Life has been nothing special lately.

I've never been very good at responding to comments individually, but I would definitely like to thank everyone for the advice. I still haven't figured out exactly what I'm going to do, but I know a few more options are open for me. I stayed out of my contacts for a week and my eyes pretty much cleared up. I've been working the contacts back in. I wore them for a few hours last night. I wore them for a few hours today but stayed in my glasses around the house. I figure if I can get onto a schedule where I cut the lens wear time down to only a few hours, I might be able to deal with this for now, until I can figure out a solution. Unfortunately, it's not the end of the ordeal and it never will be. This is a condition I'll be fighting all my life and I see this even without my lenses in, because I wake up in the morning and the eyes are red and dry. I should buy stock in Refresh Tears!

Aside from that, not much has been happening. We stayed in and rented movies this week. I finally saw Braveheart because I apparently was the only person on the planet who hasn't seen it. It's weird, I love movies and I've seen tons of them and there have been times in the past few years where I've gone to the theater and there was nothing interesting left that I hadn't seen. But when it comes to some of the classics, the ones that EVERYONE has seen, yea, I've never seen them. I'm trying to catch up, I really am. Basic Instinct? Nope. Jaws? Nope - ok, pieces of it. Schindler's List? Nope. And here's the topper - Star Wars. NOPE! The only one I've ever seen was The Empire Strikes Back and that was last year, at the shore when we were taking a break from partying, so I wasn't all that committed to it. So I have a bit of catching up to do.

Friday night, we did something completely polar to our Pennsylvania personalities - we went shopping. Instead of going out and partying, we put on some chill clothes, hopped into the car and headed over to West Ashley. In our defense, when I say shopping, I really mean, we discovered the wonder that is Costco, so I guess it's excusable. We walked in and knew immediately we wanted to join because, as we rationalize it, if we can buy things in bulk that we go through like crazy, like toilet paper, paper towels and soda, then we don't have to go by the store that often, which leaves me more time to sit home, be lazy and catch up on all those movies I haven't seen.

So yes, we paid the fifty bucks to join and spent the next two hours wandering up and down all of the aisles of Costco and marverling at the fact that you could buy 60 Eggo Waffles or 10 lbs of pork chops at the same time that you could buy a discounted iPod and Calvin Klein jeans for twenty bucks. We were in heaven! Every corner we turned, it was like hitting the jackpot. Because we really need sixteen boxed of Velveeta Shells and Cheese. We really, really do.

And the best find. The best find ever was the memory foam mattress topper that we got. For months, we've been going back and forth about buying a Tempurpedic mattress. I fidget like crazy and it bothers Steve at night and when we tried it out in Brookstone before we moved, we both fell in love with the memory foam. Unfortunately, that's not in the price range, especially if I'm going to do something about my eyes, so we settled with the topper from Costco because we got an awesome deal on it. And it also has another two inch padding of microfiber topper. We slept on it last night and it is a dream! It's so soft and comfortable and it feels amazing. And it makes us love Costco even more.

And to close out the entry, I'm heading back to the movies. After our Costco journey, we decided to go see Clerks II. I was really looking forward to it because I had heard good things about it and we had just rented the original one. Let's just say, I'm giving it two thumbs up. Some people didn't like because it had a "message" and thought that message didn't fit it with the raunchiness of the rest of the film and sort of softened it up. But I like the combination of the two and I liked the message it sent. I could see it as Kevin Smith's "baby" in the sense that the message was neccessary because these were characters he was revisiting and he wanted a good ending and good life for them. So it's definitely worth a viewing, particularly if you were a fan of the first one.

Here's what bothered me the most though. We were waiting for the movie to start and I look a few rows below me and see a woman sitting there with a little girl next to her who couldn't have been older than three. I roll my eyes because I seriously cannot stand when people bring their children to movies. I'm not one hundred percent discriminatory on that, mind you. Steve and I have chosen to see movies like The Incredibles and Ice Age in the theatre and there have been kids in that and I'm completely tolerable of it, because it's a kids movie and it will hold their interest. But seriously, I cannot stand people who bring their children to adult movies and then I have to sit and listen to the kids scream and talk and cry and make noise because they are bored because they don't get the movie. It irritates me to no end. Get a fucking babysitter, wait until it comes on video, or don't come to the movie. Or bring something to occupy them. Do something, just don't be so inconsiderate because YOU want to see an adult themed movie that you know will be of no interest to your child and ruin my movie going experience.

