Things I've Learned Working in Optics

I can't really say that I love my job, but I suppose I can't say that I absolutely hate it either. I'm just not an optical kind of person. I think it's interesting that I know a bunch about this area now, but unfortunately it just isn't something that really grabs my attention.

Here's a few things I've learned on the job that are worth sharing....

1) People don't really know if their glasses are crooked or straight. People come in and say "these glasses are sitting crooked. can you fix them for me?". Nine times out of ten, it's their eyebrows that are crooked, not their glasses. When determining if your glasses are sitting straight on your face don't compare them to your eyebrows. Look at your bottom eyelash line -- it's much more straight (and you probably don't wax/pluck your bottom eyelashes). It's hard to tell people that it's their face that's crooked, not the glasses. 

2) Sometimes, when there is a particularly difficult customer that we are doing an adjustment for, we will not adjust their glasses, but rather we will "adjust" their glasses. People swear their glasses need to be tighter in the temple area, but we can already see that their temples are leaving big dents in their head... so we will take the glasses, get our tools, and 'fake' like we are really working a number over on these too-loose glasses. In actuality, we don't move a single thing. But you will never believe it... when I give the customer back their glasses they swear they are so much better. 

3) The girl that I ordered my lunch from at Ruby Tuesday is a total ditz. I gave this gal my credit card number over the phone along with my expiration date. I told her the expiration date was March of 2011. She asked me, "do you know what the numbers are for March?". UM, freaking 3. Are you kidding me?! It's April, the 4th month of the year. Last month was March, which would make that the 3rd month of the year. Heaven help this girl. 

4) We call it 'face-cheese' and it happens because people are gross. Their nose-pads are green and covered in disgusting face residue that they don't bother cleaning off. I have come extremely close to vomiting on several occasions while changing nose-pads for a customer. Clean your glasses, people! 

5) If your son/daughter's glasses are covered in maple syrup, you can go ahead and clean them off yourself... you don't have to wait until you are at the mall, near a LensCrafters to let us clean them off for you. Maple syrup is not something that your child can see through, and therefore it should be cleaned off after breakfast -- not 7 hours later while you're at the mall and your kid's hair is now matted to the temples of their glasses. 

6) Get your eyes checked every year. Seriously. I am absolutely amazed at how many diseases/problems our Optometrist catches early because people come in to get their eyes checked. Especially eye moles. Lots of people have eye moles and don't know it... it's important to find this out so they don't turn into cancer. 

7) Wear sunglasses. Buy sunglasses for your kids (even the little, little ones). Something like 80-90% of all sun-damage to the eyes happens before the age of 18. This will help prevent yucky things happening to you later in life. 

8) I am totally shocked by the number of people who come into our store and ask us for Cartier frames. In these economic times, I didn't think buying a $1500 pair of frames would be in the budget. Who knew? (Before I worked in Optics I had no idea they even made frames that cost this much!!)

9) If you have contacts and you wear your two-week contact lenses for one year, you are going to have problems. Sometimes, when the doctor find out your irresponsible, they won't give you contacts anymore. 

10) If you wear contacts and you come in and tell me that you 'just put your contacts in 10 minutes ago, but now you can't get them back out of your eye' I will absolutely not believe you. Some kid did this and I had to help him get the contact out of his eye (I didn't touch his eye, I just gave him solution and guided him as to where it was)... when he took off the contact, part of his cornea came off with it. He had definitely been sleeping/over-wearing his contacts for a LONG time. 

11) There are 5 layers to the cornea and when you're a dummy and damage the first layer of your cornea with your contacts, it will regenerate... but it won't feel good in the process. 

12) Did I ever tell you guys that I have some really stupid eye condition? It's apparently called Salzmann's Nodular Degeneration and it's only happened twice in my life. It's a recurrent corneal erosion and it hurts like hell. It makes my eyes super light-sensitive and I have to wear sunglasses like it's my job (which, maybe it is). It's also the reason my doctor won't give me contacts. 

13) If you can't see far away you have Myopia. If you can't see close up, you have Hyperopia. If you can't see either, you have Presbyopia. 

14) I can't wait until I have a real job.