Making Workarounds Fun!

With my eyes, I am finding it too bothersome to drive at night right now.

I have astigmatism in both eyes, plus the vision changes from the geographic atrophy and the double vision from who knows what, so driving at night has been unmamageably troublesome. Since the double vision, certain altered aspects of driving are much more difficult to ignore, and giving up driving at night has felt necessary, at least for now.  Driving in really congested areas (like right downtown) or driving somewhere new is even giving me some anxiety regardless of the time of day. 

Luckily, there are workarounds! 

Yesterday I needed to drive myself to an appointment for 10:30am, but my husband needed to be somewhere for work before 8am. Sunrise wasn't until 8:31am and the area was one with which I was unfamiliar. 

So, the night before, I looked up the route (I usually do this anyways), and made a plan for myself. 

Two stores down from where my husband needed to be was a cute little breakfast place, so I decided to make a budget for spending money on a nice breakfast to have while I waited for sunrise. 

Now, before my eyes went all weird, I would normally bring a book if I was going to be sitting alone in a restaurant or cafe. I still did that - but in the form of earbuds and an audiobook! It felt a touch more awkward without a physical book to fidget with (turns out I am a colossal fidgeter), but it was really enjoyable. I ordered a blue crab eggs benedict (I'm a total sucker for a good eggs benny) that was delicious, an orange blossom hot chocolate, and just sat there listening to my audiobook until the sun came up. 

Sure, I could have stressed myself out by focusing on the fact that I couldn't drive that early. I could have dwelled on the fact that I couldn't just sit and read or stare at my phone while I sat alone at a busy restaurant. I could have felt angry that the best scenario included spending some extra money.  But to who's benefit would any of that be? 

A $30 breakfast, while expensive in general, was still much better than a cab or uber to and from my appointment. An audiobook is thoroughly enjoyable, and no one really cares if I was sitting alone. Frankly, no one other than the waitress probably even noticed. 

I enjoyed myself! I had a wonderful, relaxing morning with a fantastic breakfast. 

Making workarounds enjoyable is all it takes to change a situation that gives me anxiety to an opportunity to take some valuable time for myself. 

Plus, I got to try a brand new restaurant I had never been to. 

How fun!