The little girl wasn't as annoying as most kids I've seen. She was loud and running around but seemed to quiet down for enough periods of time to not be completely distracting. What bothers me even more though, is the fact that this woman thought bringing her kid to see Clerks was a GOOD IDEA! I must stress also, that sitting in front of the woman was a girl around twelve years old, who was with her as well, because they were sharing popcorn and talking. So now this brilliant specimen of a person decide to bring her three year old and a preteen girl to this movie.

And here's the thing. It's not like she didn't know what to expect out of the movie. Usually, people don't pay to see a sequel in the theatre unless they've seen the original. And you could tell from the original that it's not a movie your kids should be seeing. If you've seen ANY of Kevin Smith's movie, you can pretty much assume that you shouldn't be taking your kids to see them. There were whole conversations riddled with swear words. There were vivid discussions about what is and is not a racial slur, about "forbidden" sexual acts, about "pussy trolls" and there was "interspecies erotica", as they liked to call it. They were hysterical to us adults in the theatre but truthfully, it wasn't a movie I would have gone to with my parents or even recommended to them let alone take my children to. I wanted to stand up and scream at her and ask her if she was crazy. I wanted to hand her the Worst Parent of the Year award. It's a shame I won't be around in ten years or so when her kids are swearing in her face and running around like hoodlums and getting into trouble.

And for those of you wondering, the "interspecies erotica" scene was a bit weird but it wasn't over the line or anything. It was actually pretty hilarious! But I'll let you decide for yourself.

Just leave your kids at home, please!

... or so I'd like to think. If only that were true.

In all actuality, it's horrible. I've been in contacts since I was ten. I had glasses for a few years before that. I have not had a day in fifteen years where I could wake up and see clearly.

My prescription is a -9.00/-8.00 in my right and left eye, respectively. This means that I put my hand about six inches from my face and I can't make out the lines of my palm. It means that I can lay in bed next to Steve and only see the shadows of his face. I wouldn't know if he was making faces at me or if his eyes were open, for that matter. It means I can only stumble around without the aid of my glasses or contacts and it certainly means that I can't leave the house without something on or in my eyes.

Contacts are a wonderful invention. Except when you wear them for close to fifteen hours a day every day for fiteen years of your life. Apparently, my eyes don't take too kindly to the lenses anymore. There's a point where they're overtired and stressed from relying on foreign objects to allow me to see straight for so long.

I reached a point a couple years ago where my eye doctor literally told me I could go blind if I continued wearing my lenses as often as I did. I found out later, after freaking the hell out, from a gentler doctor that he was exaggerating greatly but that possibility was still there. Apparently, contacts block the oxygen flow to your eyes and causes swelling in the cornea. This swelling allows room for blood vessels, which aren't supposed to be in the white part of the eye, to grow. Overtime, these blood vessels can actually grow into the iris (the colored part) and, in severe cases, over the pupil, causing deteriorated vision.

Sound like I know what I'm talking about right? Well, it's because it's all I've heard about the past couple of years. I was put into the type of contacts that I throw away every day because they're supposed to allow the oxygen to flow better. I was just recently put back into the every two weeks kind. And for the longest time, my eyes were doing great. Now, the redness has come back and I walk around looking like I have a severe case of pink eye.

That wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to go out into public. Especially in a new place. I had the people at my old job trained. They knew what it was so they just let me know they were red and went on about their business. Here, I have to constantly reassure people. It's not pink eye. There's no goop. There's no itching. It will not get your kid sick. It doesn't hurt. Most of the time, I don't even notice it until you point it out or I look in the mirror.

It doesn't REALLY hurt. It can be a bit uncomfortable because the corneal neovascularization makes the eyes dry, so I'm putting drops in them all the time. Sometimes it feels like I have an eyelash stuck in my eye all day.

The problem is that I know how to fix it, but it's not that easy. I have glasses. I've been wearing them pretty steadily the past week. But the moment things start to get better, I'm back into my lenses. I could wear my glasses at night. I could wear them on the weekends. I could wear them all the time. But I don't.

