O, I C

I honestly don't know how Sarah Palin does it.

I'm not talking about living in the deep State of Ignorance, although that's a pretty remarkable feat in and of itself.

No, I'm referring to wearing such tiny glasses.
Trendy, yes; attractive, definitely; practical - get serious!


My eyesight is failing.
Another one of Mother Natures ironies - just when getting older allows us to see truths and realities of life more clearly, we're lucky if we can find our damn dentures in the glass or the keys in the door!

My attempts with bifocal contacts have had mixed, and mostly poor, results but, for vanity sake, I still make the attempt to start the work day without glasses.

Truth be told, the part of the day I look forward to most is getting home, taking my contacts out, removing all eye makeup and 'resting my eyes'.

Frankly, in my book, that makes me one step away from crawling into a fleece body bag and watching Lawrence Welk while gumming an egg and biscuit for dinner!

I blame all the sewing I did at an earlier stage of my life.

I LOVE antique samplers.

I love the peace I found while designing and sewing reproductions of them.

It was a contemplative process - counting threads and finding the rhythm of making "X's" was simple and satisfying -two things my life wasn't at that point.

There was also the added bonus that, at the end of whatever time I had to spend in the pursuit, there was some tangible result to show for my efforts - not at all like house work, parenting or social work!

GI Joe has told me that his earliest memories are of us on the couch; me sitting nearest the lamp sewing, him and his brother watching "The Wonder Years", Greatest American Hero" or "Kate and Ali".

By the time each of the boys started preschool, they had heard, multiple times, the explanation that samplers were originally used to teach girls not only the domestic arts but the alphabet, at a time when they were being denied a formal education.

Which would explain why, when GI Joe was in 1st grade, he looked at me sadly one night and said "If you still haven't learned the alphabet by now, Mom, I could help; I got to go to school".

A friend and I even attended a convention in Colonial Williamsburg with a 'hands on' component during which we learned extremely intricate stitches found on samplers in the 1600 -1700's in Great Britain and in early American versions.

We laughed at the women who brought HUGE lamps from their hotel rooms but the ones who had lighted magnifying glasses on chains around their necks practically made us wet ourselves.
Imagine my chagrin when I started needing to pack a magnifying glass in my work bag so I could decipher some of the more blurred and intricate information on medical charts.

I'd cry but that would smear my lenses - and I wouldn't be able to find the box of Kleenex!