Long day is long.

Today was a long day. I posted briefly about having a nasty panic attack fairly early into the day. There was some miscommunication between Mom and myself and it's not her fault, and I'm not sure I have ever been clear in the past about WHY I can't do New Places by myself and why being Lost is instant panic. I gave a bit of context to Mom after stressing that it was absolutely not her fault, and while I was frustrated it was not at HER.

Then we discussed how her doctor's appointment went on our way to my eye exam. I'm pretty sure this is the first eye doctor I ever saw, who fitted me for glasses when I was 10. He looked familiar, his name rings a bell, and I remember some of his personality quirks (not bad, just different) which for me is saying something. I don't generally remember people very well, but he seems familiar and I have no other reason to have that sense of familiarity.

I was fitted for contacts, same prescription as before but a new brand of contacts. Did you know that the same prescription fits differently depending on the brand? I didn't until I put the first pair in and was confused that I couldn't quite see clearly or get my eyes to focus. Dr C made a thinking face, told me to throw that pair away and came back with a different set, same prescription, after doing a little looking at one eye and then the other and determining it was not a wrong prescription issue. Second pair went on fine, I could focus, read the signs, all was well. So I learned something new today, that fit and focus vary on brand. That explains why you are supposed to only use the brand you are prescribed.

I also learned that monthlies are a better choice for me than dailies. My previous eye doctor prescribed dailies and told me that I could wear them for up to a month safely assuming I was cleaning them correctly and changing out my lens case every month. I told this to Dr C who cringed and asked me to please never ever do that. So I will be wearing monthly lenses and swapping them out when I change my lens case every month. I go back in 2 weeks to make sure these lenses are the right fit and prescription more long term.

Then I will make sure that I get the name of the brand so that I can order the lenses online. I have a coupon for one of the local pharmacies for like 20% off a contact lens order that I would like to use.

In regards to school, Osaka as ever helped me to get calm and think clearly and make reasonable plans to try to get school sorted out. The school still has not received my transcripts. They could be in the mail room or sitting on someone's desk but they have not officially been received and read. So I was told that I could submit the unofficial transcripts in the short term so that I can apply for the right classes, with the understanding that the official ones need to be in by September 12th. I also need to bring a copy of my GED for them, which I think I have saved as a PDF on my hard drive so that is theoretically easy.

The hard part will be trying to log into my old school to get my unofficial transcripts. I may have to do some emailing or calling to get access since I'm not an actively enrolled student. I will deal with that TOMORROW (Wednesday) and hopefully can print off that and the GED and run them by the school later this week.

Then I need to speak to an advisor and determine which courses I should take for the goal I have in mind, and I can't do that until my transcripts are in (or the provisional ones at least). So immediate goal is get that done, and seek an advisor.

I have accepted that it may not be possible to get everything properly lined up for Fall semester but I am going to try like hell, and if it doesn't work out then I will at least have things set up so that I can attend in Spring. That's the best I can do right now at current stress levels is take it one bite at a time.

When Mom and I finished up with doctor's appointments we came back home instead of sticking in Arlington for a few hours until knit night. I was out of spoons and I went to bed almost straight through the door. I've just woken up, found something to eat and popped my contacts back in for some night knitting and maybe a movie or some TV for background noise.