The other day my glasses broke in half, so I got new ones. I've been surprised to realize that this is only my fourth pair ever. Here's a retrospective.
 | The first pair. |
I first needed glasses during sophomore year in high school, as I recall. I vividly remember walking home from the optician's and being amazed at how sharply the winter tree branches stood out against the overcast sky. Not to mention how Mom finally stopped bugging me about my squinting. There I am in a studio portrait taken during college.
 | Longevity champ. |
The second pair I must have had the longest, and I don't remember exactly when I got them, but it must have been during grad school. There I am with Ann in my upstairs apartment on Summerdale in late 1999.
Not quite regular specs, but I did get a pair of prescription sunglasses in the spring of 1997, I believe, after I drove friends nuts with some cheap clip-ons for years. (Not that I didn't drive them nuts with these, too.) I think my theory on selecting these was that they were so retro that eventually they'd come back in style, and I'd be on the leading edge. Oh well.
These I got during the winter of 1999-2000, while working at Britannica.com. Getting these became something of a headache, and in the end, I decided to keep the slightly-yellow-tinted lenses just to be done with it. But they did go well with my soul-patch-hipster period. These are the ones that snapped in half on Sunday after over four years of faithful service, right at the bridge of the nose.
 | The only downside: no OptiGrab. photo: Ann Boyd |
So now I have a new pair — and these come with a special sunglasses attachment so I can dump the hipster-doofus ones. How long will this pair last? |
