Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Motivational Speaker

Chowing Down with Glenda

Filed under: Living with a disability — by at 6:01 pm on Sunday, June 26, 2011

If I ever pass through this World again, I am coming back as a foodie — one who handles a knife and a fork with surgical precision to saviour each delicate morsel.

Much of our culture involves gathering with friends and acquaintances to enjoy a meal together. Depending upon the degree of friendship, this isn’t an enjoyable, relaxing activity for me. I am extremely self-conscious about how I eat. I am not graceful, and, sometimes, I am messy. I know that.

Over the years I have discovered some foods that are relatively Glenda-friendly: forkable pasta, like tortellini, penne and ravoli, are great; fish is also good because it breaks apart without needing a knife. Soups, forget it. Rice is easy to choke on, which tends to freak out people. Greek salads are fairly easy; green salads not so much.

In the past I was quite skillful at opting out of such gatherings, unless with close friends. More recently I have been trying to force myself out of that pattern, no matter how uncomfortable.

While in Austin earlier this year, a group of friends headed to a nearby burger joint. The whole way there I was dreading the meal. How was I going to manage a slippery, sloppy, overstuffed burger? (Not the kind in a tinfoil wrapper from the food court.) I was never relieved to find Grilled Cheese Sandwich on the menu!

Thank goodness iced coffees are all the rage right now; they are drinkable through straws without risk of burning my mouth. It makes “going for coffee” a nice starting point when getting together with new friends.

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a chai tea latte. Thanks kindly.

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7 Comments »

Comment by MissDazey

June 26, 2011 @ 8:22 pm

Maybe you and I can have lunch sometime. I go through many of the same fears and problems. I have learned to ask for my drink or water in a coffee cup, because of the handle.

Comment by Glenda

June 28, 2011 @ 10:42 am

Miss Dazey, yes, let’s do lunch. Definitely!

Comment by Justlittlecajunme

July 2, 2011 @ 5:03 pm

I’ll have lunch with you and you can have anything you want!

Comment by Jana

July 7, 2011 @ 8:57 am

I love reading your blog, because you always talk about things about living with a disability that I never would have thought would be a problem… quite enlightening!

Comment by Glenda

July 7, 2011 @ 9:27 pm

Thank you, Jana.

Comment by Lisa S

August 31, 2011 @ 2:02 pm

Being blind, I can easily relate to your discomfort in eating in front of people. I am still pretty self-conscious about everything from how I cut my food to whether I am staring too long in one direction. If, God forbid, I drop a piece of food, I’m positive everyone noticed and is thinking, “that poor blind girl. I’m glad she’s not eating in my dining room.” Luckily, I am a fairly neat eater, though I know I use my fingers more than is generally acceptable. We just have to remember that everyone is self-conscious about a miriad of things throughout their day. Anyway, the people who know and love us don’t think twice about it. I love it, for example, when someone forgets I am blind and asks, “Did you see that.” It reassures me that they have gotten beyond my lack of vision and have accepted me as just another person. Sorry for rambling, but you are truly inspiring for a number of reasons, not least of which is your candidness about your feelings. I get tired of hearing persons with disabilities talk about how “proud” they are to be disabled and how it doesn’t bother them in the least. For me, unfortunately, this just isn’t true and I struggle with my self confidence daily.
Keep on keeping on.
Lisa

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