And I'm not being stubborn. I would love to wear my glasses comfortable and have my eyes feel wonderful and not have to deal with the redness or the dryness or the discomfort. But it's not that easy. Because my prescription is so bad, my lenses are rather thick. I even had a thinning agent put on them and they're still thick. They're cute glasses, and they could be thicker but they're not thin by any means. Coke bottles, bug eyes - call me what you will, I've heard it all before. I can't wear any eye makeup at this point either because it irritates my eyes and I'm constantly putting drops in them anyway, so it becomes a bit redundant.

That's all self-conscious surface stuff. I can get over that quickly, particularly if it makes my eyes feel better. What I have a problem with is the actual transition from the contacts to the glasses. If you think I'm a klutz without glasses, you should see what I'm like with them. I run into shit. I fall over things. I completely lose any dept perception or peripheral vision. The other night I ran smack into the doorjam because I couldn't judge the distance between myself and the actual door opening.

The glasses don't move with my eyeballs. I can have my contacts in and I can look left or right without turning my head and I can see clearly. With the glasses, they don't move. They're planted on the front of my face, straight ahead and anything to either side of me is blurry unless I turn my head. So I see nothing but shapes and shadows to my side and it's unnerving. I get extremely disoriented and nervous.

Maybe I wouldn't have so much trouble if I hadn't been in lenses for so long. I came to terms long ago with not being able to wake up in the morning and actually see my alarm clock. But the contact lenses afforded my some sort of normal vision and I embraced that, possibly too much. I did abuse them but that's because they made me as close to normal as I could be. Not being able to see clearly is scary at times and frustrating and can make you feel absolutely helpless. And contacts fixed that.

Being in glasses makes me feel not so helpless but will never be as good as contacts. Aside from all the disorientation, they make my eyes so tired. I only really see clearly dead straight ahead. Even to the side of the lenses is distorted because of the curvature needed for the thickness. And because my script is different in both eyes, it's more exaggerated with glasses. So I'm fighting all day to focus and just see clearly and it's literally exhausting. My eyes practically feel swollen shut by the end of the day. Some eye drops, a hot compress and an hour or so on the couch and I'm feeling better, but again, something frustrating because it cuts into my time that I could be living a normal seeing life.

I don't know what I'm going to do. I haven't had a good vision plan since I got off my dad's insurance and that's because my parents were paying for a PPO. I don't even think I have that option with my new company. I'm on an HMO which does crap for your vision. At my last company, I had vision coverage but not enough to take good care of my eyes. I got one free eye exam and $35 towards the purchase of contact lenses or glasses every two years. At this company, I don't even have that.

Part of the reason I went off the type of lenses that you throw away every day is because they were so fucking expensive. I was paying forty dollars a month, which came out to be close to five hundred dollars a year flat out of pocket. I did it for as long as I could and only went back to the extended wear when my doctor okayed it. Apparently, the okay needs to be reniged because they obviously aren't working.

I could've just skipped the contacts and put the $35 towards glasses, right? Wrong. Because of the polymer that has to be put on my lenses to make them thinner, my glasses can cost over two hundred bucks. And it's not just a cosmetic thing - the prescription is so bad that the lenses pretty much need the polymer to fit into any decent set of frames. And there was a point where my prescription was changing every six months or so, which doesn't bode well when you pay that much for glasses and six months later, you can't see so well out of them.

The eye exams themselves weren't that big of a deal. Once I started having all the problems, they were being billed as medical, instead of vision, so they were covered under my insurance. And from what my last eye doctor told me, I can have them covered under medical for the rest of my life because apparently I have a freckle on my eye. Who knows what exactly this means but it's not such a big deal, as he said, so I'm going to roll with it.

The final option is probably going to be Lasik surgery. But again, we go back to insurance, which doesn't cover it, or enough of it to make a significant impact. As of now, insurance companies still consider it cosmetic. And that kind of pisses me off. Because yes, it cosmetic for people who use it to correct slight eye problems. For people who can wake up and read the numbers on their alarm clock. I could even see it being cosmetic for people with scripts as bad as me but no eye problems except they just don't want to wear contacts anymore.

