Jaluna

More Printables?

Hihi! How’s it going, guys? I know I haven’t written much, but I haven’t had much to write quite honestly. But, as my mind spirals between various projects, one of my newest loves has been making planner printables using Microsoft Word. No, my printables aren’t particularly special… But I enjoyed working on them, and wanted to share with you! So here’s a glimpse at what I’ve been working on.

If you have an idea you want me to try, or if you want me to share these so you can download them instead of awkwardly staring at my snipped pics, please leave a comment. I know it says it doesn’t go through, but it does! I just can’t find a theme I like that doesn’t have that glitch yet.

Anyhow… Let’s look at the art, shall we?

This is a daily planner page I came up with. I really love the green and blue colors, so you’ll see them a lot in my work while I’m starting off. But look at it- isn’t it simple yet glorious? If you have tweak ideas, let me know!

This is a weekly gratitude log. I generally use a monthly log, but I thought another option might be neat to try, and I also just really wanted to try making something ‘weekly’, but not yet a ‘weekly spread’. That’ll come later.

These are just two of the designs I’ve been working on. I have a blood pressure one I’ve been using too, and it’s simple and easier for me to work with than the very decorative one I made last year. I wasn’t sure if that’s something most people track, so wasn’t sure if I should share it. Both pages look like this, just with different numbering:

I made some other super simple things, but I’m not going to be sharing them here. They’re basically list ideas for gamers. I really want to branch out and make all sorts of things… Wish me luck, okay?

Guest Blogger: Lacey

Hihi! How’s it going guys? Today’s post is a bit different. See, I’ve seen guest bloggers over the years I’ve read blogs, but I’ve never done one myself. After talking to my friend Lacey, who was also interested in having a guest blogger… We decided to switch gears and write something for each other! Each of us wrote about the things that make us lucky. Without further ado, let’s hear Lacey out. Give her all your love, guys!

Hello, there! My name’s LaceyAnne! You can call me Lacey. I’ll be your guest blogger today! I’m a good friend of Jaluna’s (herein called “Lunaluv”), and am so honored to be her first guest blogger! I’m a call center rep and Game Master (at an escape room) by day, and a writer by night. I also read Tarot, make boondoggle, play with cats, all that good stuff. You can find me and my blog at brokencrayoncoloring.wordpress.com.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, by the way! In the midst of all this Coronavirus chaos, I’ve decided to honor St. Patrick’s Day by writing to you all about what makes me feel lucky in life.

First of all, I’m lucky to be here. You see, after my mom had my sister, she was told she was infertle. Six years later, “Merry Christmas, you’re pregnant!” With me. My mom had several complications while pregnant with me. And when I was born, my umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck twice. I almost strangled myself! But I made it!

Skipping over my spoiled childhood, I’m still very lucky in my adult life. I have my boyfriend (herein called “Beloved”) who treats me like a queen. When I do something stupid or impractical, Beloved teaches me how to do it the right way. The other day, he got really mad at me. But when he saw how I was reacting to his anger at me, he almost immediately calmed and hugged me. And promised me he would teach me better. And we have this wonderful apartment together, Beloved and I. And we work as a team. I’m so lucky to have him in my life.

I’m lucky to have my two cats (herein called “Kittehs”). They’re not as cuddly as I’ve always wanted, but they do love us and we love them. Sometimes the Kittehs cuddle with us.

I’m so lucky to have Lunaluv as such a good friend. She’s so awesome, supportive, loving, and helpful. I always know I can rely on her to support me when I’m stressed. She’s one of my best friends–and that’s saying something. I don’t have the luxury of many friends. I just wish there was more I could do for her on a regular basis.

I have a home, a job, family, friends, pets, electronics, clothes, food, and water. I have blankets galore and indoor plumbing. I have a car and furniture.

Sometimes, we forget how lucky we are. What things in your life make you feel lucky? Thank you for reading! Stay safe!

