glasses
(Thank you for all your wonderful questions. I'm working on my answers.)
One morning, just after we finished our coffee, in Positano, we walked a few paces up the hill to the optician. I had wanted to browse. I needed new eyeglasses but wasn't especially convinced that Italy would be the place to find them.
The great thing about shopping for eyeglasses in Italy was that there were many styles available that were not readily available in Tuvalu.
K wandered around in the shop while I held up frames for his approval.
I happened upon one particular pair that caught my eye.
Similar to the larger, squarer frames popular in my city, they were scaled down slightly - just like my face.
Before I tried them on I held them up for K to see...he took a quick glance at them and said:
I'll kill you.
And, by that, I knew he meant that these eyeglasses were the very antithesis of what he'd like to see me in. I knew he meant, in that short phrase, that once again I was drawn to an accessory, a garment, a haircut that he could never imagine his wife wearing.
But we see things very differently, me and K.
And when I put those glasses on? I knew in an instant that they were perfect.
They are perfect because they are a souvenir of Positano that I wear every day.
They are perfect because they suit me so well.
And, finally, they are perfect because now I have a story to tell about them.
One morning, just after we finished our coffee, in Positano, we walked a few paces up the hill to the optician. I had wanted to browse. I needed new eyeglasses but wasn't especially convinced that Italy would be the place to find them.
The great thing about shopping for eyeglasses in Italy was that there were many styles available that were not readily available in Tuvalu.
K wandered around in the shop while I held up frames for his approval.
I happened upon one particular pair that caught my eye.
Similar to the larger, squarer frames popular in my city, they were scaled down slightly - just like my face.
Before I tried them on I held them up for K to see...he took a quick glance at them and said:
I'll kill you.
And, by that, I knew he meant that these eyeglasses were the very antithesis of what he'd like to see me in. I knew he meant, in that short phrase, that once again I was drawn to an accessory, a garment, a haircut that he could never imagine his wife wearing.
But we see things very differently, me and K.
And when I put those glasses on? I knew in an instant that they were perfect.
They are perfect because they are a souvenir of Positano that I wear every day.
They are perfect because they suit me so well.
And, finally, they are perfect because now I have a story to tell about them.
Comments
Here they are:
- when are you coming to Australia?
- You do know that when you're in Sydney I will be standing very close to you a lot? I might even hug you. So ditch any notion of only seeing me for one dinner or afternoon or some such.
- what is the family's favourite standby dinner?
- what is your favourite food?
- what did you want to be when you were a little girl?
SORRY K!
Paola
I'm getting new glasses tonight because my current readers are very uncomfortable.
When my husband doesn't like something I've chosen, he lowers his head and gives me "the look" over the top of his glasses.
The glasses!
They remind me of Ira Glass.
Don't tell you husband I said that.
I, too, missed the Q & A.
Boo :(
If I can still submit, I have two questions.
1) What parenting advice can you give a mother of young boys, like myself? I love the way you have raised your children. They seem like amazing young men.
2) Would you be willing to meet me if I happen to be in Tuvalu? Would you meet any of your blogger fans?
THANK YOU!
I remember you saying once years ago that you would LOVE to have short man hair but K wouldn't have a bar of it. A year or so later you got the super short hair. Now you say K threatened to kill you if you got those glasses, and you got the glasses. So, given that K expresses strong opinions about what you should look like, what do you do? Do you just go ahead and do what you want cos it's your body/life/hair etc and his reaction be damned, or do you spend a great deal of time and energy talking him around and/or buttering him up?
Curious.
jbhat
-Torrey