Today’s outing was a bit more successful than yesterday’s. I went in for my eye exam and LASIK evaluation. It went very well. While my overall vision isn’t very bad (I’m mildly nearsighted. My mom may have been right about all that reading in low light!) with LASIK I may (keeping my fingers crossed) be able to see significantly better than 20/20. Dr. Berg comes highly recommended by my roomate and another colleague at Disney. They’ve pumped up with a newer LASIK system that they claim will yield fanstastic results, and they threw around “you’re an ideal candidate” a lot at my evaluation. Apparently I have nice thick corneas. That’s me, sexy feet and nice thick corneas.

Fun fact from the VISX site:

70% of the clinical study participants could see 20/16 or better without glasses or contacts

So after two weeks from today, I’ll be able to look out the window on plane trips and read license plates on cars.

The interesting part about the process was getting my pupils dialated. I didn’t notice much at first; I got a bit farsighted, but nothing earth-shattering. I went through the examination process and made an appointment for April 3 to get my corneas sliced open and my eyes blasted with lasers. It’s officially on. After all was said and done I went outside to catch a cab back to work. It was when I got outdoors and into the California sunshine that I realized just how profound the effects of getting my pupils dialated were: it was as if my autofocus had been set about three f-stops too high. The sky was an unearthly white. Most everything was brighter than I had ever seen. Trees were glowing emerald orbs. Even the pavement was unbearably bright. I retreated back indoors to put on the handy shades that they had provided. I spent the rest of the day adjusting. Apparently the dialation can last up to 24 hours. Checking in the mirror, I still look like I’m either incredibly attracted to myself or I’m on drugs of some kind.