I’ve been riding the 38 Geary almost daily for a little over a year now, and I’m still awed at how quiet it can be inside a bus packed with so many people. But it’s a great place for contemplation, at least on those 25% of rides that I manage to snag a seat, and can more easily ignore the occasional cellphone talkers or random mumblers. Its especially easy to block out the rest of the commuters when I’ve got the ipod on, but on the days it stays home I am even more cognizant of the oddities of commuting by public transit.

I’m also consistently amused by the the fabulous people-watching opportunities that abound on public transit. I think its the women who can manage their entire makeup regimen on the bus that amaze me the most. Seriously, how many people can curl their eyelashes on a moving platform?

]]> http://mygypsyeyes.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/meditating-on-muni/feed/ 0 gypsy http://mygypsyeyes.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/i-heart-san-francisco/ http://mygypsyeyes.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/i-heart-san-francisco/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:33:14 +0000 Gypsy http://mygypsyeyes.wordpress.com/?p=108 ]]>

just a quick comment from a night out in North Beach this weekend… I think bouncers should have the right to refuse entry to tourist who wear matching “I heart SF” t-shirts, especially if said t-shirts are paired with shorts that fall above mid-thigh, and/or fanny packs worn in front. This goes double if the person wearing shorts is male. Not that I don’t love the funny-looking tourists, since they’re a valid part of the craziness that makes up this town, but really, this is not what I want to see when I’m out at a bar.

not much has changed since six months ago. I still have very tender eyeballs –  you know how you rub your eyes a bit whenever you wash your face? that can cause pain for me. I”m also still not wearing eye makeup, as it’s not worth the pain my eyelids feel when putting on eyeliner. At least I’m enjoying being out of the mascara habit. I imagine this might become an issue as my career develops, since most of the women I encounter on a daily basis have some degree of makeup on, but I’ll push it as long as I can…

I’m also still using the talking alarm clock, and still have an array of eye drops and ointments on the nightstand. At least I’ve finally trained myself not to open my eyes when I can feel the stickiness. I would love for that to go away someday, but the acupuncture has not cured it Ilike I had wistfully hoped. It does help a bit though, so I’ll keep getting needles stuck in my forehead for now…

I have at least graduated to larger bottles of eye drops (Genteal makes preservative-free 10 ml & 25ml bottles) so I feel better about not using so many of those sterile plastic tubes from Allergan. They also seem to have taken the Endura drops off the market, and those were my favorite anyway.

Acceptance is my theme for this half of the year, so when I mark the 2nd anniversary of the surgery in two days, I will hopefully also mark the point at which I accept that I made this decision and I have to live with it. And I’ll hope that things continue to improve with time.

it’s been two months since my vacation, and I’m just now getting around to posting this. I had a nice week, went to Emeric Lake on a four day, solo backpack. It was wonderful to spend some time in the mountains.

Emeric Lake, YNP

side note: avocados taste even better at high altitudes

Still Life With Avocado

figured it was time for another update, in case anyone out there is still doing research on the recovery time for this surgery.

I went to a new eye doctor last month, and she told me that I didn’t have any symptoms of dry eyes, and to just keep using a warm compress. [I can get a pair of glasses with a very mild prescription, for driving, but I've been lazy about it because I'm afraid that my eyes might change again, and they'd give me a headache.] So, since my eyesight is close to 20/20, according to the doctors I am a successful story of a lasek patient, with no real grounds for complaint.

if that’s the case, then why can’t I open my eyes easily in the morning, and why do they still feel like they’ve been sprinkled with sand every so often? And did I mention that I have pretty much given up on eye makeup? I used to wear at least mascara on most days, but now I always end up looking like a racoon, since i rub my eyes too much. And eyeliner is literally painful to put on. I also bought a talking alarm clock, saving myself from the painful process of trying to see what time it was.

the one thing I will admit is how much a difference it makes if I am hydrated. The more water I drink, the easier it is to lift my eyelids in the morning. However, this kinda sucks when I want to have a few beers, or a glass of wine…maybe it’s nature’s way of keeping my alcoholic tendencies in check… whaterver, I’m still going to see if acupuncture can help me. I would like to hopefully think that this surgery was worth it someday.

the other good news is that the dry-eye side effect of LASIK is finally getting some national press. I hope that other marginal candidates won’t be as anxious as I was to get my corneas reshaped, now that this backlash is being made public.

living in San Francisco is kind of like living in twenty countries at once, execpt the signs are (mostly) in English. I hear at least five different languages on the street or the bus every day, and am consistenly confused when I see people reading backwards in chinese.  It’s become even more of a tourist hotspot since the dollar started dropping… hey everyone, the US is on sale!  But I love that I get to come home to my own comfy bed every night. No saggy hostel mattresses for me.

I’m only half serious, of course, since there’s still so much of the world I want to see, but I think about this topic at frequent intervals. I am fortunate to have a life filled with friends who love to travel, several of whom are planning for extended trips or living in countries around the world. So I often ask myself, how come I don’t have this same desire to live in a foreign country? Although, after last year’s adventures, I would strongly consider living in Buenos Aires, Mendoza, or Santiago de Chile, I think that my parents just got this impulse out of the way for me early on… I’m well-traveled, whether I remember it or not!

The other reason I keep pondering the multiculturalism of San Francisco is even more self-centered: It used to be the case, quite often, that I would have the most unique name out of any given group of people. Not so much anymore. I know that’s a good thing, but it’s an interesting way that I appreciate what a unique city this is, and the diverse collection of people that I have met here so far.

Now if only I had magic powers to make it 10 degrees warmer, and clear the fog away…

I love my porch…

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my Epi-Lasik surgery. I would still prefer to have my natural eyes and glasses back, but things are getting incrementally better. The moments during the day where my vision feels almost perfect are coming with more frequency. Every so often I will be able to wake up and open my eyes without putting eye drops in. And I believe that the relative humidity in San Francisco (i moved right next to the ocean) is better for my eyes than the dry air of Yosemite. However, my eyes will still feel sore whenever I’m washing or drying my face and press too hard on the eyelids–I really thought this would have gone away by now. My vision still gets blurry after reading for a few minutes, but it recovers much faster than it used to. And I have an emergency eye doctor appointment this afternoon, because my left eyelid is swollen. Weather it is from the blepharaitis, or just a bug bite, I can’t really tell, so I’m trekking over to the east bay to find out…

Just a word about health insurance — I had heard so many success stories about Lasik prior to getting the surgery, that I mistakenly thought I would be okay with leaving my job (and health insurance) a few months afterward. I would not recommend this to others, as it was problematic for me to qualify as an individual and I was not wanting to pay the $275 a month to COBRA. So now I’m uninsured, and hoping that my old eye doctor takes a little pity on me for not having steered me away from epi-Lasik in the first place.