desperately seeking encouragement...

Amy - hope your eye gets better soon. Good luck with your appointment!! Eleanor

off to the eye doctor in an hour or so... i feel ill. at least maybe i'll finally know something then, but i'm afraid it will be something i don't want to know!

keeping fingers Xed.

Good luck!

Good luck from me, too!

Amy,
I reread part of this thread, I knew there was a book I wanted to recommend and I could not think of it earlier. "Self Matters" by Phil McGraw. I started it YEARS ago and it was an eye opener for me. I think it helped me get on a healthier path for me. Reading the book, I realized there was so little of my life that was what I wanted for me! I was stuck working in a job I hated (office manager for my now EX), miserable in my marriage, the list goes on!!

As I said, that was several years ago, maybe 5 or more? Since that time, I finally got the courage to divorce, I moved, went back to school and got my Masters, remarried to the sweetest man and am truly happy.

Sometimes finding out what we want in life is a challenge when we've lost touch with it for a long time. I think you'd find the book helpful.

Please let us know how your eye exam goes and whether we can be of any help.
Pat

Maybe we all need a Counsultation Room where we can go and spout out all our problems from health to a dead plant to what ever. Then another Big Room where all the Cancers can go - lol

Amy keep us updated. GL 2 U

LOL...Big Room for Cancers!! LOL Very funny Schick!! Can't you picture that room??? It would have to be very homey and none of us would leave it!! OH, LOL

I hate to break this to all those who put stock in astrology - you are not even the sign you think you are!

How's that, Victor??

i concur, schickenlady...

So, after a 2 hour wait, i saw the doctor for about 8 minutes.
It is blephritis - which means the insides of my eyelids are inflamed (duh). i get a 3rd kind of prescription eyedrops - for an indefinite number of weeks - and expensive eyewash stuff, warm compresses on my eyes twice a day until i go back in 3 weeks. o, and no contacts for that WHOLE time. i said to Eric - "I wish i wasn't even going to L.A. with you!" So, the doc said by the 15th (when we go) i could occasionally wear my contacts if i was really careful...

So, good news mostly and i am relieved and ought to be delighted. But i still HATE wearing my glasses - i can't/won't drive on the highway, i look like a freak (minus 11.5!) - and it does not help that i tend to trip up stairs and over curbs. (and jeez, my self image was poor enough already!)

i know i'm lucky - people deal with much tougher challenges every day. i'll try to use this to learn some patience and acceptance. And i'm totally lucky to have support from y'all! Thanks for your concern and positive thoughts, it makes me feel better every day when i stop by...

*

I'm glad that the eye problems do not sound too serious or long term. I completely understand about the glasses/ contacts. My eyes were the ONLY thing positive I could acknowledge about myself so when I had to give up contacts after 30 years I was heart broke. I did not have current correction in glasses and when I made the change I was sick, sick, sick! Everything was so distorted while I got accustomed to wearing glasses with that strong of correction.
Pat

Pat, why did you have to give up wearing contacts? I'd find it so hard to go back to glasses!

As I "matured" (read that... got OLD!! hehe) I developed Glacoma and my eyes got drier and drier. I also was starting to need reading glasses. It seems really stupid to wear reading glasses AND contacts! My correction is so strong, none of the alternatives of "bifocals" for contacts would work.

I got the thinnest, lightest correction lens and frames I could find and they are worlds above what used to be available. I also paid $400 to have my eye liner (upper and lower) tattooed to help with my self-image. That sounds terrible doesn't it? It was money I do not regret spending and frankly I don't spend money easily! I could never keep ANY eyeliner from smuging and getting nasty, removing eye liner was giving me bags under my eyes. The tattooing is NOT permanent, it has to be refreshed every couple of years at less than 1/2 that price. Pat

What do you mean "removing eye liner was giving me bags under my eyes?"

amethystsm, so sorry that you are having eye trouble. I was a wearer of very thick glasses for years until I was allowed to get contacts at 15. I wore them happily for years, the old hard ones, with no problems. But when I tried to switch to the soft ones, I got horrible infections and had to go back to glasses completely as my eyes freaked every time I tried any type of contacts. I finally had lasik surgery which was amazing a few years ago. I saw my feet for the first time in the shower since I was 6. He did one eye for distance and one for computer/reading distance. It was expensive, but it has made things like gardening a real pleasure. Also swimming and other sports. The glasses were hot and always falling off, and before when I could where contacts, I was plagued by getting dust under them. I could not see the "E" on the chart, so I was basically helpless without glasses.

