Can you get one of those eyeglass necklaces to wear around your neck? They make really cute ones these days.

Of course, you have to remember to put it on. I get very annoyed with restaurants that don't provide enough light. I have seen people picking up candles and holding them near themenu in order to read it.

My vision is the opposite. I have to take my glasses off to read well.It's because I've been near-sighted all my life, so my reading vision has actually improved with age.

Can you get one of those eyeglass necklaces to wear around your neck?

Well, see, I don't need to wear them most of the time. Don't need them at computer and lights are bright in the office so I seldom need them there. I have a pair sitting on my desk at work. Have some in the car, have them in the house, so when I need them (which just isn't all that often) they are there.

I guess that's part of my problem, I don't need them all the time so it's easy to forget them. I'm actually also near sighted and wear contacts to correct that, and that's when I need reading glasses. If I'm not wearing my contacts, wearing glasses for distant vision instead, then like you, all I do is take them off to read. But I almost never wear my glasses out, always my contacts.

Pam, I'm like you. I don't need glasses to read so when I wore glasses I had to take them off, or wear a bifocal. When I wore contacts I had to wear reading glasses over the contacts which defeated the reason for wearing contacts in the first place. So I tried bifocal contacts, which were okay, but not nearly as good as what I do now. I only wear one contact in my right eye. That way I can see distance with that eye and I can read with my left eye. I've been doing that now for around 4 years.

Ann

May, ask at the restaurant. As a courtesy some restaurants offer loaner reading glasses! Ask me how I know LOL!

I remember when I finally "grew up" enough to need a purse, if you know what I mean...and what a bother it was to remember. But then I became addicted to always having a pen handy, or kleenex, my glasses, lipstick and a comb an asprin and in more recent years my carkeys and my phone.
How do you live without a purse? What about all those things? Or do you just always wear stuff with big pockets?
A friend I travelled with a lot, didn't want to carry a purse, so she would take a fanny pack on a trip and often buckle the strap and carry it over her arm like a purse. And when we were sight seeing of shopping she could strap it around her waist.
But I can't imagine going out to dinner or shopping or to a movie with just a small bill fold and my car keys stuffed in my pockets....I would be wiping my nose on my sleeve!
The eye thing won't get better....maybe you should take to wearing your glasses....be like one friend who always has a pair of sunglasses on top of her head and her reading glasses hanging from the front of her shirt by the ear piece.
Linda C

Ellen,
Great idea!! I never would have known that so I might try it next time.

Linda,
I don't carry all that stuff. I only carry my cell phone for specific reasons if I'm expecting to need it, otherwise, I remain incommunicado when shopping or at the theatre. Horrors!! Yes, I know. But I guess I'm old fashioned and don't see the need to be available 24/7.

I don't wear make up (lipstick every once in a blue moon), don't need kleenex that often, can always seem to borrow a pen in the rare times I need it, etc.

I used to carry a purse which weighed a ton and had everything I'd need in any eventuality. But I hated it. One day years ago I just decided I didn't need all that carp with me anymore. House key, car key, a little cash, credit card & drivers license. That's all I need most of the time and I'm happy that way.

So now, yeah, add glasses to the list of things I sometimes need. I'm not going to wear them on my head or around my neck, it's just not my style. So I just have to force myself to remember by habit. In the meantime I'll just eat a lot of cheese enchiladas LOL!

I've graduated to them too. But wear contacts too - like Ann. My eyes are sooooo bad - that whole one contact thing scares me, though. Guess I should try.

May, I hate carrying a purse - but a few years ago, when Will was little - I started carrying backpack type purses. I can't go back. They stay up, they're out of the way, but you can still keep stuff in them. a little or a lot.

heck, maybe you want to get some of these to have in your little wallet - as a backup! You inspired me to look and i might get some too - lol!

Stacy

Here is a link that might be useful: credit card size reading glasses

Stacy,
Those are GREAT! That is EXACTLY what I need. Definitely going to order that this weekend (can't do that at work). Excellent!

May, you can also get bifocal contact lenses. That's what I wore before I had my Lasik.

(Wish I could survive without a purse! LOL)

Linda

I've got what's known as "mono-vision". It's basically what Ann does but it's permanent. I had trauma induced cataracts in both eyes. So, the doctor made my left eye for distance & the right for close in needs.

It was weird for the first few weeks. I kept having trouble with perspective...I'd walk into door frames & stab myself in the nose with a fork trying to eat. Eventually, my brain adapted & it's wonderful.

That was 15 years ago. My doctor said I was his youngest cataract patient & he just didn't see any reason for me to wear glasses because I was young enough to adapt to the mono-vision. The only thing is I have to remember to tell the person doing the driver's license eye test otherwise they say, "read the chart, please" & I say, "what chart?" rofl

I also don't carry a purse. What a nuisance! Besides, those things pick up so many germs they freak me out. I hate it when somebody comes over to the house & parks their purse on my kitchen counters or table. I always clean with Chlorox after they leave. :) Lord knows where that purse has been???

