Hesitant, Hopeful

I went to the eye doctor with Matt today. He's been complaining for a while that he needed to go, but two days ago Galileo made certain that he went sooner rather than later. While Matt was sleeping, Gali batted his glasses off of his desk and onto the floor. When Matt woke up and came stumbling into the living room, he stepped square on them. Fantastic, stupid cat. Matt taped them back together and, I swear, I should have taken a picture as it was absolutely hilarious! Anyway, Matt's been sans the glasses for two days now and it's making him cranky, not to mention making it impossible for him to get things done. So, off to the doc we went today.

We went to a new doc because they take our CareCredit, which helped to ease the strain of forking over $300 for the exam and new glasses. Why seeing needs be so expensive, I will never understand. Anyway, he said the doc was nice and that I should go there, even though they're $35 more expensive than the place I usually go. Anyway, while I waited for him to get done, I turned my Kindle on, thinking I could get some reading in (I'm currently reading Aimee Carter's The Goddess Test), but no such luck.

You see, there was a woman in the waiting room with a two year old and that kid made it completely impossible to focus on anything. He was sprinting around the waiting area and glasses shop sections, screaming at the top of his lungs.  He started taking pamphlets and fold out displays and throwing them all over the ground. He took off one of his shoes, started beating on the glass door, and then sprinted into the back office when the door was open. Meanwhile, he incompetent mother giggled at his misbehavior and chatted on her cell phone. Then, rather than punishing the little one for being naughty, she offered him a treat when they got home. What is wrong with people?

I swear to you, I wanted to scoop that kid up and spank him. Unfortunately, as we know from that news story about the old man who spanked that woman's brat in the Wal-Mart, spanking other people's kids isn't socially acceptable. So much for it taking a village, eh? Someone, his mother, should have made the kid behave rather than snickering like an idiot at his naughtiness... or the people who worked there should have told her he needed to be attended. I know he was only two, and being a two year old, but two is old enough to be made to mind. Rather than talking on the phone, she should have been, oh, I don't know, watching him. I wanted to smack her, hard. Seriously, if she didn't have respect for her self or the establishment, she should have at least tried to respect the other people who were forced to share a waiting room with her little monster!

I know I don't have a huge tolerance for little kids, but even someone who does would have had trouble stomaching this kid. I'm starting to think that half of my intolerance for kids is their ridiculous parents--after all, it was 1:30 in the afternoon, maybe the kid needed a nap, he was a toddler. Or, here's a novel idea, hire a babysitter when you need to go to the doctor. I know it's expensive, but he had one for her other son (overheard it on the phone call she was chatting to when she should have been watching her toddler) so why not the little one, too? Whatever, when you have kids you take responsibility for the cost involved in raising them, which I understand is considerable, but society shouldn't have to pay for the incompetence of "stay at home mommies" who would rather be doing anything but actually being a parent.

Okay, rant off. Anyway, when he was done we made our escape from the bimbo mommy and her living terror kid. The receptionist was reluctant to give us Matt's prescription. I had to almost insist to get her to give it to us. She was just going to let us leave without it. They want us to buy their glasses, but they're like $350 for frames, never mind the lenses which are considerable. Who can afford that? People who can afford to get babysitters for their toddlers, that's who. Not us. We went to Wal-Mart where he picked out a pair of frames and we got things going. They said it could be as much as a week to get them back, particularly because Monday is a holiday. Great. So, Matt's blind until then and I have to do all the driving. I don't enjoy driving and Matt's not a great passenger because he hates my driving. So, we're not going anywhere until he gets his glasses!

I hope you're having a better day than I am. For now, I'm off to settle in with my kindle and work on that book I was trying to read with the minions of pandemonium flitting around me...er... the eye docs office, that is.