Seeing the light (and everything else)

I CAN SEE AGAIN!

Oy. So it took until nearly 1pm Chicago time today to get me one tiny little replacement contact lens. Just the left one! Which was lucky, because Pearle Vision didn't have the right one. But I did! So everyone finally got all their fax machines coordinated and the optometrist in NC finally signed the prescription (it helps) and my mom drove me over because if I had tried to drive, I wouldn't have been able to see the speedometer (not that I look at it much anyway) much less the road, and finally, finally, I can read what's on the screen of my laptop without leaving nose prints.

Ahhhh. So much better. I forget how freakin' blind I really am.

So, commencing with today's rant, there's an interesting little kerfluffle going on over on Jen Lancaster's blog, which is so very like so many other similar kerfluffles, except that Jen closed the comments on hers, which was probably wise. Some reader wrote in, and basically told Jen that she was doing a bad job with her blog, and was all incensed because Jen is, you know, a professional writer and so clearly it was her duty to post something to the blog every single day.

Riiiight. 'Cause that's the point of personal blogs.

And then, she wrote back, and apologized, and told Jen to make sure she posted that she had apologized, because everyone was saying mean things about her. Jen, who's very, um, direct even when she's not being personally attacked, was like, yeah? Tough shit, cookie. And wrote one of the best lines I've read in a while:

"Here's where you learn a valuable lesson about consequences."

So, first of all, I kept thinking back about the Harlot's post on, um, you people realize that when you make statements on a blog you're in public, right? And second, I'm a little bit envious of Jen's ability to be so forthright like that. Because, do you know the large chunk of my day that is typically spent explaining to people in very tactful and delicate ways that, um, actions? Always, always, always have a consequence. You know, like, if you threaten to kill your momma? You end up in the state psych hospital. If you don't take your meds? You start hearing voices again. If you sell your body for rock? That actually does make you a crack whore. If you swallow a whole bottle of Tylenol? Your boyfriend probably won't come back to you, and, you might have killed your liver.

And, I know you weren't thinking about that when you threatened your mom/threw out your meds/sold yourself/chased the Tylenol with a fifth of vodka. That's sort of the point. You know that whole "Pause" campaign on Fox, where they're like, before you do something, think? That's actually pretty solid advice.

And I can't just fix it. And you can't fix it until you decide that there's something wrong with the current picture. But, by the way? THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE PICTURE.

On the whole, though, people tend to get really touchy when you tell them they're being shortsighted and acting like idiots. I don't know why that is, exactly, but...