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Today was a big step toward me actually getting a cataract operation. I went in for a pre-op interview. It took much longer than it would have if I had been more patient. Bureaucratic snafus galore. Just because I write that I could have been more patient doesn't mean that I was all that submissive.
Having been a student of charisma from childhood does grease the wheel occasionally. It's probably true that with the advent of cell phones the image of someone talking to themselves like somebody was there has taken a different turn, and dulled one of my most inspiring tools for instigating change.
It helps if I actually am a stranger in a strange land to start talking to invisible friends to inspire people to wait on me first to get me outta their place of business. Now it's nothing unusual for people to be talking into a phone through the bluetooth mobile device in their ear.
They talk to the person on the phone like they were inside their own house having a regular conversation, but they're in the canned goods aisle at Wal-Mart. They scowl at me for passing by shopping as if I had no respect for their privacy. Privacy? Privacy? They're at Wal-Mart, and mad at me because I can't help from hearing them say personal stuff to an invisible friend.
I talked with several doctors and nurses today about the cataract operation to be. It was described to me a dozen different ways about what's gonna happen. Since I have been reading about the procedure for years I only half-listened. None of them got off base from what I have gathered.
They all seem genuinely concerned that I feel comfortable with the operation. I feel unworthy. They deal with a lot of people who got all shot up in one of the continuous wars our country likes to engage in. I got shot at, but I never got hurt. I didn't realize I was covered by the VA, but since I am, then I want the best they got to offer. In a lotta ways, that's up to me.
After my appointments at the VA I kept a semi-appointment with a friend to stop by where he teaches chemistry to see if he was available to go to lunch together. I don't have a phone anymore, so it was a hit or miss situation. He was in the last throes of holding a chemistry lab class. I had to wait about a half hour, and then we went to eat Chinese. I had already eaten three of them before my friend suggested we should eat the food instead.
The food was not wonderful. There are some wonderful Chinese restaurants around these days, but the ones I seem attracted to seem to be second or third generation Asians who Americanized their Chinese food sort of like the Italians did after they had spent a couple of generations away from the mother country. The places where the owner and his help don't speak English well have a different agenda than the Asians that have been here for a while.
There are three weeks that have to pass before I get the cataract in my right eye replaced with a clear lens. I'm sure I'll be able to see a lot better. Everyone tells me so. It's hard for me to get worked up about it. I'm sure it will improve the quality of my life. I hope that's what happens. On the other hand, I might see stuff I prefer to be gone forever.
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