I would have said ... 'see you tomorrow' ... but I didn't want to jinx it

Did you miss me?

It's ok if you didn't. It's only one day. I know you all have busy lives that include crazy, mind-numbing deeply gratifying and wonderful things such as household chores and ignoring your spouse playing with your own kids.

I had an opthamology appointment: The kind in which they dilate my pupils to see the inside of my eyes.

For me it's an annual thing.

You see, I have a "freckle" located somewhere on my left eyeball, (how's that for sharing?) and the doctors like to keep a watch on it to make sure it doesn't change into something that begins with the Latin form of BAD.

I learned of the mole about five or six years ago, probably two decades after my previous opthamologic appointment.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a mole on your eye," the doctor asked.

"Uh. no."

"It's really not that uncommon. You are a freckled person. And you can get freckles and moles anywhere on your body."

During that visit I also found out I had "convergence," a condition in which the muscles of one eye aren't as strong as the muscles of the other eye."

"Did you have a lazy eye as a child?"

"Um. No. ..."

"Well. It's really no big deal. But it will get worse if you let it go. The good news is there are simple exercises you can do that will strengthen the muscles."

"Well could it be related to the massive amount of computer work I do?"

"Um. No."

Anyway, It was quite a shock that first appointment years ago. I had scheduled it first thing in the morning and had gone to work afterward, not realizing I wouldn't be able to SEE anything like WORDS on this here COMPUTER SCREEN for nearly three hours. Even with reversal drops to counteract the dilating ones, it was a long stretch of close-up blindness.

But all of that is really beside the point.

The point being: I am neurotic.

And this mole -- this TINY, TINY FRECKLE, as the doctor describes it -- is on my EYE.

MY EYE, PEOPLE!!!

And, as a consumate worrier, that just nerves me up.

So I go in there are hold my breath until they tell me it's all beautiful and stable and see you next year.

Which they did, luckily, before I turned blue.