When I get a big-girl job

There’s a little game I play on occasion–I call it “when I get a big-girl job”.

You see, right now I work on a contract basis, with a semester-by-semester contract for the teaching assistantship. I have low job security and need to be prepared for an extended job search each time my contract expires. Because of this, any “extra” money that I earn gets funneled immediately into savings.

Which means that there are a number of things I want but don’t really need that I’ve put off purchasing for now.

But on the days that I allow myself to play “when I get a big-girl job”, I dream of buying a road bike and contact lenses.

The road bike is for me.

I love cycling and commute wherever I can on my bicycle. I’m ridiculously slow, in part because I’m not in that great of shape and in part because my bicycle is not that great.

I bought it seven years ago off a rack at Walmart. It’s a standard $100 mountain bike, heavyish and clunky. It’s great for a kid exploring–not so great for an adult who wants to commute.

Then there was the accident. Only months after purchasing my bike, I had an unfortunate encounter with a fire hydrant that mangled the front post. Somehow, between my dad and my grandpa, we managed to scrounge up a new front post and get it installed. The new post is older and heavier, and unfortunately, the brake mount is different–and doesn’t exactly work correctly.

I’ve tried replacing the brakes, remounting them, working whatever hacks I can. But I’ve been unsuccessful at truly making the brakes work properly. So the mount swings back and forth and occasionally, I discover that I’m working double time trying to ride with the brake pad applied to one side of a wheel.

So I’d really like a new bike. A road bike, light and well-designed.

The second item isn’t so much for me as it is for my dad.

When it became clear that my vision needed correction, I chose glasses over contacts for a number of reasons. First, glasses are the economically savvy choice. They last until you need a new prescription. Second, glasses are the economically savvy choice. :-) Even if you use contacts, you should have a pair of glasses for emergencies anyway. Third, I have perennial environmental allergies. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to introduce little pieces of plastic into my already regularly red and itchy eyes.

Now, though, I’m eager to give contacts a try.

Why?

Because my glasses bug my dad to pieces. They’re perpetually crooked.

At first, I regularly dropped by the eye center where I bought my glasses to have the professionals there straighten my frames. It frustrated me that by the time I returned home, they were sitting crooked again.

I took to straightening them myself–but it never seemed to last for long.

Finally, I figured out what the problem was.

My nose is crooked.

That’s not new information–but I hadn’t connected the two. You see, my nose’s crookedness begins very close to the bridge of my nose and continues all the way down. Which means that straight glasses, if placed all the way at the bridge, will sit straight. But if those glasses slip even a quarter of an inch down my nose, they will begin to tilt precariously.

The glasses that once sat parallel to my eyebrows now lie at odd angles, giving me a rather mad professor look.

It doesn’t bother me too much–but it drives my dad crazy.

Enough that I’m ready to try contacts “when I get a big-girl job”.