Squinty McGuinty

When I'm sitting here blogging? This is how I look.

"Aren't I attractive?" I ask Dave.

"No," sez Dave.

My one eye is SO BAD that I catch myself closing it tight, slamming it shut, anything to look at this damnably blurry computer screen. (You should see how big I've got it blown up. And I can only stand looking at it for a few minutes at a time.) Thirteen more days until my cataract surgery. 13 DAYS! I can hardly WAIT for that doctor to poke a hole in my eyeball with a scalpel, mash the lens around before he yanks it out, and stick the new bendable umbrella-ish lens through the hole. Then he'll stitch it up with a needle and thread. Like stuffing a Christmas goose. The idea of having stitches in my eyes is a little daunting but I am definitely looking forward to seeing again.

It's not that I can't see. I just can't see details. It's like looking through a window that's clouded up. Like, when you've been out at Make-out Hill necking in the back of your boyfriend's Buick and there's a knock on the window and you're not sure if it's a cop or a serial killer because you've steamed up the glass. Here, I found this image on the web that shows you what I mean:

(It's from Lighthouse International.)

Anyway, I'm getting sick and tired of squinting at everything. I was at the hairdresser's today, getting my eyebrows plucked because I sure as hell can't see them (I now wear make-up like 90-year-old ladies wear make-up, with blue shadow over half my face and lipstick smeared up my nose. I know. Disgusting). The hairdressing ladies were teasing me that after the surgery I'll know what Dave REALLY looks like. (God, I hope he's cute. Word to the wise: never marry someone BEFORE cataract surgery.)

I found out tonight, on Facebook, because everything I know about my family I learned on Facebook (pretty soon we won't need family reunions, we'll just set up a FB event and nuke our own hot dogs), that my cousin Karen just found out SHE has cataracts. And she's younger than me! Poor thing, she just had surgery for glaucoma (the eye disease I can never pronounce) and she went in for a post-op check-up and the doc says, "Your glaucoma is gone but keep an eye on those cataracts you got going." Talk about not winning for losing! Hey Karen - I'll loan ya my white cane when I'm done with it! And then we'll go and beat up on our mothers for handing us down the blind gene!

Speaking of mothers, I had lunch with mine today. She paid, which was AWESOME. We went to the hairdresser's. Mom got herself a fancy new do and she looks like a million bucks. Seeing as how I'm usually at work when my Mom is gallivanting, this was a real treat. We had coffee and gossiped and chatted and ate and gossiped and, you know, it was just fabulous! Thanks Mom!

On a different note, I'm pretty stoked about how Letters from a Friend is going. Hope you're liking it, too. I love how every letter is different. I love all your comments. Some of them make me laugh. Some cry. All of 'em make me squint. Oh, didn't you love Jamie Woodman's handcrafted letter? She is SO talented. Me and her and Dave and Donna Brohm had a helluva good time having coffee at her house on Monday. Nothing better than seeing old friends. I got there and announced, truthfully, "You guys haven't changed a bit! You look amazing!" And they were, like, "Says the blind girl." Yeah. Well. I bet they looked fetching. They always did. Likely always will.

I've got lots more letters coming up. Tomorrow I'll be posting a letter from Delores of The Feathered Nest fame. She is one of my most faithful blog readers – I've gotta give her credit for that. Even when I post the worst shite, she is there to cheer me on. Delores is also one of the most prolific bloggers I've come across – she posts like a zillion times every day. OK, so maybe not a zillion, but ALMOST. (Gotta stop writing about her now so I have lots to discuss tomorrow.)

I've got letters from some of my very favourite blogger friends. You won't want to miss them, I swear.

One more thing: we went cross-country skiing on Sunday. There's a spot around the corner from us where you can ski-for-free. It was gorgeous and we had an awesome time. I am NOT a great skier anymore, since I got old and fat and all, but I used to be, when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I was feeling brave until I went down the first hill, yelling, "SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" all the way.

Next hill, I took off the damned skis and walked.

I may be blind but I'm not stupid.

Remind me to buy Sam some snow pants.

Jamie Woodman - Letter from a Friend

This came in the mail on Friday. Can you believe it? Look at all those letters. Look at those beads – hand-sewn! And the carefully folded fan ... and the fuzzy "hair" ... not to mention the sprightly handwriting. How incredibly creative. How thoughtful. How "Jamie."

Jamie Woodman is one of the most talented people I know. We worked together for a number of truly satisfying years at an independently-owned community newspaper called The Haliburton County Echo. I started out in the editorial department as a reporter/photographer but gradually weaseled my way into the production department where Jamie produced award-winning ads and lay-outs. When I say award-winning, I'm not kidding. Back then the Echo was the newspaper to beat all across Canada. It won more awards than any other community newspaper. And that was crazy because Haliburton is a tiny village, a two-traffic light town, a speck! It still doesn't even have a Tim Horton's, that's how small it is! Somehow, this miniature village hugging the scenic shore of Head Lake attracted some of the finest newspaper talent in this country. Everyone who worked there was talented, driven and dedicated. Part of it was due to the leadership of Editor Martha Perkins, a powerhouse writer and editor and a dear friend. But part of it was definitely Jamie. She gave the paper its "look." She gave it soul. Whenever anybody needed an idea, Jamie was the one to ask for help. Her mind was like a virtual Fort Knox of ideas. 

Good things don't last forever, unfortunately. Publisher Len Pizzey retired from the business and sold the Echo to a big company that promptly tore it apart. One of the first orders of business was firing all the production staff, including Jamie, and sending its ad work to be done in India. It might have saved a bit of money, sending work overseas (nobody at the Echo was well paid, I can attest to that), but what it might have saved in money, it lost in quality, originality and heart. The paper went downhill like an Acapulco truck driver. People in the community that once loved the Echo were now up in arms about it. A new newspaper was started and it became increasingly popular to the point that I would say the once mighty Echo is now a struggling underdog. 

It makes me sad, a little bit, to see the state the Echo is in. But the newspaper I once knew and loved is nothing but a distant memory. It was a place I loved to go to, every single day. The office was in an old house overlooking the lake. The walls of the production room were painted a peaceful turquoise hue and trimmed with beautiful original wood. The big windows facing the lake were old and imperfect and gorgeous. I'd get there, and say good morning to everyone. Jamie was already there, wearing her warm wooly socks and her Birkenstocks, eating porridge or some godawful healthy crap. The radio was playing Canoe FM or CBC, and the other production team members were already hard at work, churning out amazing ads and making each other laugh. 

How we used to laugh. One of the other women who worked with us, Donna Brohm, oh, she was a spitfire and a shit disturber and one of the funniest people I'd ever met. Sometimes she had me laughing so hard that I could barely breathe. That's what I loved the most about that place. The laughter. The creative energy. We all felt like we were part of a team and I didn't realize how incredibly special that was until it was gone.

It's been years since Jamie and I worked together. Like all friends separated by distance and time, we don't see each other much.

Today Dave's driving me to Haliburton.  I have a doctor's appointment – a pre-op before my cataract surgery. After the appointment, we're going for coffee at Jamie's house. I think Donna's going to be there, too. I can hardly wait. 

I wonder if Jamie's still wearing her Birks. 

I wonder if Donna is gonna make me laugh until my stomach hurts. 

I don't wonder at all about how much I miss them.