Suffering in silence isn’t something I do well. The suffering part is a specialty of the house, of course, but the silence is way off the grid. Even when I try to hide something, it comes out in a pained expression or a whiny voice or just a general melancholy that’s obvious to everyone around. Painfully obvious.

That’s why everyone around me knows that my new glasses have been giving me trouble. The lenses are fine; I have no trouble seeing through them, both far away and up close. The frames, though, are killing me. (Now you know, too.) They hurt the backs of both of my ears, and they are digging bloody holes in both sides of my nose.

Enough is enough, right? My plan is to take them back to the Kaiser optical department and see what they can do. Surely they can do something. I can’t believe I’m supposed to be suffering like this.

Getting into Kaiser was on the agenda for today, until I found a temporary workaround. Last night I finally figured out that if I put a band-aid on my nose, the glasses won’t hurt it. The ear pain is pretty minor compared to the nose pain, so this worked for today. I often don’t bother going to the post office on Mondays anyway, so staying in all day fit into my plans to get the work week off to a decent start. Plan B: Hit the optician up for a fix tomorrow instead.