Hi lovely people! How are you?
I hope you are all having a really good weekend.
I am really happy that you liked Thrusday's hair curling video
There's going to be a lot more hair videos to come so watch out for that
Also, thank you for yesterday's comments
Quite bad, quite shameful video with Clara
There's a second part of that is coming next week in which I pretty much shame British people everywhere
So today's video however is about spoons. Yeah, yeah. Spoons.
So I use the hashtag spoonie quite a lot *ping*
Most people don't know at all what that means which is pretty understandable
It's a word coined by (and I'm going to have to read this name out, excuse me)
Christine Mi-se-ran-di-no. Miserandino. Miserandino
In 2003 in her essay "the spoon theory" on her blog butyoudontlooksick.com
It's a metaphor, which you can sign either as....
"metaphor" or "metaphor"
It's a metaphor for energy and the amount of energy
that it takes to be a disabled person.
Because obviously as a disabled person the amount of energy that you have for daily living is reduced.
Basically everyone starts the day with a certain amount of spoons. Spoons! *spoon rattle*
So every task that you do requires be so much energy that is then related to one spoon
And you can also recharge your spoons by resting and having a little relax
However, the same task can use different numbers of spoons for different people
And some tasks use absolutely no spoons at all, for some
For example, a shower, yes
Now, a shower for some people is incredibly relaxing
So it recharges your spoons. It makes you feel really good.
You're, you know, warm *mhmm*
So it's a plus spoons experience for some people. It adds spoons too little energy bar. Like a Sim.
But for me a shower uses up a lot of my spoons It means taking off my clothes
Finding the right temperature. Which is pretty hard to do if you don't have hands that can feel temperature or feet (my feet can't feel temperature either)
You have to stand up for a long time. That's pretty tiring.
My body can't regulate temperature so it gets get very hot and then I think I'm- It gets very hot and I'm going to faint
I have to lift my arms for a long time to wash my hair and that just saps my energy
And also it's quite hard because I can't feel the shampoo and then I'm like "Oh. Ooh! Ohhh."
All the blood rushes down to my feet and about to faint - then you've got a time limit before you faint
And then it's like "Did I get the towel out of the cupboard?" "I don't know. Did I get the towel out of the cupboard?" Ugh.
Hurting all over because the half of my nerves that aren't dead freak out at any kind of temperature or
Whether it's hot whether it's cold. Whatever. Even water. Water really hurts. Don't ask me why. It just does.
So obviously that would be minus 2 spoons for me and for someone else, plus spoons. Yay!
I really should get an award for having hair that is so pretty despite that
Guys, I wash. Give me an award!
Now welcome to the part of the video where I use the Sims to illustrate life
Alice has a long term health condition. Mary does not.
Mary does, however, have pretty fly hair. You go girl, you go.
So, Alice starts the day with 10 spoons. Mary starts the day with 30 spoons
Which is really ruddy unfair, Mary, you've got it good
Okay, we're going to give Alice some really much better hair. There you go Alice.
Today is Saturday. There we go. Sunday. Saturday. I do know my days of the week, I promise.
So both of the girls needs to go into town to buy some food. Ooh. They're going to go shopping.
Now bear in mind that at the end of the day, we need to have at least 1 spoon in order to get a good night's sleep
Get up and make breakfast
Get dressed
Put on makeup
Alright Alice you're not doing too well
Check you have everything to leave the house
Okay careful there Alice. Let's have a nap so you can get a couple of spoons back.
Walk to the bus stop and wait in the cold
So the bus finally comes, but it's full of people! Ah my God!
Right Alice come on now, flash that disabled badge around
Make someone move, don't be a martyr, sit down
Mary, you can stand. Work out that core. It's looking good for you there, Mary
I see you've also been to the gym recently. Done some Pilates too? Very nice. Looking good. Looking good.
Oh Alice. At least you made it out of the house.
We're at the supermarket. Yay! We're gonna go all the way around, do lots of walking
Make confusing decisions. Really think about how we should have mae a better list before we got here.
