Yesterday was a big day for my freedom. Ever since that jackass yelled “they see me rollin’” across the street at me, I’ve not felt like going out in my chair. And, as for the most part I can’t manage going out without my sweet, sweet ride, this has resulted in me becoming a bit of a hermit. Being stuck inside four walls is depressing, boring and lonely. So my boyfriend decided we were going for a wander down to the beach. He even offered to push me in my manual chair so that we were in it together. GO TEAM!
Aberdeen. January. The beach. Sitting still. It was fucking Baltic, however J worked up a fair sweat pushing my fat ass around. I felt good. Blowing the cobwebs away felt so glorious, in fact, that I was okay with going to the supermarket (for the first time ever in my chair) to pick up a few bits on the way home. I’m not going to lie, I secretly wanted a duvet cover set with bunnies that ASDA sell… And I got it! Mwa ha ha.
Firstly, it was scary. I love J, but he sort of forgets that I am a person and not a shopping trolley. He makes zooming noises that make me mad because they belittle my situation and he just abandons me in my chair while he goes to get something. These things all need work, but we managed to get around the shop. The problem was when we got to the checkout.
There is an accessible checkout. There is a huge fuck off picture of a wheelchair above it and on it. Now, I know that it is essentially a free-for-all, but if you saw a wheelchair user with a basket of items about to join that queue, would you rush to get in front of them with your huge trolley, laden with food… and your 3 screaming kids? Probably not. Well, this one woman did. She took her sweet fucking time, but we waited. Sometimes ya just gotta wait while two kids simultaneous stare you out while screaming bloody murder. The cashier then started scanning through our items as J bagged them up… Except the dipshit woman with her massive shop and screaming spawn was still standing at the bottom of the bagging area with her trolley, essentially boxing me in between J and her. I had no room to move back and felt really distressed. She just 100% ignored me. It turns out her eldest-spawn had gone back to get something that she’d been pleading with her mum to purchase… So asshole-mum just pretended the trapped cripple didn’t exist while she waited on her precious daughter to return. I can only assume this is how the hamster feels when he gets stuck in the corner in his ball.
I so badly wish I’d shouted “MOVE YOUR ASS YOU SELFISH FUCKING BITCH!” using maximum expletives so that at the very least, she moved to get her darling kids away from my foul mouth. That said, I don’t think she spoke English… Or at least she chose not to. So, she doesn’t speak English or open her fucking eyes to the human being that she was basically holding prisoner at the Asda checkout. What a cunt.
Anyway, I have promised myself that in the future, I will speak up when someone is a dick to me because I’m in a wheelchair. If I don’t, it’ll eat me alive that I said nothing. I’ve never been okay with people wronging me in the past, so I’m not about to take it sitting down now. I mean, I’m going to be sitting down, but I’m not going to take it. I might even stick an air horn in the side pocket of my new (super cool, hah) wheelchair bag and use it to draw all of the attention when someone blocks me in again.
I’m genuinely, absolutely okay with being an asshole. In fact, the world needs more bolshie cripples if this shit is ever going to stop.
Ren x
broken down body 
I’m laughing and crying at the same time! Bravo♡
LikeLiked by 1 person
Next time, I’ll be like “FFS, not this again!” But i was just like… Am i in Harry Potter? Is this an invisibility chair?! I’m going to make a point of going SOMEWHERE once a week in my power chair (weather and pain allowing) so that I get better at being a bitch 😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
If being a bitch is refusing to be ignored or disrespected, we all need to be bitches! In so many cultures, the disabled are invisible to the people looking right at them. That chair does not affect the user’s personhood. I only use a chair sporadically, but when next I do, I will think of your experience 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, yes, without going into too muhc detail… I think saying it was cultural is hitting the nail on the noggin! I don’t even mind being “ignored”… but I was completely wedged in, facing the wrong way. It was horrid 😦
LikeLike
Yay. Congrats on getting out. I’m sorry it ended badly though. It’s amazing how oblivious people can be when they want to be. Ignore the arsehole above. You’re completely allowed to complain about what happened.
Having someone push me in my wheelchair is such a love/hate experience. I’m out and thank you so much for helping me but also please don’t do that it makes me feel uncomfortable lol. Not to mention trying to communicate anything to the person pushing isn’t the subtlest thing to do. You’re boyfriend sounds great though and I hope you are able to get out again soon and don’t let this new bad experience deter you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My boyfriend is the best. He truly is my partner in crime, my soul mate. We are like chalk and cheese, but it works. I’ve never laughed in my life as much as I do with him.
I think anyone who has ever been pushed in a wheelchair has wanted to scream at their pusher at least once. Most people are in the habit of pushing a trolley – that doesn’t contain their loved ones. It’s an experience, that’s for sure. J was basically doing the hokey cokey at a zebra crossing, pushing me out into the road and then changing his mind. FML, he’s lucky I didn’t stand up and slap the silly out of him!
That moron clearly doesn’t realise that their IP address gives me their ACTUAL address and their e-mail address (that I can see) is their surname AND they have shared their profession. BAH HA HA. If I was actual a soulless bitch, they’d be getting a box of shit in the post in the pretty near future. As well as a screenshot of their comment sent to their employer.
But I’m nicer than they gave me credit for… Or am I?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe 1) you need a horn to honk at fuckers in public, and 2) Captain Cuntnugget needs a daily photo of an anus in their mail for a month or two.
I’ve decided that a shitty enough comment from a stranger in public will result in me pointing at them and yelling something like “ignorant asshole!” repeated until they run away. You for sure can use that. Get video. Share it here. 😜😘
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve honestly considered mounting a GoPro on my chair so that the doubters can see what wheelie life is REALLY like. Back in my able bodied, ignorant days, I sort of thought that “everyone has someone being an asshole to them sometimes”… but it’s more than that… It’s not easy to describe until it happens to you. But it’s awful.
The horn on my wheelchair is PATHETIC. It sort of sounds like a rubbish fart. Defo need an upgrade of sorts 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh! I’m crying over here! My husband takes me out in the chair and makes zooming noises, and circles. I have problems with nausea, so it isn’t funny!
I was at the hospital the other day for treatment, and people! This one lady stood between where I sat and the window and stuck her bum in my face! Ew! These other women were using their walkers and would not let me pass. I needed to sit, but I could not pass… just clueless! Maybe they were drugged.
Here in Canada, though, my husband left me outside the washrooms at the Canadian National Exhibition. With me facing the washroom door, but parallel to the wall. Not ideal, but not bad. Every 30 seconds at least someone offered to move me. It was hilarious.
What I can’t stand is those people who wait and then at the last second jump out in front of your chair or scooter. Dammit! They are going to get hurt!
LikeLiked by 1 person