/tricia

I've seen these little credit card shaped magnifying cards in Hallmark stores before, flat so they'll fit into your wallet and you just place the card over the writing you want to see.

They're usually up front near the registers, just ask the cashiers; they'll know what you're talking about.

This is similar to what they look like:

Here is a link that might be useful: magnifier

I opted for multi-focal contact lenses after I couldn't read small print anymore. I also have a magnifying glass/light combo Cathy mustangs sent me in a swap - it's groovy. There are nice magnifying glasses you can wear around your neck too.

Also May, I bought my husband an Ibeam Watch and he LOVES it. Here is a woman's style, if you like it.

Here is a link that might be useful: ladies watch

I am scared of those mono vision contacts. I don't think I could adapt. For everyone who's said they like them or got used to them, I know 5 who didn't.

Anyway, since I only need them SOMEtimes at this point in my life, I'm not in any hurry to make any real permanent changes. I'm thinking the creditcard glasses are going to be the perfect solution.

OOoo, shaun, that watch is cool! It sort of reminds me of Dick Tracy LOL! I might just have to get me one of those!! I'm just lovin all these great ideas!

Ann -- I have mono-contacts, too. They just don't correct my vision well enough to wear al the time but I do wear themfor special events and can read pretty well with them. I have the wrong dominant eye for them to work as well as they could.

I think most restaurants have a collection of reading glasses that customers have left behind and never claimed. I left mine at Le Bec Fin, but went back a couple days later to get them. I wonder if anyone used them??

Ellen, as a fellow fund raiser, we give desk magnifiers to members of our Planned Giving SOciety. It has the logo on it and since they are mostly older folks, they really like them.

I haven't carried a purse for years until recently. My boss told me once when I reached into my suit pocket for my CC to pay for dinner, "that's not feminine" i.e. the carrying keys and cash in my pocket. I felt like saying "if you weren't such a b!$#&, I would care". I found a little purse that had a pocket for a phone and a palm pilot so I started carrying those types of purses--more like a wallet on a strap.

But just to the store or ballgame, I don't carry a purse. The other problem is no pockets. Beau and I went to the store, he had EIGHT pockets and I had ZERO. So he carried grammy's cash and keys. Seriously, count the pockets little kids have.

Like Ann, I have wear one contact.

that's not feminine

LOL! If I worried about everything I did that isn't "feminine" by society's standards, I'd have fallen into a deep depression long ago.

I guess a good response to that comment might have been, "How UNgentlemanly of you to say that!" IF of course, he wasn't your boss!

May, to make matters worse, my boss was a 4'10" female who felt obliged to direct our personal lives as well as office politics. e.g. When asked if we wanted dessert, she would chime in for all of us at the table and say "no, we have had enough".

Pam,
I am always forgetting my reading glasses, but I solved the problem by carrying i4ulenses either in my wallet or in the compact carrying case. They are compact pinch nose reading glasses that fit in your wallet like a credit card.

Here is a link that might be useful: compact reading glasses

I always carry a shoulder bag, but if I go into a store and someone tells me I have to check my "bag", I loudly proclaim that it is not a bag, it's a PURSE, and they leave me alone. The one I have now I got at the Army-Navy surplus store, and so I consider it to be a masculine purse - it's olive drab, after all. Most of the male European tourists here carry shoulder bags, as do many of the local men. It's not considered feminine here AFAIK. I get strange looks (and worse) in parts of Texas, but never here.

I carry two emergencies pairs of glasses in my purse - one folds up into about a 2" square and fits into a small leather holding case. The other is very narrow and fits into a very slim case - I got that one at the hardware store. I think I got all my reading glasses at the hardware store - they're much cheaper than the drug store.

I don't think I could wear just one contact, but then I'm too nearsighted to be able to read comfortably without glasses. I have an extra pair of glasses that correct my nearsightedness only partially, so that I can read in bed at night - otherwise the book would have to be four inches from my face. If I'm wearing glasses, I can always take them off to read, but a computer screen is too far away for me to see well. I sometimes wear hardware store reading glasses (that cost $2) over my regular glasses, which some people think is odd, but I got the idea from Red Foxx (as Fred Sanford), and so I know I'm not the only one who does it. Last week my boss said, "Are you wearing two pairs of glasses?" and I said "Yes," and that was the end of that conversation.

Lars

After what happened to Peppi in her workplace (ID theft) we should all rethink where we leave our purses/bags, if we still choose to carry them (I can't do without mine).

Can't help you with the eyeglass thing...the only thing I want to know is...was the restaurant El Tiempo? LOL.
Sherry (yum)

Pam, when you say that you have mono-contacts, does that mean that the contacts are special mono vision contacts? Do you wear a different prescription in each eye? I have an astigmatism in my right eye so I always wear a "toric" lens in that eye but I don't wear anything in my left.