But we didn't. Ooh. What are we gonna buy for this week? What are we gonna eat? Oh my God...
Alice! Careful! Jeez, you better head straight home!
Mary pops to the health food shop because, I mean, the soy yoghurt there is just sooooo much cheaper
And she also needs to go to the post office and the gift shop
And then she kind of takes a look in that fancy new boutique in town. It's really nice.
So we get to the bus ride home. Still carrying those bags, though. It does take it out of you.
Back to the house. Oh we've got to walk to the house from the bus stop carrying bags
Okay. Hm. Ooh Alice! Okay get the sofa stat. Don't worry about putting stuff away, just lie down.
Okay, Alice is awake again, Good good. Right, time to put away the food
Right, you both need to wash your hair so jump in the shower guys
Oh dear. Bloody hell, Alice. maybe don't take a shower next time.
Alright time to slouch on the sofa in your PJ's. Chilling out. Ah...
Then they both get a call from Claire, who wants to go to the cinema.
Lovely Claire. She's so sweet, she's always asking Alice
So Mary's like "Yeah let's go! Whoo! So excited"
Also she has loads of energy because she just rips off those PJs, puts on outfit and she's out the house in no time
Oh, yeah! She'll be there in 20 minutes.
Ooh, Alice. Erm. Sorry dear. Maybe you should just stay home.
Tell Claire you'll meet her next time, but you've already done two things today
After all, I mean, she's only got 2 spoons. It's gonna take her 2 spoons to get there.
And then what? Then she has no spoons. How's she going to get back?
Sorry Alice. A night on the sofa for you.
Mary had a great time out. She went to a bar after the cinema. She was dancing into the early hours
Oh, Alice just watched TV and then dragged herself to bed.
Alice doesn't mind though because she used to be so low and have so few spoons
That she needed help even getting to the toilet which-
Oh wait, ther'es a point. Alice, I'm going to have to take a spoon from you for every time you have to walk for the toilet
So that's how spoons work
Did that make sense to you?
Did you learn anything? Do you like Alice's new haircut? Let me know.
People with chronic illnesses, auto immune deficiencies or disabilities often use "spoonie" to describe ourselves,
But do you use it? How do you feel about it?
I like the word "disabled". I don't think it's a terrible word as you've seen from my videos. Watch them :)
But also I kind of prefer spoonie because it's a bit under the radar
And often it feels really odd to just kind of declare yourself like
Wahey! Disabled!
I'm not going to walk into a room that- That is not how I would introduce myself first
I would just go with "Jessica!" But also "Disabled!"
No. It's like walking into a room and going "Lesbian!"
So personally I do think that there are flaws in the spoon theory
Mainly that not everyone can recover spoons from resting or even from sleeping.
There are a lot of disorders where nighttime and sleeping are causing you the most problems. Insomnia.
And- I mean, I know that naps don't always actually make me feel better
And then there's also part of the theory that says you can borrow spoons from the next day,
which I don't think you can, it doesn't really work that way for me.
Although if I end the day and I don't have any spoons than I know that tomorrow I'll get fewer than I would have done
But that doesn't I have more energy today, it just means that tomorrow will be worse
I know that there are also people with disabilities that don't affect their energy levels
but they use the spoonie theory to describe how tiring it is to kind of be passing as non-disabled.
Is that you? If so, please leave me a comment because I really want to hear from you
and hear what that's like and hear how it affects your life
Finally, it's my birthday on Wednesday!
Yes, the 25th of January if you were wondering and wanted to send me a present
We are flying off to Budapest to celebrate. I don't know the sign for Budapest.
However I will still be releasing videos with my new filming schedule
Which means Thursday Friday and Saturday
there will be videos, but I am going to film them at the start of the week.
get ready for the Budapest videos which will be the following week as in the first week of February. Yay!
So yeah. Loads of stuff in this video. Get down there in the comments. Tell me your views. Tell me your opinions.
And tell me your life experiences because you know I love hearing about everybody's life
I want to know the details of everybody's life, I'm such a busybody. I stick my nose in everywhere.
Don't worry about it
I'll see you next week