Games I’m Playing

Hihi! How’s it going guys? Yes, I do intend to start most of my blog posts that way… It’s how I start my youtube videos and even some of my twitch streams. Speaking of, if you don’t watch my twitch streams, you totally should. I’m having a ton of fun streaming a My Time at Portia play-through. But that’s only one of the games I’ve been playing a lot recently. So, since my mind has been on games a lot in recent days, I thought I’d tell you all about some of the games I’m playing.

As I already mentioned it, let’s start with My Time at Portia.

My Time at Portia is an amazing game. You play as a new builder in Portia, gathering, crafting, and helping out the community with your skills. The story takes place in a world that has already seen an apocalypse once, and is very wary of one happening again. There’s a lot of different opinions on technology from the olden times- some believe humans reached too far with it, others think it was unrelated and it would benefit our daily lives to have it again. That said, your opinion doesn’t really matter. You’re going to have to work with designs based on old technology as you help build Portia up as a city, to complete side quests, and even more.

This isn’t a review of the game, mind you. I’ll do one of those later, since it’ll take a lot more space if I do a review for every game here. If you’d like reviews on any of the games I mention or any you think I’d like, please let me know in the comments! (I promise you, even if it says the comment didn’t go through, it did!)

Another game I’ve been playing on my computer frequently is called Littlewood.

Littlewood is an interesting game with old style graphics. The story is that you are the hero that saved the world- but, now you have amnesia and are in charge of rebuilding the town you woke up in. There’s all sorts of quirky characters, and you can do all sorts of things: you can chop wood, quarry ores, catch bugs, fish, and even cook! There’s all sorts of interesting fruits and veggies to grow the further your levels get. You can even have livestock! The layout is completely up to you, including where cliffs are vs. rivers, and what houses are close to or far from each other. All in all, it’s a pretty fun game. It takes time to get used to, though.

I’ve restarted playing minecraft, but there’s not much to say about that, so let’s move on to some mobile games I’ve been enjoying, shall we? I’ll skip Pokemon Go for now, because while I have stuff to say about it, I don’t think there’s much to tell that people don’t already know.

So, let’s talk about Elnea Kingdom instead!

Elnea Kingdom is a game I’d consider a mix of simulation and RPG. You start off as a traveler who comes across the kingdom. Through quests, you become a citizen, and have a lot of things you can do! You can farm, fish, go into the dungeons scattered around the kingdom- you can even make friends and fall in love! I think the coolest part of the game, that I haven’t gotten to yet, is the ability to switch characters after you’ve had a child to play AS the child. Sometimes I find the controls a bit glitchy and difficult, but everything is pretty straight forward, and there’s all sorts of quests you can do and accomplishments you can complete. The characters are colorful- well, some of them are. But what I think is especially neat is your child can marry into the royal family potentially! You can literally try any profession, and you can do what you want at any time even when you get one. Sounds neat, right? I love it.

There are, of course, other games I play- but most of them I’m not playing as regularly as these ones. I play a lot of kairosoft games at random, and just recently got back into Fate: Grand Order on my mobile. I’ve been gaming way too much though lately. I’m not getting much writing done this way! So, I need to work on limiting myself more… But until I figure out how to do that, I’ll just play as I like and try to keep my writing moving in the downtime.

Oh! One other thing I want to discuss regarding playing… I’ve gotten back into roleplaying, at least to some extent! I found a pretty relaxed looking site to play on. I decided I’m not going to do plot specific sites for a while, but I wouldn’t mind finding another generalized site like the one I started using with a friend. I only have one story going on right now, but I’m really enjoying it and have high hopes I’ll find more people to play with as my time there moves further and further.

Well, that’s all I’ve really got to say today. Thank you for reading about my favorite games. Next, why don’t you tell me some of yours? What are you playing, or what games are there that you want to play? I’d love to hear all about them!

Update: A Bit of Chaos

Long time no see, everyone! Sorry for disappearing like I did. I’ve recently been in a major burn out mode for my blogging… I just couldn’t keep my mind fresh for each day’s post, you know? That’s why, for today, I’m just going to go with the flow… and give you some updates along the way.