Ann

Lars, To your mention about being asked to "check your bag/purse"--the only time I have ever been asked to check my bag was in Pasadena. I was completely taken aback and asked why. I was told by the clerk that it was to cut down on people putting something in their bag, in this case my large purse. I protested and said "how do I know you won't take something out of my purse?". I was asked to leave the store. I had been wanting to go to this store for a long time so I came back later in disguise and without my purse.

If I'm wearing glasses, I can always take them off to read, but a computer screen is too far away for me to see well. I sometimes wear hardware store reading glasses (that cost $2) over my regular glasses...

I admit it! I do that too! Well, only at home though because I normally wear contacts when I'm out but often have glasses on at home and then, to see the computer screen, I have to add a pair of reading glasses. LOL, yeah, it's crazy, but HEY! it works!!

was the restaurant El Tiempo?
LOL! NO!! That's the point! Had it been El Tiempo, I could have easily ordered without looking at the menu at all!

how do I know you won't take something out of my purse?"
No kidding!! No way I'd ever leave my purse (in the day when I carried one) with some strange clerk in a store. That's absolutely outrageous. I take it the store was a bit more upscale than "Mr. Tablecloths and more" LOL!!

I carry small purses nowadays, usually an across the chest shoulder strap type so I'm hands free. My most used is a little larger than a wallet with a zipper pocket for keys and my drugstore reading glasses (tiny and in a metal tube case), a pocket pack of Kleenex (always need those) and an outside phone pocket which I use for my smallest camera (I've never had or needed a cellphone.) I also have one of those flat plastic credit card-sized magnifying glasses which I bought and then forgot where I put it.

I use glasses only for reading as I'm farsighted, but when I went to the optometrist for a checkup I thought about being fitted for computer glasses. Best idea I ever had as we could fine tune the correct distance at the optometrist's office by looking at his computer. Spending long hours gazing at my computer screen was tiring, so this was a good solution for reading the screen from about 27 inches away without eyestrain.

Yes it is common here in Europe for men to carry a bag and it looks quite natural because so many of them are camera bags or backpack-type sling bags over one shoulder, often used by bikers and hikers. Most supermarkets and some stores here have a set of small lockers at the entrance where shoppers can leave their big backpacks or large carryalls. And some still have signs at the entrance asking people to leave their bags of all types in the lockers provided. Some years ago there were shops which asked people to leave their handbags with an employee at the front door. I would always walk out of such places, because as you said Lars, what guarantee do you have they're not snooping inside. Nowadays nobody bothers me even if I take a larger satchel-type handbag into a shop.

SharonCb

"I take it the store was a bit more upscale than "Mr. Tablecloths and more" LOL!!" Rotfl

Before I started wearing glasses and didn't understand that at age fourty, something could possibly be wrong with my vision (rolling eyes). I had magnifying glasses all over the house. At my desk, in the living room so I could read during R&R, in the bedroom so I could read at night. Then graduated to reading glasses all over the house, my car and purse. ~sigh~

I wear mono vision contacts (one for distance and one for close up. I hate it. I've been doing it know for over a year and will be changing soon when my next appointment comes up. I feel kinda dizzy going up stairs and looking down. I have tried the one contact for distance and reading glasses on top of that. I may go back to that.

I have a pair of bifocal glasses that took me forever to get used to but now I love them.

"I take it the store was a bit more upscale than "Mr. Tablecloths and More"
Yeahbut we weren't there long enough to pull out any reading glasses! Just long enough to give David something to laugh about before moving on to the John Deer Tractor shop.

Well, here I am again, as it always seems a day or two (or more) late to the discussion. May, if you try these, would you please come back here and let us know how you like them?

I tried to go with the bigger purse trend, and found immediately that like my home, when I have available space I tend to fill it. Usually, I carry a very small bag, but find I need a little more ''emergency'' room than I used to. What I finally realized, is I use my CAR for my purse, which is probably why I usually like to drive! Anyway, I graduated to the wallet on a string, as soon as I found one big enough to tuck my keys into. It certainly isn't big enough to hold reading glasses however! My big bags started hurting my back, and I remembered how unnecessary it is to take most of that stuff with me.

I've tried bifocal glasses, bifocal contact lenses, one distance/one reading in each eye. I switch off, depending on my needs, but find I usually prefer distance contacts, and reading glasses around home. If I'm going somewhere, sometimes I change my contacts so I can actually read something, but then of course it's hard to see anything very well! I keep reminding myself that the good thing is my vision can be corrected...

I'd love a review of your little glasses when they come! This seems like a great alternative, especially when one doesn't want to carry a huge bag.

If you forget to carry your reading glasses, you may want to have i4ulenses, credit card size reading glasses you keep in your wallet like a credit card. Check www.i4ulenses.com for more information

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