But I'm running out of options here. And that surgery is expensive. Plus, it's not one hundred percent guaranteed and I've heard of side effects such as extended dryness and auras and having a hard time driving at night.

Which leads me to the entire point of this post: they should have medical exceptions for people like me to get the Lasik surgery. Like people who get approved for gastric bypass surgery because the quality of their life has been threatened and their health is in serious danger. My overall health may not be in danger but my eyesight certainly is. And sometimes, I wish that was taken more seriously. I'm a fairly healthy person, except for my eyesight and sometimes, I wish all that money I paid for insurance and all the crap I put up with actually served a purpose and could improve the health of my eyes.

I've just never felt like people (and I mainly mean insurance companies) have taken my eyes problems seriously. And that's partly my fault because I didn't take it as seriously as I should. And looking back on it, I wish I would have. No one told me the lenses could affect me like this and now it's too late. It was pretty much too late when they told me. And now, it's just like, well, it's only contacts and eyeglasses.

No, it's not. It's my vision. It's my livelihood. It's how I conduct my life.

And there's got to be a better solution out there.

At some point, I'm just going to have to suck it up, get the surgery and finance another bill. At least that would be worth the interest I was paying on it, unlike all the other crap I've financed.

Now if only I could get through the next little while with my glasses. If you see some poor girl wandering the streets of Charleston, bumping into telephone poles and falling down stairs, kindly take me by the hand and lead me home.

After weeks of searching, I finally found a semi-decent cheesesteak around here. The ones I had tried so far were far from good. Either the meat wasn't chopped right or the cheese was wrong. But on Friday, we headed out to a place called Philly's in Summerville and I'll be damned. Not only was the meat perfect, but it was chopped into small, thing pieces and served with white American/Provolone cheese (either one is acceptable). The only thing that kept it from perfect was the roll. It's just not a good cheesesteak without an Amoroso roll, which you're not going to get fresh around this area. But they came pretty close and that was what mattered.

Furthermore, they had Tastykakes! And I hear they have awesome calzones and strombolis. And they had Philly paraphenelia all over the walls. It was nice because I had a small case of homesickness that day and that seemed to cure it. Nothing like some food from home to help you feel better.

The rest of the weekend was noneventful. We knew my little brother was hanging out at home so we went and picked him up and took him to Blackbeard's Cove. One round of mini-golf and a spin around the Go-Kart track effectively killed about two hours. It was a lot of fun, except when the gnats were flying in my face as we drove the Go-Karts around.

We went to dinner and the movies on Saturday. Courageously, we decided to see Superman Returns at the IMAX. The movie was sold out so thankfully we got there early. But we stood in line for close to forty-five minutes while they waited to let us in the theater. We stood in line with about a hundred other people packed into the small lobby and they didn't have the air conditioning on. So it was a mass of sweat and stank breath smell and musty, humid air. When they finally let us in, late mind you, we feel the air conditioning blast on us as we're filing into the theater. Maybe it was wrong of me to expect them to turn the A/C on when that many people we're standing and waiting in a long line. Who knows? All I know is that it's good they let people in when they did because the natives were starting to restless and mutiny was in the air.

Side note: Superman Returns was much better than I ever anticipated. I initally had no desire whatsoever to see the movie, but I was floored. I found myself acting like a little kid at times. It was nice to feel like that, if, for a brief moment, to believe in a greater good like Superman. /end cheesy moment

Like crazy people we decided to go fishing on Sunday up near Cape Romain. It was hot as hell out and by the time we left, even after two liters of water, I was crazy dehydrated. I came home and passed out for about two hours and generally felt like crap the rest of the night.

Aside from all that, really nothing special. We're just enjoying spending time with each other and exploring the area.

One of the things I'm liking right now is the intimacy of the Charleston blogosphere. I've found tons of locals blogs that I really enjoy reading. I had a few Philadelphia blogs that I read to but the difference is that Philly was such a bigger area that these people felt as close to me as someone halfway across the country. What were the chances of running into someone in the greater metropolitan area? Even pictures that were posted seemed not so familiar to me because I lived in the Southwestern part which a completely different and forein area from Northeastern Philadelphia.