First off, I won’t be posting on a schedule anymore. At least, not now, not for a while. I can’t handle schedules as well as I used to- I had a vlog schedule and screwed it up heavily last week. Schedules and I just aren’t mixing well right now. So, from now on, you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled until I can get the newsletter extension to work. I’ll be working hard to figure out how to do that, too, because I really wanna write one for you guys!

Another change is that I’m going to reincorporate writing into my posts sometimes. I’ve realized that while it wouldn’t be a professional blog, I never actually ended up starting one- and instead, I feel more comfortable sharing my writing attempts with you, my lovely readers, than try to keep myself totally business oriented on another blog. Plus, again, schedules would be needed and I can’t do those as easily as I used to. So that’s that.

Now for some life updates. My boyfriend and I broke up about two weeks ago now. Honestly, this was a very hard blow for me and my mental health. I was depressed for a long while, and I’m still not quite over it. That said, I’ve wandered back into the dating pool and have found some interesting people along the way. There’s one girl I’ve got my eye on right now, but I’m a bit uneasy about some things. Still, I really like her… So we’ll see how that goes.

In terms of my writing life, I have two things to share. One, I’m working on entering one writing contest per month, so if you know of any for poetry or short stories, please let me know! I’m also now working on writing a series. I’m in between writing and planning right now, but it’s how I’ve decided to meld two of my writing ideas into one. I’ll give you a synopsis and such at another time, though. Today’s focus is just to give you updates!

Let’s see, what else, what else… My medical problems are starting to worsen, at least as of late. Unfortunately, my headaches are getting really bad, I’m chronically dizzy, and my intermittent exotropia is acting up quite often, so I’m seeing double quite a bit of the time. (In case you don’t know what an exotropia is, it’s when one eye turns outward while the other eye stays focused!)

Another thing I forgot to mention is some new projects and things! Well, I guess the series news was technically project related. But oh well! The two projects I have going on?

Well, for starters, I’m a livestreamer on Twitch now! You can watch me at random intervals here. I’m mostly playing My Time at Portia right now due to the fact that Pathea, the people behind it, are going to donate all proceeds from the game this month to a charity that’s working to help deal with the Coronavirus epidemic.

The other thing I plan on working on more is mapping in RPGmaker. I’ll be making small maps regularly (I was doing this for a while last month, but I couldn’t keep up with it). It will no longer be every day, but I intend to do at least three a week. Please comment if you want me to post the images here- otherwise I’ll only be posting them on DeviantART, which you can find here.

I’m still youtubing, by the way. If you get bored, check out my channel here and maybe comment some ideas of videos you’d like to see! I’d love to hear from you guys!

Now that this post has reached over 666 words (it was 666 at the end of the previous paragraph!), I think it’s about time I let you go. Please let me know what projects you’d be interested in seeing more about, whether it’s my forum (which I forgot to mention still exists), my videos, or anything else. I’d love to know what you want to see- and I’m happy to share just about anything!

Take care, guys!

Topical Tuesday: Oopsie Daisy!

Howdy everyone! I’d like to formally apologize for skipping out on a week of posts… again. I’ve been up to a lot of stuff, like re-planning a project or two and doing some stuff for work at the literary magazine, but I’ve also been struggling with thinking of just what to say for posts, and the need to apologize escalated and well… Here we are, with me trying to figure out what I’m saying as I type.

I’ve been feeling pretty stressed recently. My romantic relationship has felt like a struggle recently as my boyfriend has so many hours at work, his entire life is basically work then sleep and then work again. Not being able to talk to him much affects my mental health and stress levels, naturally- so that’s one issue right there. I’ve also been getting over a sinus infection most of the past month. I was put on heavy antibiotics earlier this month, and just finished taking them yesterday. My headaches have indeed been less frequent, but I’ve still managed to get one or two really bad migraines this past week. I’ve been loving my prescription sunglasses during those times, but they can only help so much- so I spent a lot of time curled up in bed, covering my head to avoid any excess light or noise.