Hopefully the price will come down as then the surgery will pay for itself in a few years with what is the cost of glasses today. I was a true 4 eyes too and feel your displeasure. Funny, I now have a pair of glasses to tweak my vision to slightly better than the surgery could correct me for and I no longer hate my glasses. I have a sporty red pair. I use them to correct my eyes from about 20/30 to 20/20. Twilight driving is when I wear them the most.

Just remember everyone in Calif is a freak when they are driving. Go West, enjoy and just pretend you are styling in your hated glasses. Plus you won't ever see most of them again, ever. But if you don't wear them you won't see anything out there. Patti

Amy - try your best to look at the bright side though you're not happy about the glasses. You're a week closer to being over the infection than if your appointment was next Friday. Try repeating, "This too shall pass". It's helped me at the worst of times.

Four great words, Pirl!!

Wow - learned a lot in the last few posts! Never heard about tattooing eye liner. Maybe I should do that with hair? I do sympathize with eye problems. Thankfully I only need correction for distance. I could never be comfortable in contacts - always red and irritated. Maybe they're better now. This was about six years ago. My father has glaucoma but doesn't have a dryness problem.

Louise - since astrology was 'born', the constellations have shifted by one in the sky (due to a wobble in the axis of the earth), but it was never changed in the birth date assignment. So though I am supposedly a Capricorn, I am actually a Sagittarius. All you Cancers are actually Geminis.

Those four words helped me when I swallowed a ring.

Then they're all twins so we have twice as many of them!

We cross posted, Victor. Bad boy!

This message was edited Jan 4, 2008 8:27 PM

Hmmmmm, Victor, how very interesting! I'm trying to decide if I want to change....or not. There could be some advantages for me, as I've already shared that I don't think Cancers make good snowbirds. Perhaps Geminis would be better at that.....since I have to have 2 of lots of things (one at each house. The twin deal might work out for me........But, I still have the classic Moon Child characteristics, and my son is a Leo, and he has classic Leo traits. So, what happens to the personality traits of the former sign, now that the signs have "migrated"???

Shows you the power of perception. We 'see' all these traits and then, oops! Here are the real signs.

Capricorn - Jan 20 to Feb 16
Aquarius - Feb 16 to Mar 11
Pisces - Mar 11 to Apr 18
Aries - Apr 18 to May 13
Taurus - May 13 to Jun 21
Gemini - Jun 21 to Jul 20
Cancer - Jul 20 to Aug 10
Leo - Aug 10 to Sep 16
Virgo - Sep 16 to Oct 30
Libra - Oct 30 to Nov 23
Scorpius - Nov 23 to Nov 29
Ophiuchus - Nov 29 to Dec 17
Sagittarius - Dec 17 to Jan 20

I'm staying a Leo, like your son, Louise.

Ophiuchus???

I was wondering about that one. I copied this off a website.

I'm still a Cancer after all is said and done.......July 21.

Pirl - Leo is a good sign. I'm very proud of my son!

Victor - if we let you come into the Big Room for Cancers, I'll bet you'll change your tune when you see us all acting like Cancers together! LOL

Padded room?

I think they had to make that one up to round out their new theory....since they short changed a lot of the signs.

No it must be another term for one of them. Which one is missing?

I'll keep my Leo with Pirl.

Wow - must be real special to be a Scorpio: it has a 6 day window.

BTW, there is actually more emphasis in an individual's astrological chart on where the planets were & how they aligned at the time of one's birth. Where the sun was (at the time of birth) does not have as much weight.
LOL - I guess it's like an overview...
None missing - 12 signs. you've got 13 listed.

This message was edited Jan 4, 2008 5:54 PM

Oh, yeah! With lots of tissues, chocolates.......keepsakes, photographs, non-frilly, rich fabrics, "real" green things, flowers...

Ophiuchus is a filler sign.....LOL

Explanation:

You will most likely find that once precession is taken into account, your zodiac sign is different. And if you were born between November 29 and December 17, your sign is actually one you never saw in the newspaper: you are an Ophiuchus! The ecliptic passes through the constellation of Ophiuchus after Scorpius.


This message was edited Jan 4, 2008 8:56 PM

I can't remember how the planets were aligned when I was born - I was really young then.

Moon over Menasha?

Good one, Al! Spoken like a true Leo!! LOL

I believe that for gardeners, what matters is how the plants line up!

A have a brother and sister that are Leos too, must be something about that week 9 months earlier.

Early frost in WI?

Cold!