Image Description: Black text on a white background the text reads. “acesapphic Ready for a long ace-centric metaphor about sex? Alright, so. Coffee. I don’t drink coffee. I have no desire to drink coffee. I find people who enthusiastically go on about the flavor differences of lattes, espressos, and french press brews, both amusing and mildly baffling. All the coffee ads. Coffee jokes. Bustling coffee shops. To me, all coffee is similarly bitter and unpleasant. I have been through so many “Try this, it’s sweet! You can’t even taste the coffee!” Alas, I always can. And I’m sensitive to caffeine anyway. So, I don’t really think about drinking it when I wake up or am tired. Yet I love the smell of coffee. I love the idea of coffee. The feeling of a warm cup taking the chill from my fingers, the cozy ritual of having a drink and chat. I might try someone’s coffee. If they ask, if I want to please them and share in something they enjoy. I am also perfectly capable of learning the preferences of those I care about and creating a cup for their pleasure.”
There are many different metaphors for understanding Asexuality. Feel free to share any you have.
In what ways does hard work make you feel fulfilled?
But working hard at something to me means I do something that matters to me. Something that was difficult for me to do that I pushed through in order to finish it. It doesn’t matter to me what I had to push through of what I was trying to complete. Whether that was writing a really hard essay, or making a coffee. If I had to push myself through it, then it was hardwork and if I complete it I feel fulfilled.
Now this is complicated because its a fine line between pushing through hard times, and as a disabled person trying to overcome my disability.
Overcoming my disability isn’t something that I try to do, or anyone should aspire to do. My disability is part of who I am and I deserve recognition as in individual without overcoming who I am. Yet I take pride in working through a difficult task. And I don’t always get the balance between the two right. Between working hard and trying to overcome who I am.
Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.
I’m not sure if this is actually an epic fail or if it is something that’s easy to do, as I don’t have much experience with cooking. In part this is due to my lack of effort in the area, but this I believe is influenced by fatigue. The biggest influence is, I believe, the inaccessibility of the world around me.
So yes. I’m not a very good cook. And while I will allow you to and even welcome you to use my kitchen. I don’t cook for anyone that comes in my house. This is also extended to making drinks, as it just takes me to long and is to much effort.
As a disabled person I live my life in a world where much of what I am able to do is notable to me, even if it’s not to you.
Before I get into this further I just want to give it a disclaimer that I did have to Google what’s the word notable actually meant in this context, in order to be sure I have the right idea. Remember it’s okay not to know something and it admit to be honest about not knowing something.
As a second disclaimer for this post I’ve used voice to text primarily, so please bear with any mistakes that you may see. Though as always do let me know if any of those mistakes also the information you are getting from the text.
I often talk about how what is important to you, or in other words what is notable, is very dependent on who you are as a person. As an example I often talk about the noticeability achievements for me of making a coffee for myself for the first time.
I can vividly remember learning the steps involved in great detail for me to make a coffee. From the tea towel being placed on the side, to ensuring that I didn’t fill the kettle to full so that it wouldn’t be to heavy for me to lift. Then ensuring the jug was in the right place to pour the hot water into it. Before finally pouring the water from the jug to the cup. In between all of this, I had to fill the cup with the right amount of coffee, I got this wrong a fair few times, believe me. As well as milk and sugar. Thankfully now I have a no pour kettle, which makes things a lot easier. But that notable achievement of making my own coffee for the first time will stay with me my whole life.
But as I write this the day has only just begun, to be exact it begun 15 minutes ago. And though I have poeted this early, I will be editing it later in the day, so do check back to see what I have added to the post.
I am starting this post now for a reason. That reason being, that anything I may do today or any day may be notable to me. And the fact that it is notable to me is all that I need for it to be notable.
Making a coffee can be notable.
Getting out of bed can be notable.
Leaving your house can be notable.
An anniversary can be notable.
Climbing in Mountain can be notable.
Doing the washing can be notable.
You get the point. Anything you do can be noticeable if it is notable to you.
So that said when I edit this post at some point later today, and yes I will be putting a reminder on my phone so that I do not forget to do that. Some of the things I may record as being notable in the day may not seem worth commenting on to you, but just remember they were to me.
So until later, I have something to ask of you. Can you tell me something in your life that happened that you found notable, that others overlooked the importance of?
I want to give you and your notable things the respect they deserve.
Notable things that happened to me today include:
I went on my first wonder by myself – see tomorrow’s post about this.
And while yes, coffee is my favourite drink whether I will actually have a coffee whenever I want one is a lot more complex.
When you’re me, that is disabled in the way I am, much of the world is inacessible. And the parts that are accessible still cost me energy.
Accessibility and Energy are like axis on a graph, pictured below.
Though it’s important to remember if something is accessibile, the energy it requires is less energy. If it’s inacessible it requires more energy so I suppose the more accurate version would be a graph without the top right or the bottom left square.
All this is to say that just because I would like a coffee does not mean I will have the energy or accessibility in my environment to make a coffee. Often I will wait for someone to make it for me.
This is because it takes a lot of energy and time for me to make a coffee. Though I am lucky that if I really wanted to make a coffee since moving, it is something I would be able to do. This hilights another factor I have to consider in making myself a coffee. How much I want a coffee.
I hope this shows how difficult having my favourite drink can be. So it being my favourite doesn’t mean I get to drink it often.
If you’re reading this as a person who has easy access to there favourite drink, whatever that may be, don’t take it for granted.
Some questions that I was thinking about as I was writing this, feel free to answer them in the comments if you like:
What is your favourite drink?
What is your least favourite drink?
What is the strangest drink you like?
What is the easiest drink for you to drink?
What is the easiest drink for you to make?
What is the most difficult drink for you to make?
What is the most difficult drink for you to drink?
If you already answered this Prompt, or any other related Prompts or general Prompts on Disability and inclusion feel free to link me to them in the comments.
Apologies that this prompt is a few days late, I started working on it but then forgot to post it.
My Inaccessible Life 