I haven't posted anything in a while, either been too busy or didn't feel like writing, but, while I have a spare moment, will post an entry.

Janel's birthday was this week (on Wednesday) and we celebrated by doing exactly what she wanted- going to Jerry's Drive In, a Pensacola landmark for more than 60 years, to enjoy terribly bad-for-you food and a few cold ones with some friends. It was a wonderful evening, and we returned to our friends' house to watch a movie. Unfortunately, my right eye (I'm now calling it my "evil eye") decided that it didn't like something there, and a blister about a quarter of an inch long by a quarter of an inch wide erupted from the white part of my eye. I tried to be a trooper about it and wait before saying anything, as I hated to break up the party, but alas, when I started to lose peripheral vision, told Janel that "something" was wrong with my eye. She took a look and said, "We are going to the Emergency Room."

So, we hastily made our way to the West Florida Emergency room, which we found ill-lit and full of people, some of whom had been waiting for 5 hours or more. We decided to make a hasty retreat and go to another hospital, as my evil eye was feeling better with a cool ice-pack on it.

We wound up in Gulf Breeze, where we were taken into the Emergency Room in a very timely manner. By this point, my evil eye had decided to become only moderately devilish, as the swelling lump of eye-white had become a puffy, bloodshot mass. In the examination, the doctor said he found some scratches on the portion of my eye that had been lumpy, and prescribed some eye drops and to go see an opthalmologist ASAP the next morning (Thursday).

We returned to the apartment, where I finally got to enjoy a piece of birthday cake before it was no longer Janel's birthday...

So yesterday, I missed work, making the necessary calls to the various doctors to get "permission" to see an opthalmologist (I love HMOs) for my evil eye, to see what was going on. In the interim, I am wearing my birth-control glasses (I'm usually a contact lens wearer and have an 8 year old pair of very thick, dorky glasses, which are still good enough to give me 20/25 vision). Upon arriving at the "Center for Sight," we were quickly ushered through the check-in process and sent upstairs. We arrived on the second floor to find an impatient nurse as we got off the elevator. "Charles Hendrix?"

After a while, the doctor came in, did the exam, and said, "Geez, do Lasik surgeons follow you around town when they see those things?... I see nothing wrong with your eye, except for a contact lens overwear situation. Wear your 'fashion glasses' for 3 days and then you can try your contacts again." (Really his words).

Great. So, I'm wearing my glasses at work, thankful for a weekend in which I can look like Kip from Napoleon Dynamite (I'm just really T.O.ed...) around family and friends who won't gawk at the coke bottles on my face.

The good news is, otherwise, nothing seems to be wrong (I guess everyone experiences some swelling in an evil eye every now and again...).

Throughout the whole adventure, Janel was nothing but wonderful to me. I really appreciate her understanding.

And that's all I have to say about that...