Not for sensitive eyes

Or the story of how I went blind for 5 hours.

On Labor Day, I didn't really have anything to do besides get ready for classes the next day, so I got up, got a lazy start, hung around my room. about ten minutes after putting my contacts in, I noticed that everything seemed a little... hazy. After about half an hour of wondering if all those horror stories I heard about your contacts slowly causing eye damage were true, I took my contacts out, washed them, and put them back in. It didn't do anything. Not only did it not clear up my vision, but everything was still hazy without my contacts in at all. It was driving me crazy, so I just took them out and went about the rest of my day with very limited vision.

I tried to ignore the fact that my eyes were burning. It wasn't much at first, but by late afternoon when I was out drinking my peppermint mocha frappucino and plotting out my next screenplay on the Diag, I had to close my eyes.

And then I couldn't open them. It was only for a few minutes, but I decided that it was time to give up on the beautiful day and head back inside while I was able to keep my eyes open. When I got back to my room I took a look in the mirror - my eyes were bloodshot like Frankenstein's bride, really. However, I was still able to keep them mostly open at this point, and so went out to meet up with a friend and go hang out at her house (instead of going to the movies like the original plan was. At least I was smart enough to realize that sitting in a dark room with a huge blindingly bright screen shining in your face would not be good for sensitive eyes). But when we got to said friend's house, I sat down, closed my eyes, and that was pretty much when my 5 hours of legal blindness started.

Long story short, be careful to not wear contaminated contacts. They cause double eye infections. Diane had to lead me around by the arm in CVS on our way to the pharmaceutical counter, my sunglasses on, my eyes tearing and my nose running like I was having an emotional breakdown. Two rounds of eye drops and a sound only version of "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" later, I could open my eyes enough to walk home by myself. I bet everyone was wondering, though, who that pompous girl was to think it was cool to wear her sunglasses at night.