The new glasses are rimless, which is to say that the arms are mounted on by holes that were drilled into the lenses. There are similar holes and mountings in the middle where the two lenses meet, just above my nose. When I first put them on, it felt like I could see a little blurry spot where the center mounting is. That part took the longest to get used to about these new glasses. I'm pretty much at a point now where I don't even notice it anymore - about a week or two later.

I got a comment from a co-worker of mine that said that since I got my new glasses, I look "sophisticated". I probably shouldn't ask what I looked like before. I spend a lot on my glasses and invest a lot of time trying to find just the right pair each time because I spend so much time wearing them - and we, being human beings, get so much information on what others might be thinking or feeling by looking at each others faces.

Glasses can make you look homely or hip. They can also imply things about you to others that aren't there or accentuate things that are. There is a guy in my office who, though in all probability he doesn't know it, his face just has these strange and goofy grins and you always have to wonder exactly is going on in his head. He doesn't wear glasses but it makes the point all the same, that so much is read from a person's face.

I try to look for ones that make me look thoughtful and pondering because that's what I'm usually doing. I think I actually like my face better with glasses than without. My wife, Suzanne, has commented that I look like a totally different person without my glasses and that she just considers my glasses a part of my face. I think of it that way too.

I have been having fun at work with glasses of a different sort lately. Back in 1998, when I first started working for this company which I have for so long been an employee, one of my managers made a present of a bottle of beer and a 24 oz. pilsner glass from Crate and Barrel. I gave away the beer because I am not much of a drinker, and I kept the glass.

I had moved the glass with me from desk to desk as I took different jobs within this company but I had never used it until just a few weeks ago when it dawned on me: I spend more of my day at work than I do at home. What in the heck was I doing drinking from plastic when I have this perfectly good glass from which to drink?

You can imagine the funny looks and comments that I have received from all of my co-workers. One even jested about me trying to look more sophisticated, to which I replied that I would be drinking from a martini glass rather than a pilsner if that were so. Maybe that's exactly what I need to do to keep things lively around here. Of course, I'd be getting up for refills every 15 minutes or so since martini glasses are generally not much larger than 8-12 ounces.

There is a strange thing about people who work for a corporation too - we all try to make jokes about the same things and a lot of the time, I find that we end up coming up with the same material. If someone comes to work overdressed, everyone makes comments and frequently they will echo one another. That part makes me a little sad sometimes because I know everyone likes to consider him or her self to be an original thinker. Then again, it's a lot easier to come up with jokes after-the-fact than on the spot.