July 31st, 2019

Ewwwwww!

"What happened to your eye?"  Yup I'm hearing a lot of that lately.  Obviously, I popped a blood vessel in my eye. It's no biggie. Really it's not.  The eye is a wee bit more sensitive than normal  but otherwise, it's not an issue.  For me anyway.

This one wasn't too bad really. It was just that one inside corner of the eye.  But sometimes it's the entire white of the eye, or scelera,  that turns red. When that happens it truly is creepy looking. Even I can admit it.

But it's not as if I can control it.  And it does happen to me with fair frequency.  Sometimes one eye, sometimes the other and on rare occasions both.   It happens often enough that we have a term for it in our house.  "Devil Eye".  Yup that's what we have dubbed it.  It's no big deal if it's just us here at home. Tim doesn't care.  It's when I go out into public.  Yeah, that's when the fun starts.

You see, even though my eye doctor claims that it's fairly common for this to happen, it must not happen with sufficient frequency that most people witness it very often.  And I know this because of their reaction to me when they see my red eye or eyes as the case may be.

I was at the grocery store yesterday with my one fully red eye.  It was not like in the photo.  There was no white at all in that eye yesterday.  Because it was a beautiful bright and sunny day outside, I was wearing my sunglasses when I walked in.  Without thinking, I left them on for a short time.  When I reached the produce section, one of the guys working there asked, "Is there something I can help you with ma'am"  And he gave me a big friendly smile.  Suddenly,  I realized I was wearing my sunglasses, kind of chuckled and as I lifted them off said, "I thought it was kind of dark in here"

Because I am the sort of person who looks people in the eye when talking to them, I did indeed peer right into his baby blues so I saw exactly the moment when he took in my blood red left eye.  His pupils widened, his eyes opened more fully and then he looked just over my head.  Not into my face any longer but right over the top of my noggin.  "No thanks" I said, "But I appreciate the offer".  

To his credit, his smile remained intact throughout the exchange but he couldn't turn away fast enough.  Poor thing.  I don't know if it's because the eye looks creepy, because he was afraid I had some dread disease or because he was concerned that I was going to put a voodoo curse on him.

Side note:  Even if  I knew how to put a voodoo curse on someone, regardless of how much they may deserve it, I would never do it.  Ever.

As I continued to shop this happened over and again as I made eye contact.  Some people were more chill about it than other people.  My checkout guy was the least cool about it.  He was smiling and friendly as I unloaded the cart.  We didn't actually make eye contact until after I had paid.  It was at that point he needed to hand me my receipt.  He finally looked me in the eye and this look of absolute horror came over his face.  He stopped talking in mid sentence, froze with my receipt in his hand. Then after a few beats, he took a deep breath, recovered, handed me my receipt, all while  looking down, apparently examining his fascinating check out station. Poor thing.

Today it's better, faded somewhat but clearly not a "normal" eye.  I am working at the museum this afternoon so we will see how the museum public deals with "Devil-Eye'.  Maybe they will think I am part of the exhibit?  "Devil-eye woman!  Beware!  She may put a voodoo curse on you!"

Nope.  Sorry to disappoint.  Not gonna happen.

Within a day or two it will fade and once again people will look me in the eye, without cringing, while we converse.  I'm looking forward to it.  Normalcy achieved once more.

At least until Devil-Eye comes to call again.