UEA 2011

The boys' fall break was last weekend. We had a busy and eventful, but pretty lame break.

Thursday, Nolan and I spent over 2 hours at the optometrist office. Nolan is getting contacts! My contacts haven't been feeling "good" in my eyes for a while so I went to have them checked. My eyes looked healthy. My ancient lenses looked good- just a little warped from cleaning them for years between my finger and thumb instead of in the palm of my hand. The eye doctor gave my lenses to a technician and told him to polish and reshape my lenses. Meanwhile, Nolan and I had an eye dilation party. The technician brought my lenses back in and the doctor asked me to put them in. I did. I couldn't see through my lenses though. It seemed like there was too much wetting solution between my eye and the contact. I blinked and blinked, but still couldn't see though my lenses. The doctor took a look and informed me that the prescription was wrong for my eyes. I don't get how, but somehow, the prescription was no longer correct (I think Mr. Technician messed things up royally). The contact lens prescription for my right eye was 5 corrections too strong, and the left lens was 10 corrections too strong. No wonder I couldn't see. I couldn't focus on anything printed on this card he handed me. He asked me if I had a headache, I said "no". He was surprised. Anyway, the bottom line was that I had to order new lenses. I took the old lenses out immediately, but my eyes were so "doinked" from the wrong prescription that I could not see clearly. We finished up the appointment and were waiting to pay our bill when a monster headache hit accompanied by intense nausea. I was dizzy and needed to sit down. I managed to pay our bill and walk outside the office. I realized I could not drive. Luckily, the optometrist office is next door to MegaDiamond, so I called Dan and explained what was happening and asked him to drive us home. He did. I felt awful. My eyes still could not focus correctly. That was adventure #1!

Adventure #2 started with Jonathan driving Dan back to work. Jonathan still had his permit so I had to go along for the ride so he could legally get back home. My eyes were starting to feel better and Jonathan asked if he could drive to Heber City. I agreed. We got to Heber and he wanted to continue on up to Park City. I agreed. then he wanted to drive down Parley's Canyon and on to Salt Lake. Fine. He navigated everything well. He handled the I-215 to I-15 exchange perfectly (which I think is the worst interchange in the state). Then he wanted to go over Suncrest to which I said "no". I'd had enough and wanted to go home. Besides, we needed to be sure that were back in time for Jonathan's 3:30 appointment at the DMV to get his DRIVER'S LICENSE! Jonathan is now a licensed driver. On the way back from the DMV, he dropped me off about 2 blocks from home so he could drive solo while I walked. Today he's supposed to be getting a parking permit from THS so he can start getting himself to and from school.

Adventure #3- On Friday, Jonathan got his wisdom teeth out. The lucky punk only had 2 wisdom teeth. They were on the top and coming in straight. Simple surgery compared to my 4 wisdom teethectomy that left me with swollen chipmunk cheeks. I watched Jonathan "go under" then waited for him in the waiting room. After the surgery was finished, Jonathan was wheeled out to the car. I helped him get in the car, buckled his seat belt, then told him, "Don't touch anything". We headed for home. As we were waiting to turn left at a light, Jonathan said, "Wow! Look at that yellow truck. Oh wait, it's not even there." Nice hallucination. The rest of the way home, Jonathan repeated over and over again "I am so loopy. I must be totally drunk." We got home, I assisted Jonathan to his bed. About an hour and a half later, I went to check on Jonathan. He was lying there groggily and asked how he got there. He had no recollection of anything that happened between the sedation and waking up in his bed. Jonathan has healed rapidly- no swelling, no stitches, no "real" pain pills, no need for antibiotics, no dietary restrictions. What a different experience compared to what I went through.

The rest of the UEA break was basically uneventful. Nolan did a Spanish project with a couple of guys; he spread mulch around the yard; he finished another merit badge. I did some pruning and made chili. Miles and Dan went for a bike ride in Provo Canyon. Jonathan took it easy until he could put off his homework no longer. Like I said, a busy, but lame UEA break.