Where have all the happy people gone?

Resting afterwards
Originally uploaded by peejaygee

This is the first time I'm blogging after a 12 hour night shift, but I feel the need to put some thoughts out there this morning.

As I started to drive home from work this morning, I felt great leaving work behind; I had a good shift. I think I worked hard and provided really good care to my patients. But, the moment I leave the parking lot, I start to feel an overwhelming sense of frustration. What is it with the general public these days? On the way home, someone cut me off in traffic, I look around and see most people in a crazy rush to get somewhere that they don't enjoy going to in the first place, and when I go to Starbucks for a breakfast sandwich and a decaf coffee, I found the service to be not so friendly. Granted, I know the morning crew has to wake up pretty early (hey, I worked at Starbucks when I was going to university and hey, I just worked from 7pm-7am), but is it that hard to smile, make eye contact, say thank you or even just acknowledge me beyond finding out my order and taking my money? I remember when I used to work at Starbucks....I worked with a great crew. We had fun in the mornings. We had a lot of regular customers and you could tell that we genuinely enjoyed serving our customers. I know these days people often have a lot on their plates. I know what it's like to have a mortgage, barely get sleep between work and the kids and to have bad days (and I know there's a lot of personal suffering out there), but I find that more often than not, people are just not friendly anymore. Luckily, the people I've surrounded myself with make me feel good. It's just so frustrating most days to step out the door. Don't get me wrong, I'd go crazy if everyone were like Mary Poppins, but a little spoonful of sugar now and then wouldn't hurt.

Maybe now I'll have a peaceful sleep.......

The Sky's looking pretty blue these days!

Originally uploaded by peejaygee

I've now healed from my laser eye surgery. It all began in December, when I had laser eye surgery done to my right eye. Why only my right eye, you ask? Well, I was born with a "lazy eye" (my left eye), that was never corrected. Anyhow, up until about 2 weeks ago, I've only really been seeing out of my right eye. The reason why I had laser eye surgery done to my right eye was because over the years, it's become somewhat weakened (probably due to the fact that it's been doing the workload of 2 eyes for 32 years). Anyhow, when I had my right eye done (which by the way, can now see better than 20/20), I asked if anything could be done to my lazy eye. The eyesight out of my left eye has always been quite limited (as an example, I've never been able to make out the big "E" at the top of the eye chart with my left eye). I could basically see large images, minus the details.

As it turned out, laser eye surgery technology has improved so much, that they could work on my left eye. Luckily, the muscle that coordinates my eyes has always worked well (which is why people are often surprised to find out that I've had a "lazy" eye), but because no correction had ever been done to it (when I wore glasses, I would just have a balance glass lens over my left eye and I've only had to wear a contact lens over my right eye....which has been great for making eye wear cheap for me), it has had years of astigmatism and near-sightedness that had built up.

I was basically promised to get no better than 20/40 out of my left eye. Didn't sound too bad, considering, I've basically never really seen much out of it to start with. So, 2 weeks ago I took the plunge. Despite an episode involving the paramedics/firefighters attending to an emergency"ish" situation at my house (I was for-warned that my brain might have a bit of a tough time getting used to seeing out of 2 eyes....which it did.....beyond migraine pain, nausea, collapse....you get the idea), I am so thankful to have been able to have the procedure done. I'm constantly closing my right to look out of my left eye alone. What an amazing thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To the London Eye Centre in New West, thank you from the bottom of my heart! To my husband, family and neighbors, who've put up with me and have been very helpful, I'm grateful. To the painkillers, I thank you as well :)