extra! extra! extra eyeglasses for all!

what squinty-eyed travel diva would possibly head out on the road without a spare pair of glasses in her bag for emergencies?

:::editor raises her hand sheepishly:::

yes. that would be me. i have a truly freakishly high prescription - like, honestly blind without my contacts or my glasses - and because of that, i tend to hang on to old pairs of glasses as if they were made of diamonds and platinum instead of plastic and aluminum. however, i am absentminded enough to totally forget to pack an extra pair in my carry on bag. yes. your editor is a dork.

i'm not sure why i never thought about it until recently, but there are a lot of companies online now offering prescription glasses at very reasonable prices. high quality glasses. good frames and good lenses. i guess i just never thought any of them would possibly be able to fill my mutant prescription, so i didn't even bother to look, even though i KNOW i need to keep an extra pair of current specs handy in my travel gear at all times (oh, dear readers, i've had contact lenses fall out at mardi gras parades, on a subway in prague, in a hash bar in amsterdam ... but those are stories for another day).

not looking online for my prescription lens needs up until now, my friends, was a HUGE mistake on my part.

about a week ago i received a pair of really cool mail-order prescription glasses from eye buy direct, and while i was skeptical of how the fit might be, i have to tell you i absolutely love them.

okay, so i'm not a great self-photographer and my nose looks enormous, but this should give you some idea of how they look and fit (which is quite nice on both accounts, thank you very much!).

here's a link to the pair i received as i viewed them on the eye buy direct website. pretty darned accurate, no?



they arrived in about a week. the glasses were wrapped in a cleaning cloth and packaged in the hard case shown in the photo, then were wrapped in bubble wrap, and packed in styrofoam peanuts - there was NO way these things were going to be damaged in shipping! i haven't had to adjust a single thing. the fit is perfect. the prescription is spot-on (no headaches!). the color is awesome (a little darker than the online photo but colors will vary from monitor to monitor slightly). all in all i am a skeptic turned believer in purchasing glasses online now.

the eye buy direct website is really easy to navigate, very intuitive, and has a cool-as-all-getout eyetry feature which lets you upload a photo of yourself and then virtually "try on" different pairs of glasses to help you choose your specs. i spent hours playing with this practical tool.

finally i settled on a pair of frames called united in green. retail price? $200.00. the eye buy direct price? you're not going to believe it ... $39.95 + shipping. and that includes anti-scratch coating and single-vision lenses. other options and upgrades are available for a small fee, like anti-reflective and UV coatings, tinted lenses, transitions lenses, and super thin lenses as well. but even if you just go with the basics, this is a great company to try for an extra pair of those much-needed glasses.

eye buy direct has a large selection of really fashionable frames from $14.95 and up. they're really pleasant to deal with, which is a huge bonus, and the online ordering system is a breeze.

buy a pair. buy two. hell ... put together a whole wardrobe of lenses to match your moods: fun, funky, conservative, colorful, sedate ... it's all there for the choosing at eye buy direct.

diva recommended, without a doubt!