Despite my issues this past week, I have managed to do a couple youtube videos. I actually have a backlog now for Wednesdays, because I did two last week that I haven’t posted yet. I may redo them though, because one of them in particular was pretty bad quality even by my usual standards. (I was thinking of doing a ‘what’s in my makeup bag’ one week since I really like makeup and I use it to plan characters sometimes, as weird as that may sound).

Let’s see, what else do I have to say… Oh! If you haven’t been watching my youtube channel at all, you won’t know this: I went to Mitsuwa, a Japanese market in my area, with a friend last Tuesday (I was exhausted after it, which is partially why Tuesday’s post didn’t happen). There’s all sorts of stores by Mitsuwa from Japan, including a nice bookstore and a drug store, which we went to after lunch. I got a lot of neat things, but the thing I’m happiest about buying is a physical copy of The Bride was a Boy by Chii. I absolutely love this manga and have read it more times than I can shake a stick at online, but having it physically in my hands is great, and I read it the day I got home while dad was borrowing my computer desk.

If you don’t know what this manga is, it’s an autobiographical sort of manga, about Chii’s transition as a male-to-female transgender person. She explains everything from coming out to getting surgeries done, and gives great infographs at the end of chapters to explain proper term usage, laws, and other things. It’s also her love story, as it follows her life from youth until she became a bride. Her husband was actually the one who got her to publish the comic as a book and not just as a comic blog, which is what it started as. It has adorable art and is just really heartwarming to read. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. <3

I got some other neat things while I was out, like a couple of neat pens. You can see most of what I bought in the following youtube video I’d made the next day:

I really don’t have much else to tell you or update you on this past week… But this week is going to be pretty busy. Tomorrow I’m going with my dad to get him some cardiology tests he needs to find out if he has the same heart defect I had until getting surgery a couple years ago. Thursday, I see my psychiatrist as well as my case manager, who I need to talk to about a number of doctor issues. I have no clue about the weekend. Luckily, I have ideas right now for blog posts, so I’ll be writing some more today to have prepared for at least Thursday and Saturday if I’m lucky.

Anyway, sorry for the long delay! Don’t worry, I’m still alive and kicking!

Soulful Saturday: NYE

Hey guys! Welcome to the first Soulful Saturday of the new decade! Are you liking my changes to the blog? There’s likely to be more to come as I try to figure out a layout I like that doesn’t have an issue with the comments. Just so you are aware, if you comment and it says it doesn’t go through, it’s lying! I promise I get your comments, and absolutely love them. 🙂

Today, I’m going to be talking about New Year’s Eve. It’ll be a short topic to talk about, but it felt like the longest night ever to me- and yet the shortest. See, I don’t drink much. I drink socially, but normally I know my limit and avoid drinking anywhere near it because of my medication and things like that. But on Tuesday night, after I’d already posted for the last time last year, I was invited to a party. And while I’ve forgotten a lot of details… It’s a party I’ll never forget.

It started with drinks with our neighbors. Dad and I bought some interesting liquors and offered to share them, so we went upstairs to have some drinks and hang out before my neighbors were off to a party. I had a big cup of mixed alcohol that was nearly 200 proof. I didn’t think that through and thought, ‘okay, it’s one drink’. I also had a shot of tequila. All in all, let’s say I had… 4-5 drinks through that cup and shot, shall we?

Then, my neighbors invited me to go to the party they were going to with them. I’d met the hostess a couple times at their house for parties like a birthday, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. The neighbors have very friendly and nice friends, so she was more than happy to have me join them without any notice.

The party itself was fun, from the little I remember. I was chatting with friendly people, had a shot… And then had one or two too many drinks after that. I remember what I drank- I had a hard tea and a hard cider. But everything after opening that hard cider is a total blur. I only know the details of what happened from my dad and the neighbors telling me about it. It was like one minute I was having some hard cider and chatting with a nice guy, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in my recliner at home!

I had no recollection of anything- I had no idea how I got home, how I’d been hugging the toilet most of the night, and how much trouble I might have caused at the party before I blacked out. Luckily, my neighbors invited me to hang out again a couple days later (we all had killer hangovers on Thursday, so we hung out on Friday instead). They told me everything that happened- well, until I got home, at least.

