Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Larry Jaffee / Editor in Chief

last september, my son's optometrist informed me that I was eligible for a $30 rebate because I had purchased a six-month supply of contact lenses from Acuvue.

“Everybody forgets to do it,” this sage of Second Ave. told me. “I don't know why. Money's money after all.”

I smiled and tucked the advice in a crevice of my brain. Later that afternoon, the contact lens bag containing the rebate form and receipt found its way to a corner of my apartment.

There it sat until December when I wondered if I had blown the opportunity. Not a lot of money, but better in my pocket than in Acuvue's, no?

I breathed a little easier after reading the fine print. The deadline was Jan. 31, 2008.

But when I went to Acuvue's Web site, I found that I had to go through a fairly convoluted process to claim my discount. It involved filling out and e-mailing an online form, then printing out another form.

The tricky part was coming up with five box tops. We had left the store with 10 boxes, but Jake runs through lenses as if they're the daily disposable variety.

Yes, each lens is supposed to last two weeks. But things happen at that age. For example, he was bumped by a defender while playing for his junior high school basketball team. He precariously held a dislodged lens on the tip of one finger while doing a pretty good job of covering his man for the next 60 seconds. It was pure slapstick.

My heart sunk when I found in the medicine cabinet only four packages.

Call it an early New Year's resolution, but I was determined to find another tab and collect my 30 bucks. I addressed and stamped the envelope.

“I know where the other boxes are,” Jake insisted through his cellphone. (It must be in his genes; organizationally challenged like me, he follows my unorthodox filing system at times.)

Following three weeks of pleading, he finally produced a box. I promptly ripped off the tab and stuck it in my coat pocket. A few days later, while taking out my keys, I found the missing piece to my $30 grail. Imagine my disappointment on the morning of Jan. 31 when I realized one of the four other tabs had disappeared from the envelope waiting to be postmarked.

I put too much effort by this point to throw in the towel. I tore a side of a package, hoping that it would suffice. I figured Acuvue could see from the receipt that I met the prerequisite purchase amount. In another four weeks or so, I'll find out whether it has given me the benefit of the doubt.

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