new glasses

[archersangel]

the title of this icon on this post is "mad men me" because at the height of the tv show mad men's popularity*, AMC.com had a thing to put yourself in a scene of that era. there were 4-5 settings (an office, a living room, a bar, a bedroom, etc.) and you could put outfits on a figure representing yourself (business attire, casual clothes, lounge-wear, cocktail outfit) and you could have hairstyles of the era (in a few colors). and have a few body types for both men & women (thin, average, heavyset), skin/hair colors, facial expressions, & a glasses (silver or black) option.
at the time i had silver-colored glasses with rectangle frames. but in 2017 i got black glasses with oval-ish frames, so it was not representative of me (i know it's been awhile, but; 1. glasses are expensive & 2. generally my eyes don't change much between glasses purchases).
but now i have silver-colored glasses with rectangle frames once again. unfortunately my eyes did change a small amount, enough to have eye pain on and off. and i may or may not be that age where it is possible to need reading glasses. thankfully i don't need them. but since my prescription is distance only, i have to peer over my glasses to read things that are close-up sometimes.

it was such a pain to find frames that i like. first of all; i don't want frames that are plastic or acetate, i need adjustable nose-pads. so that eliminated a bunch. i have kind of a big head, so i have to have slightly wider frames. the first number on frames is the lens width & i need a 50, or 51mm. i've tried 49 & it is too small. it's possible that having a longer nose piece (18, or 19 vs. 17mm) might help. but i didn't find that combo.
second; 96% of women's eyeglasses frames are in some kind of "fashion colors" (which is fine, if that's what you want. i don't). and even if they are basic black, silver/gunmetal, bronze/copper they have some kind of embellishments (rhinestones, scroll-work, cutouts) on the temple pieces (again; which is fine, if that's what you want. i don't).
for me that ties into the whole thing where brands/people think that girls/women only like pink/purple, flowers, shoes, & dresses and boys/men only like blue/green, hunting/fishing, sports & getting dirty. which is a rant for another time.

wal-mart optical (where i've gotten the past few frames) used to have a gender neutral section, but they remodeled a few years ago & got rid of it. so i went to the men's section which had more in the 50/51 lens width range.

the case they give with the glasses is a plastic thing with the wal-mart starburst logo inscribed in the plastic & this cheap felt-like insert (that's not even glued in). the cases from 2017 were better in that their cheap felt-like liner was better, glued in, were not just cheap plastic and had a hinged lid. my brother got his glasses about a month ago and he got their bog-standard case.
when i got mine, apparently they ran out & i got a nike case (a brand of glasses they sell) that's bigger, has better lining, with a hinged lid (that is known for snapping down on fingers. i was warned by the one of the ladies that helps fit the glasses & does the ordering process.) my brother is annoyed/jealous, even though we will not be keeping the cases and will use them to protect our old ones when we donate them to wal-mart's/lions club eye glasses for needy people program bin.


*sometime after 2009 (2011?, 2012?), when i joined DW.