After 20+ years of wearing glasses and contact lenses, I finally took the big jump last week and had LASIK. I say”finally” like I just up and walked into the clinic and said “slice my corneas open and wiggle that laser around there a bit so I can be rid of these pesky glasses.” The truth is, I’ve vacillated for years because that is EXACTLY what they do once they’ve got you sedated and in a chair with wavers signed. And I don’t know about you, but that’s not the kind of decision I make lightly. However, after an increasing inability to wear my contact lenses comfortably for more than a couple of hours at a time and my uncanny ability to lose a lens during an inopportune moment (ducking a wave in Costa Rica, hanging out upside down in handstand, for starters), I signed the wavers and wobbled my sedated ass into the chair.

The result has been pretty much magnificent as far as my vision goes. I was 20/15 in both eyes less than 24 hours after surgery. However from the cornucopia of potential side effects, I’ve picked up increased light sensitivity and headaches and a dependency on those little single serving preservative free eyedrops that makes me feel like I am single handedly destroying the environment every time I throw away a handful of the little plastic tubes. I’m also taking lots of little naps which helps with the headache and the dryness. Monday was my first day back at work and while I made it through the day, I immediately came home and slept for about 10 hours. Thankfully all of these should resolve themselves as my eyeballs recover from the trauma of the aforementioned slicing and lasering.

And being to see without glasses or contacts is totally worth it.

#

So in between naps, I spent a lot of time this weekend working on the pieces for our next performance, “To the Stars and Beyond” on March 31st at the Edmonds Center for the Arts

A couple of things that have been super helpful this time around –

1. While napping (and driving and cooking and wandering around the house), I’ve been listening to recordings of the pieces – nice to know how everything’s supposed to sound. Even if I’m still working on getting there.

2. It’s also nice knowing our entire set well in advance of the performance. I’m sure for a seasoned musician that’s not an issue, but we’re talking about me here.

3. It’s always good to keep an open mind. Just because a piece is from a movie (and a series of books) that I have no love for *cough, cough TWILIGHT* doesn’t mean that the theme music from New Moon can’t be a fun and challenging piece to learn to play.

4. And when you get sick of sparkly vampire music, there’s aways the THEME FROM BSG.(Which is way trickier than it appears) Hells yeah!

I’ve been out for two rehearsals (one cancelled due to a freakish amount of snowfall in my fair emerald city and the other for the surgery) so I’m really looking forward to getting back together with the whole group on Thursday to see how it all sounds.