Living Life Through Polarized Lenses**

I was wearing my sunglasses and standing on the train platform this morning. It was a hazy, hot August morning. The sun was doing a slow burn warm up, just beginning to melt away the clouds. It wasn't really bright out, just morning. Early morning. Most of the people were not wearing sunglasses. Because of this, I occasionally feel like a douche wearing them on the platform and on the train. But I have to be honest. I just don't like the glare. And sometimes I feel all mysterious and not so douchey.

However, today I was sort of feeling the later and was considering caving to the peer pressure of the Train Station Mean Girls and their sensible shoes.* But just as I reached up to remove my sunglasses I noticed that the clouds around the sun were an amazing deep blue color with brushstroke like wisps of white and grey. Sort of like one of those beautiful Painter of Light paintings without the religious connotations. And to the left of the sun was a half moon rainbow. It was faint but there. A tiny sliver of a perfect rainbow in a crescent moon shape. I lowered the lenses and peeked over the top and the rainbow was gone. I checked the lenses to be sure the optical illusion wasn't caused by the refraction of light through a glob of moisturizer. Assured that the lenses were clean,  I put them back on and there it was. 

Tiny, secret rainbow.

All at once, I felt happy.

I peeked over the frames again and the rainbow was absent. But with frames up...there it was. My own private joke on the people who were squinting into the Eastern sky, wishing the train would arrive so they could, finally, open their eyes all the way.

And it got me thinking about these sunglasses. You see, the lenses are polarized. According to the eye-wear professional at Lenscrafters, this will assist in visual acuity and offer my eyeballs all the protection they deserve. I like my eyeballs so it was an easy sale.

She failed to mention that the polarization will prevent me from seeing most LED type screens including but not limited to the Dollar Amount on the gas pump and the ATM screen at my bank. The first time this happened I thought perhaps I had gone blind, or at the very least, suffered a very specific stroke.

But no. It was just the polarized lenses.

So. I left my sunglasses on. Because, seriously, who really wants to see the dollar amount on the gas pump or the actual balance on the ATM.

And who doesn't want to see a rainbow?

*In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that I was wearing flip flops. I do not work in flip flops, but on days when it is 80 at 0700 AM I wear them to and from work.

So this is me, in my sunglasses. Very Lolita, don't you think?

**And wouldn't this make the most awesome title for a song? cough cough *Jimmy Buffett* cough cough...