I had my good eye tested today. Doc says I have some condensation in the vitreous (sp?) fluid in my eye, and that this is unusual for someone of my age (usually we see that in people in their 50s), but that I shouldn’t worry too much and that it won’t bug me after I get used to it. To be honest, I’m a little doubtful about the diagnosis, for a few reasons — one, the behaviour of the spots I’ve been seeing in my peripheral vision don’t seem to be behaving the way I think floaters in the viterous fluid would do, and second, because having degeneration, however slight, at my age is worrying enough for me to doubt any diagnosis that unusual without a second opinion. However, I probably won’t manage to get a second opinion till after Clarion. In any case, I find that using tear-solution seems to help, as does getting adequate rest, and not straining my eye too much.

I saw listened my way through a couple of movies while waiting for my post-eye-test pupil dilation to relax back into normal levels. I thought I’d completely forgotten 2010 but after a few minutes it all came rushing back into memory. By the time I got to the second movie, Pumpkin, I was able to actually watch the screen. If you haven’t seen this odd, wonderful little Christina Ricci film, do so. Not to spoil it for you, it’s about what happens when reality breaks a little crack in the walls of your artificial world and then suddenly that world shatters into a trillion pieces. A sorority girl falls in love with the special olympian she’s volunteered to help train. No, not all at once, she’s embarrassed and shocked and awkward and ashamed and then finally comes to grips with it. There’s a wonderful poetry-teacher character in the story, this hardass professor (“I’m a poet, not a professor,” and “You’ll get your damned credit…” come to mind) who just outstanding, and who is wonderfully woken up when Ricci’s character, on her way into being awake, reminds him that no matter how much he cusses in class, he is still assigning grades and conforming just like all the teachers he considers to be wankers (and to his credit, he respects her all the more for pointing out how we’re all forced to conform in this way).

I don’t know how much I trust the film — some characters seem to change just ever too slightly easily — but I do think it’s wonderfully written and well-performed, from the Bell-Jarrish parts when Ricci’s back at her parents’ house, to her awakening and turnaround. Clever and engaging stuff.