It turns out I’m a very calm drunk. In fact, if it weren’t for my mild incoherence, paled skin and heavy sweating, my neighbor wouldn’t have noticed I was way too drunk to stay at the party safely. She offered me to hang out outside the house, sat me down on the door step and called me a car to get home. She made sure to come with me, taking care of me in the car until she could hand me off to my father when we got back.

Of course, that night was more wild than my drunk self was. Apparently they took me home with the wrong coat- which the owner said wouldn’t be a problem until they remembered their house keys were in it. So, the neighbor had to come back to fetch it, and basically was on a lot of ubers because of me that day.

I told friends about it, and the thing that shocked them even more than the fact I managed to get that drunk, was the fact my father wasn’t angry. In fact, dad told me it was a sort of ‘rite of passage’. It was a learning experience- where I learned one big cup of mixed drink can count as like 3-4 drinks depending on what’s in it. I know my limit with tequila and fireball is usually about four or five- meaning I’d basically had my limit before going to the party- and then added three more to my repertoire. There was no one angry at me, and I am beyond thankful- to my neighbors that invited me and then helped me get home, to my father for nursing me during my epic hangover, and to the kind people at the party for making sure I felt welcome and had fun before my early departure.

And, even more so, to my neighbors for becoming good friends of mine. I’ve learned just how much they care for me through this whole situation, and their generosity is beyond compare. I will never stop thanking them- for helping me break out of my shell a bit, and for protecting me while I do so… And just for letting me spend time with them from time to time, just to hang out.

What did you do for New Years’ Eve? And have you ever gotten as drunk as I did at that party? I’d love to hear any anecdotes or advice you might have for me for the future. So please, feel free to comment! 🙂 Until next time- take care!

Throwback Thursday: The Game I Feared The Most

Welcome to the first post of 2020, guys! Today, since people are still probably busy with the new year rush, I’m going to make this another short but sweet post. Today, I bring you an anecdote from my teenage years: an anecdote of coincidence, anxiety, and…. Video games!?

See, I’ve always loved video games. I’ve been playing them since I was five at minimum, often joined by my male friends in my basement playing Sega back in the day. However, as mobile games for things like GBA and other such things became more prominent, I too spent long hours with a mini console in my hand. And one day, the game I’d put into that mini console gave me the fright of my life.

It was a DS game that promised to be an interesting series of puzzles. Its name? Trace Memory. But what scared me wasn’t the ghost hero- it was the very human heroine. Let me tell you why.

It started off as a fluke to me. The heroine, Ashley Robbins, had the same first name as me (in case you forgot, Jaluna is my pen name!). Big whoop- Ashley was the most popular name for girls in the year I was born. There were plenty of girls named Ashley, right?

Then, we found out Ashley’s birthdate. It was the same as mine! Looking back, I know it was just reading the data off my DS, but for the longest time I almost felt like I was being stalked. Especially when the story began to unfold.

The story starts with Ashley going to look for her father on a mostly deserted island with her aunt J. She was under the impression for a long time that he was dead. It just so happens that, for my 14th birthday, I was living with my own aunt J. And, my dad was in and out of comas when I moved there- I had no idea if he was going to survive or not, and it scared me. So, the aunt’s name and my dad’s health made me feel more and more like this game was not about just any Ashley- it was making a mint off of me.

To be fair, I do have schizoaffective disorder, which as my doctor explained, means I have a mood disorder while having notable schizophrenic tendencies. That includes paranoia (well, that and my generalized anxiety disorder). Mixing together my anxiety and paranoia, I began to struggle to play the game. It was enthralling, so it was hard to stop- but every fiber of my being was terrified I’d find more personal information in it.

Eventually, I stopped playing it. I regret that decision now, as its always haunted me- both the game’s effect on me, and the fact that I never found out the ending. But now that I lack the game (I lost it like I do sometimes)… Well, I miss it, and wish I’d just been a trooper and stuck to it.

Have you ever felt like a game was similar to your life? Or maybe a book? Share in the comments your spooky tales of something hitting too close to home! I don’t want to think I’m alone in this… I’m not, right?

