29 Gifts, Day 1 - Glasses

I found a link on the Year of Giving site to another site called 29Gifts.org.  The premise is simple...for 29 days in a row you commit to giving a gift each day.  It could be a gift of money, hand-me-downs, kind words, time, or even just a smile.  This is right up my alley, yet I hesitated.  Could I do it?  Could I find something to give each day?  Maybe I'm already giving something each day.  Or maybe I'm not as generous as I think I am.  Well, I guess it's time to find out.

So mid-day today I decided to give it a go.  Today was easy - I had already spent two hours at school so I gave the gift of time.  In Adlani's class I did guided reading with 7 kids, played Bingo with 3 kids, and helped in the A-B-C-dario center.  The kids are so proud of their reading and I loved having them read to me.  In Aliya's class I helped make 21 dolls out of yarn.  It's nice that she's still excited to have me in her classroom...I know there will come a day when she doesn't want to be seen with me.  :-( 

Then I went to the office for a couple of hours before I went to the eye doctor.  I hadn't had my eyes checked since 1997, and I told the eye doctor that I have eyeball-phobia so I was hoping he'd go easy on me.  He was actually awesome.  He explained everything, and didn't use eyedrops since I hate them.  He freaked me out a little when he pointed out that my pupils are not the same size, but he also said that 20% of adults have different-sized pupils.  It still seems a little weird.

The bottom line is that I need glasses.  I ended up with the first pair I tried on (see photo right), after trying on about 20 pairs.  I had gone into Optical Designs in Needham on Monday, because I went to pick up our lunch at a restaurant two doors down and it wasn't ready so I had a little time to kill.  I had worked at a school event with a mom (Ilana) who told me that her family owns Optical Designs, so I stopped in to see her.  She wasn't there but I've been feeling like my eyes were getting old and tired, so I made an appointment for today.  A couple of friends had raved about how great Ilana was at choosing frames, so I was so glad she was there to help me.  She has a gift for knowing what looks good on various face shapes, and I prefer to buy from local businesses that offer great service.  Win-Win!

This afternoon I spent 2+ hours of travel time and 2+ hours of meeting time to go to the UMass Law School in Dartmouth and meet with our law student.  The law clinic there is helping the local fire door inspectors set up a non-profit organization, and two of us are the liaisons between the rest of the inspectors and the lawyers.  It has been an interesting process and I've learned a lot, but I'm going to count it as a very large gift of my time.  On the bright side - the help we received from our law student and his supervising attorney was FREE!

So now I'm going to give myself a gift and go to bed early, since Norah snuck into my bed and kept me up last night by repeatedly kicking me in the head.  I'm beat!

Day One - Success!

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