But the local blogs here are more familiar. I see pictures of places near me, of places where I go on a daily basis. I see so many bloggers who live five minutes away. Even the ones a little further out are only a small step away. And truthfully, people are much friendlier. I get the distinct feeling that I recognized one of the bloggers on the street and said hi, I recognize you from so and so, they would probably say hi back and perhaps chat briefly. In Philadelphia, most would look at you like you were crazy or you were going to rob them. :-)

I guess there is something to be said for Southern hospitality and the comforts of a smaller town.

Reason number five million and one why we moved here and will never regret it.

Today, Kallure turns five years old! Happy Birthday to my lovely website. I can't believe I've had it for that long.

In honor of that, I've spent the past few days throwing together this new layout. I've done a ton of cleaning out around here and have updated everything. There's still a bit more to do but I can't stare at the code any longer.

I've also got some regular updating to do, but I'll do that tomorrow.

Time to get some sleep now. All of the letters are running together on the page.

Happy Birthday to our lovely country!

I have always loved the Fourth of July but then, I'm a sucker for kitschy holidays anyway. Anything that gives me an excuse to buy stupid holiday themed things and wear funny hats. I love a reason to celebrate.

And the Fourth is always fun because of the fireworks, the barbeques, the picnics, the beer and the general patriotism.

We had a pretty low key day. Sat around for awhile and then grabbed something to eat. Our group is slowly dwindling and where we were once nine, we're now down to five. For the fireworks, we decided against fighting the traffic and the crowds. Seeing as how I live two minutes from Patriots Point, too far to walk but too close to drive and then sit in the exit traffic for a half an hour when we live RIGHT.THERE, we decided instead to walk down to the end of our street with a few folding chairs and watch them from there. They had blocked off part of the road anyway because of construction that's going on but the road ends at the water anyway and has gorgeous views of the bridge. Thankfully, tonight, those views also allowed for a nice fireworks watching spot. Of course, there were some assholes, as there always are in crowds. People who violated the road block and drove their pick up right into the center of the crowd and parked it there right in front of a couple who were sitting on the ground. And the people who decided to stand pretty much right in front of us and put their kid on their shoulders, virtually blocking our view. Thank god we didn't go to the Patriots Point, because I get irritated rather easily in large crowds of people like that since there are always one or two jerks who ruin it.

Regardless, the show was great, as always and we pretty much had a two minute walk back to the house. Couldn't ask for anything better.

The last of our houseguests leave tomorrow. That will be rather sad. It will be eerily quiet around here for a few days. That almost will be welcome. I love everyone to death but I think with us all being on top of each other in my tiny ass apartment for the past five days, we've all reached the end of our ropes. I will be horribly sad to see them go as I love the company. But I'm seriously going to do nothing for the next week but lay around in the peace and quiet and nap off the four day drinking fest we all just participated in.

That is, of course, after I clean up (the place is a wreck!) and fix the shit that broke (with nine people in a 1,000 square foot apartment drinking ridiculously for four days there's bound to be some collateral damage).

GOD BLESS AMERICA YA'LL!

So much fun. So much sun. So much swimming. Alcohol. Friends. So much noise. So much laughter.

Good friends. Good times.

I'll be sad to see them go but I'm going to need to nap for a week straight to get back to normal.

And let's not even talk about what I'm going to have to do to the apartment.

Until tomorrow.

It's July 1st and for the first time since we moved down here, our house is full. There are currently seven other people staying in our two bedroom apartment. There are air mattresses, pillows, duffel bags, cell phones and keys EVERYWHERE.

There is also a SHITLOAD of beer of various names. There is a huge bottle of Jack Daniels, SKYY Vodka, Captain Morgan and various others.

We have a chocolate cake in the shape of boobs.

We have four more days of total drunken debauchery and fun.

My brother, his girlfriend and his best friend (from Pennsylvania) are in from Myrtle Beach. Our friends Casey, Emmons and Spaz are in from Pennsylvania. Josh is in from Georgia (but he is really Pennsylvanian). The Yankees have descended upon the South again.

Dixie beware!

I love that our friends were willing to drive twelve hours through the night to see us, through country roads and hellish DC traffic.

I love that our friends will be staying until Wednesday.

I love that we have some familiar faces around. If only they could stay, it would perfect.

Alas, it will be, if only for this weekend.