Topical Tuesday: Year in Review

Before I get into this likely to be short and sweet post, I’d like to apologize again for not being steady with my posts. I intend to adjust my posting themes/schedule for the next year, though I’m still brainstorming right now. If you have any ideas for daily themes, please share them with me in the comments so I can use them as reference. Topics in general are also well appreciated. 🙂

Anyhow… Hello, my friends! Can you believe today is the last day of 2019? On my youtube channel, I do a week in review each Sunday… But today, I’d like to do a year in review here. I admit, I can’t remember a lot of things, but there were a number of memorable moments that touched to my very core.

For starters, I won NaNoWriMo for my second or third time in a decade! That’s a pretty amazing feat if you ask me. Considering I was totally burnt out early in the year, it shocks me how much I got done on various projects since November started. I think focusing on world building may really be a huge aid to me, so I’m doing more of that now.

A memory from before NaNoWriMo would be my trip to Arizona in August. It was my second time there staying at my boyfriend’s place, and my first chance to be there for his birthday. It’s honestly a miracle I was able to afford it, but the biggest miracle, to me, was how sweet his family was towards me. I mean, they were nice last time too, but this time was different:

We were all watching Scare Tactics while eating dinner, and I was a little (okay, a lot) scared. I told him never to do that to me, and one of his family members said, “If he does, just tell one of us and we’ll beat him up for you.” I’m not a fan of violence, but it was the thought that counted, right?

I’ve had a number of other small events happen over the course of the year. I entered (and lost) my first short story contest. I just recently also entered my first pay-to-enter poetry contest with a notable cash prize of $500. It wasn’t insanely expensive- well, it sort of was. If you were just entering one poem, you had to pay $4.50, but if you donated $5.00 or more, you got three free entries. So, naturally, I paid the extra fifty cents to get myself three entrees, which were fun and difficult to choose/write. I don’t actually know when the winner is to be announced, but I’m feeling at least a little confident in my work, so that’s a good thing, isn’t it?

A problematic thing that happened, however, is my weight: I gained enough to reach over 200lbs. However, dad and I got really into Pokemon Go together this year, so we’ve been taking more walks. I hope to take even more next year! But that’s not the point of this post. Tomorrow, I’ll be doing a video about my goals and resolutions for the year on my youtube channel. I plan to link it here, so please come back when the time comes! 🙂

Other notable things: I changed the layout, as you can clearly see. Hopefully this one has comments working better. I wanted a fresh look for the new year. I might adjust the colors some more, but I liked the dark mode look. This is just one of many changes I’m hoping to make. I intend to make new banners for my posts, and I’m also in the midst of looking at huge lists of prompts for blog posts and videos so I can help avoid my recent tendency to have no idea what to write and skip days at a time.

So, how was 2019 for you? I hope there were some good memories to be had, and I hope you’ll share them with me in the comments! Look forward to the future changes- I promise to do my best to make this blog even better in 2020… Because I know it can be!

Topical Tuesday: Apologies and Stuff

Hey everyone, sorry for skipping Saturday’s post! I had no idea what to write and have been having really severe migraines the past week or so. My migraine is more manageable now that I’ve properly taken my specialty medication just for them- I thought they could be other forms of headache and didn’t want to take my migraine meds if it was potentially the wrong type. Triptans are heavy duty and lower your blood pressure, which is a natural cause of worry for me, since, well… I already have low blood pressure. That said, dad got me to take it and kept an eye on me and I didn’t seem to have any problems with it, so all is well with the world! Well, maybe not all of it, but… my migraines are better. So yay!

A few life updates for now. First off, I completed the main storyline of My Time at Portia. I decided to make a third save (my second save is for streaming) and made the character the hero from my primary writing project, Kieran. I was even able to give him purple skin to match his reality in my story! It really is fun to play games as one of your characters. It’s a great way to experience different play styles and just get to know them better. So yeah, that’s been happening the past couple days now.

