax is made in Dixie and, well, the North won. Since the Maine regiments were especially victorious, the ones shipped there are the blurriest. It’s only fair.
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Well played.
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Sure, I’ll read you the back of the bottle, but I should first mention that it’s not a pill bottle, it’s a jar of Nutella.
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Oh damn! And yum!
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So, I’m guessing your answer when someone starts singing the Star Spangled Banner is no?
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It took a few seconds to get that joke. Another sign I’m getting old. sigh.
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As someone who is so nearsighted, that I can’t see something on my lap, without my glasses, I can tell you that wearing a pair of glasses that suit you is no big deal. You can go the fancy route with an ophthalmologist, or the quicker way with Lenscrafters, or the cheap way with For Eyes!
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I thought of going to the local Wal-Mart optical center, but I’m not convinced those people in the white lab coats know what they’re doing.
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The good news for Marla, if she finally breaks through her denial, is that she can become progressive. As in lenses. That will give her the appearance of tipping her head in a coquettish fashion while she converses with that handsome Brawny man, trying to find the sweet spot in her lenses where he is crystal clear. So much to look forward to Marla!
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Or I could never wear glasses and then every guy I meet looks like the Brawny man.
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Let me guess. You couldn’t use PPV for piss-poor vision because it’s already spoken for by Pay-Per View and you were afraid of litigation, right? You’re right to worry.
I was getting tremendous, pounding headaches when I stared into a computer screen or phone. My eyeballs felt like painful, throbbing orbs jammed into my skull. I already wear glasses so I couldn’t imagine what it could be. It turns out my vision got much, much worse. So now I have thicker lenses. Do you know how they say people with glasses look smarter? Not so much if they have really thick lenses.
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PPV! Why didn’t I think of that?
I don’t know, I think the thicker your glasses, the sexier. Currently, I can’t see shit WITH my prescription glasses on. It’s like my sight decreased by 1000% in one year.
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Not enough carrots, little bunny. Or, if you’re developing glaucoma, weed is the answer.
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True dat.
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Great!
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I sympathise with Marla. Buying the cheap glasses seems to be some kind of genetic malady. In my case, I believed my eye doctor when he told me my near vision was almost perfect and I’d be okay just buying glasses for distance and not the uber expensive progressives.
He didn’t tell me I’d spend four hours every day putting on those glasses then taking them off then putting them back on. So far I’ve resisted buying one of those chains that old lady’s wear around their necks. Partly because I’m scared I’d end up strangling myself.
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When I worked in a doctor’s office a few years ago, I had to figure out how to put my glasses on and off all day while taking blood pressure, giving injections, etc. I briefly considered getting an old lady chain, too, but I thought I’d rather look good than be able to see clearly.
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Poor Marla! If she could see the map she would know that de Nile IS a river in Egypt, and then she could understand that clever saying about how it’s not JUST that.
I use the extra strength Boston Cream Pie antiperspirant. How do you like that Key Lime?
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Isn’t Marla just sad? Most half-blind nitwits like her are. Glad I’m not like that at all.
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I just went (literally) to the eye doctor. Curses to the number 40!!!
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Damn to all the 40s! I’m looking down the barrel of 50 and it ain’t looking good. Or maybe it is because I can’t see anything anymore?
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Yep yep yep! I’ve always had excellent vision, and then just in the last year I’ve gradually started to notice that I’m struggling to read small print, I denied that last time I went for an eye test which was a few months ago, but I think next time I’m going to have to relent! Darn these mid 40s!
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Oh, V. Poor sweet sightless V. Yeah, I hate to be the one to tell you this…but it only gets worse and happens overnight. One day you’ll realize you just put orange juice on your cereal. (Be sure to buy the purple J. Lo tiger print glasses, very sexy!)
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Hilarious!
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You didn’t say that you were actually going to publish our interview. 🙂
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