Gather round for stories from the beauty salon / eye doctor's...

Hi all,

Hope all's well this evening. It's been quite the day.

Everything started at 8, when I drove out to Ann Arbor to go get the good 'ol eyeballs checked. All's well - Just an odd experience all around. Kind of odd.

First of all, the tech (the person that records all the initial information, takes readings, preps you for the doc, etc.) was probably the most unhappy one that I've seen there so far. She was not very pleasant, mumbled so I didn't understand her, and was just not very nice. Don't know what the story was (shrug).

At umich, all the people that work there are usually pretty friendly - I've been going there for over 3 years and I've rarely run into someone that was rude. I'm going to take this experience as an aberration. Hopefully I won't see unhappy lady again.

So anyway, today's experience was kind of odd. For the past few months or so, I occasionally get this feeling like there's a hair or something in my eye. I usually look around and can't seem to find anything. After a bit, it goes away.

It turns out that one of my eyelashes is growing and curling in. So, whenever I blink or the air current is the right way, this hair pokes at my eye - Hence, the eyelash in the eye feel.

So that explains the feeling right? Right. So how do I get rid of it? You guessed it. The Doc tells me what the dilly is and says that we need to "get rid of it." Uh oh...

Out of nowhere, he whips out some tweezers (I have no idea where he got them from, it was dark). Tells me to sit really really still. Also, I was assured that it wouldn't be too painful. :)

Pull --> Ouch!

"Oh, sorry, we didn't get the whole thing - it broke off."

Lovely. So again, I sit really really still...

Pull --> Ouch!

"Nope, the wholel thing didn't come out. We need to get it by the root."

Now I'm thinking, ohhh, great.

Again, I sit really really still.

HOLY MOTHER FCUKER!

"Got it this time."

My eye, with one less eyelash, was totally tearing up. It did this for a minute or so.

Craziness. I'm glad I don't have to do that often.

So I just found the whole thing kind of goofy. Who ever knew that ophthalmologists did eyelash extractions too? I should have gotten them curled too.

On a sadder note, my doctor's going to retire next month - Kind of a bummer, really. He assured me that I am in good hands with his replacement. :)

So I guess that special amount of pain was my parting gift :)

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So last Friday, I did an impulse buy and bought some of those cheesy car air fresheners - you know, the ones that look like leaves? My car has been starting to get odiferous when it sits in the sun after a while. I bought two scents - "New car" and strawberry / cherry (I forget which one). "New car" is not the traditional new car smell that you're probably thinking of. It's kind of a weird mix of baby powder-esque scent mixed with something else. Don't get me wrong, it's fine in small quantities, but it's a whole different story when you get a big whif of it. No, I'm not hanging it from the rear view mirror - But I've got the "new car smell" thing in the original plastic packaging (I ripped a hole in it) and it's under the passenger front floor mat.

I don't know what it was, but I had the proper mix of air flow with the driver's side window and the sunroof open and I was amost getting suffocated by the "new car" smell. Seriously - it was hard to breathe and making me ill. And I couldn't get rid of it. I reached under the floor mat, pulled out the "new car" smell generator and threw it in the back seat. Ugh. Once I got on the highway and closed up all the windows, everything was fine. Phew.

I think the next one that I use, I'll have to let it sit out in the garage for a few days with the wrapper off before putting it in my car. Sheesh. I just want "essence" of new car, not all of it.

-Kirk