In other news, I finally wrote a poem I like enough to have three to enter into the poetry contest I’ve been excited for for weeks. I made my donation to get my three free entries, and am now waiting for an email from the company to tell me how to enter my three poems and whatnot. I’m a little worried since it’s the holiday weeks now, and waiting for the email is making me fairly impatient, but I’m just so excited! I ended up not on the short list for the short story contest I entered, but I’m trying, and that’s what counts… for now.

I intend to start writing my goals for next year over the next week. I also need to start setting my binder up for the new year. I haven’t decided what to do with old months yet- I may keep them or throw them away. But my first goal is to make a nice cover for it, and then start setting up the front section that’ll have things like my year in pixels mood tracker, amongst other things. I’m doing a total readjustment. It’s gonna take time, but it’ll be fun!

What are your goals for the coming new year? I know for mine, I want to enter more writing contests, find an IRL DnD game I can take part in, and maybe attend more writing groups throughout the year. I also want to work on my hygiene and general health. I want a lot of things, basically. It’s gonna take a lot of work, but I’ll manage to get through it somehow! I just… Haven’t planned it all out yet.

That’s all for now. Comment with your plans for the holidays, your goals for the new year, and some tips and tricks you might have that can help people (namely me) conquer their barriers and fulfill their great desires. Or, just share your desires you’ve made into reality yourself- sometimes, an anecdote is just what we need to learn from!

I’ll still be posting throughout the holiday season, but for now… Take care!

P.S.: Should I change up the look of the blog for the new year?

Throwback Thursday: Glasses Galore

As some of you may already know, I got new glasses just this weekend. I’d needed a new pair probably for three years, but it finally happened- we were able to (sort of) afford to get me not one, but two pairs of glasses. I now have one regular pair of glasses and one prescription sunglass, since I’m always struggling to deal with bright lights due to my migraines.

Today’s post is going to be pretty brief, but getting my glasses was such an important thing to me, the memories I have of getting them feel like they go on for hours. See, I’ve needed glasses since I was about five or six years old. I was teased a lot as a child because of it, getting the usual nickname of ‘four eyes’ which, by the way, totally confused the pants off me. But the name calling wasn’t even the most annoying part about having glasses as a kid…

It was how often I broke them.

I wasn’t a notably active child. Sure, I ran around the schoolyard with the boys making mud bombs and playing a game of chase, but otherwise, I didn’t really do much in the way of exercising. I spent a majority of my time playing video games or watching TV. But somehow, in my childhood, I broke my glasses a lot- once a year was the bare minimum. What’s weird is, they almost always broke in the same way:

The lenses just kind of… fell out.

When lenses fall out of a frame, it’s not as easy to fix them as if a nose piece comes off. What was weird is it was almost like clockwork: I’d be on the line waiting to get on the bus home from school, and it’d fall out while I was just sitting there. Every. Single. Time.

Of course, I broke my glasses other ways too. I sat on them, stepped on them- pretty much any way you can break a set of glasses, I’ve done it a number of times throughout my twenty plus years of needing them to see straight. And to me, what sucked wasn’t the wearing glasses part: it was getting an exam each year and dreading the eye drops to dilate my pupils… mostly just because they were eye drops.

What’s funny this time though is that, after so long going without a change in glasses, I forgot one important thing: your eyes need time to get used to them. The moment I put my pair of new lenses over my eyes, I started to feel dizzy because everything looked… rounded and weird. It was like I was in a fun house, and I had to be reminded how normal that was, especially when you go so long without a change when you need one. I spent three days with my eyes feeling like everything was out of sorts: things were slanted where they shouldn’t be, as if the world was on tilt, and everything was randomly too big or small to make sense out of.

Still, the glasses do work better than my old ones. I found that out just in the waiting room at the ophthalmologist’s office, where I could read a poster from across the room that I couldn’t read at all with my old pair. Let’s just hope I don’t break these ones, as I managed not to my last ones. After all… I can’t afford a new pair anytime soon with the two I got this time around!

Do you use glasses or contacts? I’d love to hear some of your experiences with corrective lenses! Share your thoughts and stories in the comments. I hope it’ll be as fun for you as it was for me to share!