This is just a little update, I guess kind of to give you insight into my day to day life. I don’t go shopping very often at all, most of my clothes are threadbare, I’m terrible at shopping and I always feel guilty spending money. I feel guilty in a supermarket.
I went to Kmart yesterday to get a shirt for an interview I’m having soon. Before that I had to go to the petrol station to pump my tyres up. The right one was so deflated I was almost wheeling on the rim. I got to the petrol station and the stupid air thing was weird and took a while to figure out. LOL, I noticed a nice warning next to it saying it was only for use on cars.
I then wheeled across the road and into Kmart. I got a nice greeting from the security guard and that made me think. I have a backpack tied to the back of my chair as you will have noticed in some of my photos. It’s a decently sized backpack, a nice size to hide things in. If I’d been walking in with that backpack he would have asked to check my bag, but since I was wheeling in he smiled, said hello and I went on my way.
Kmart was so packed it took me a while to get to the clothes section. I’ve never really liked their clothes section, it’s so badly organised it looks like a second hand thrift store. The only shirt I found that was decent wasn’t on special…drat! I took it to the changing rooms and sat there at the door. The lady says “is that all you want to try on?” I told her yes. She then went and had to clear out the larger room, she had conveniently been using it to organise underwear and store trolleys etc! I got in there, closed the door and went to put the shirt on. The shirt fitted mostly fine…except for one minor detail. My freaking arms have gotten bigger/tighter and they wouldn’t fit in the sleeves properly, I had to get the next size up :’(
I then wheeled out into the mall and went to the ATM machine so I could check my balance and get money out for my train trip. There were lovely long lines in front of all of them and when I finally got to it I had a bit of a cry over my balance. Things are going to be a bit tight this week…at least I have my wheelchair.
Oh, one last note, I got a lovely email today and I posted it in the forum for people’s comments so make sure you take a look.
Hey sister..why don’t you sit outside the store in your chair and beg for spare change ?
Make a sign and say you are collecting money for poor crippled people in India ..
Put donations into a box ..
(buy yourself some leg braces for x-mas ?)
I have thought about begging for money, but I really am in a bad place that I need every penny I can get. The only public assistance I get currently is food stamps. No cash assistance, no unemployment, and I am up to my ears in all kinds of debt, medical debt, rent, utility bills, and I am about to be homeless.
Why would I want to do that? I don’t use a wheelchair for the attention, I use a wheelchair because I have BIID.