Fear Factor

This week has been all about facing my fears.  I haven't gotten much knitting done, actually, I'm at a negative mark on the knitting, but I have chased away several of those pesky fear demons.  (Okay, maybe I've watched a few too many episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)

Today I faced my fear of glaucoma and going blind.  For the past few months, I've had round after round of eye exams that have contradicted each other.  Some the tests said I was just old, about half said I had a pretty bad case of glaucoma and the rest said I simply needed more sleep & better hand/eye coordination.  I went in today for one final test, the big boy scan.  The kind of scan where I'm dammed glad that we have medical insurance.  The kind of scan where I needed a GPS to find my way around the medical facility.  It was scary and I'm glad its over with, but the results were good.  I don't have glaucoma.  I'm just old and I need to eat better and get some exercise.

Last night I faced fear on Netflix.  Have you seen the movie Hush?  Stephen King recommended it in a Tweet so I figured it would be good & scary, but damn!  My heart rate is still elevated and it's the reason I've accomplished negative knitting this week.  I had to frog a giant amount of my progress thanks to that movie.

Earlier in the week I faced my fear of old car ownership.  It was time for its annual inspection and since I knew I had a big, giant eye doctor bill to pay coming up, I figured at least eight different car parts would fail inspection.  But, to my amazement, she passed!  She passed with flying colors & not a single repair necessary.  Not even a burnt out lightbulb!

And even earlier in the week, last weekend to be exact, I faced my big fear.

Eiffel Tower, Kings Dominion

Heights.  I had to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower for work.  You step off the elevator and you are 264 feet up in the air.  That doesn't sound like much, but it's significantly higher than the trip up the Statue of Liberty.  It's high enough to make your ears pop.  And it's definitely high enough to make me somewhat nauseous.  There's nothing quite as fearful as trying not to freak out or barf in front of your department head while you interact with park guests.

View from the top

I have to admit though, as long as I remembered to breathe without hyperventilating, the view was spectacular.