Almost 20/20

Right after my eye operation, I had to wear my glasses some during the day because going too long without them gave me a headache. I even had to go to bed once because my head hurt so much.

But I haven't worn my glasses in some time--a couple of weeks--and I hadn't noticed that I hadn't been getting headaches.

Yesterday I put on my glasses and realized I couldn't see a damn thing with them. It was time for my month checkup.

I went in today and the optometrist tested my eyes. "No wonder you don't need those glasses," he said. My left eye: after the operation 20/30, now 20/20; my right eye: after the operation 20/80, now 20/30. The best my right eye had ever been with contacts was 20/25, so I'm doing pretty damn well.

I may not need that second operation after all. Whee ha! One operation, and they're done! Simply amazing, given what my eyesight used to be. Or, as I used to like to say, "There's a saying among bats: 'As blind as Diane.'"

The only problem I'm still having is what Darin and I call "starbursts." At night, or in dark rooms, lights seem to have giant halos around them, spiky and tough to see through. Driving isn't especially more hazardous, but it is annoying, because you have to concentrate that much harder. I missed a street sign I was looking for one night because the starburst obscured the street name and I couldn't read it until I was already under it.

The opthalmologist (the optometrist's brother) thinks the starbursts are effects of corneal edema, or swelling in the eye due to the operation, and they'll go away over time. They haven't gone away for Darin yet, and they certainly haven't gone away for me. We keep hoping. Once again, we probably won't even notice that they're not there, only that they are.

I forgot to mention that Darin and I went to a company Christmas party Wednesday night. It was Il Cielo in Beverly Hills, and neither of us was particularly impressed with the food, although the frequency with which the help filled up our wine and champagne glasses was particularly laudatory. This is a company Darin has done some contracting for that has some connections with the Industry.

Both Darin and I were reminded of the Saturnalian orgies Apple used to hold, back in the 80s. The first Christmas both Darin and I worked for Apple (though we didn't know one another then) was held at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The entire Academy of Sciences. The Hall of Man had several tables of various kinds of food; the Hall of Animals had more tables of food; the Fish Roundabout was the "truffle room" and had a gigantic pyramid of truffles. (There's no truth to the rumor that I ate all of them.)

There was another Christmas party where Ella Fitzgerald was the entertainment, and yet another where Apple hired Cirque de Soleil. Endless food, endless drink.

Sigh. Those days are over, obviously. Unless you work on Wall Street and are picking up multi-million dollar bonuses.