When I got up yesterday morning, I had every intention of posting a blog, but as the day progressed my plans were foiled. And it wasn’t my fault, nope, not all. I was kidnapped.
My annual eye appointment was first thing yesterday morning right in the heart of Vancouver, which meant I couldn’t even sleep in on a day I wasn’t going to work. Every time this appointment rolls around I always chide myself for booking it so early, but it never fails, when they ask me what time I want to come in next, I always pick the earliest slot available. Why? Because for the first 20 years of these appointments, I would inevitably be holed up in the opthamology clinic for at least four hours.
Despite envying the eye glass wearers of the world (yes, I really do … what can I say, I love the way I look in glasses!) I have perfect 20-20 vision. But because I have diabetes, and because eye disease is a major side effect of diabetes, I have had to go to these appointments for as long as I have had this disease. The first specialist I had was an old crawdad with stinky-assed breath, who was practically on death’s door 23 years ago, and who I swear was secretly a child eater! Right up until I officially became an adult, the guy would grunt and growl at me every time I went in to see him. He scared me so much I used to make up the letters I saw on the screen, even if I couldn’t see them, for fear of what a non-answer would bring. And I don’t know if he overbooked himself, or if he was just so damn old that he couldn’t move fast enough, but regardless, my appointments were always in the air of three to four hours.
As the years progressed, I somehow trained myself to embrace the seemingly endless appointment, by grabbing a hot tea and a magazine before walking through the doors. And even though, the old curmudgeon transferred his files over to a much younger, more efficient specialist three years ago (he’s still alive and kicking though, doing research projects) my mind is still trained into thinking it’s going to be a four-hour appointment. Quite the opposite, though. I was in and out in 30 minutes, with my tea still steaming hot.
The prognosis: I seem to get better with age. For the last few years I’ve had a small blood spot on one of my eyes, which is quite common with diabetics, but the specialist told me the size of it was nothing to worry about. Well, this time around, she told me it was gone! And, my lazy eye is not so lazy anymore.
After the appointment, I met up with my girlfriend Charly for an early lunch,. We haven’t seen each other in what feels like forever, and yet the moment we sat down, it was like no time had passed. I love those kinds of friendships. And after lunch, as we were walking up to her house continuing our catch-up session, she stopped mid step and asked me what I was doing later. And because I had no plans, she told me flat out that she was kidnapping me.
She and her boyfriend took me over to R&B Brewery, where every Friday a group of their friends gets together for an after-work beer(s) at the Brewery. Well hey now, if this is kidnapping, feel free to kidnap me any day 😀
I sampled (and by sample, I might mean three glasses worth ;)) the kristallweizen, which was so smooth, and tasty, and perfect for the blistering hot day that yesterday was. On the R&B website, it’s described as a filtered wheat ale that’s brewed with Canadian wheat and barley, as well as German hops. It is a light-bodied and flavourful beer, easy drinking without compromise to its quality.
And it gets a great, big, huge thumbs up from me. It was the most perfect, refreshing way to start off the weekend!
How do you like to start off your weekend?
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