![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I've dated many a crip, including people with CFS, ADHD and other fun acronyms. In particular, I've had my fair share of relationships with blind or vision impaired people in the past. Even so, this is the first time I've ever really seen the ongoing implications of two blind people living together up close.
Bad joke, I know.
Matt and I seem to intuitively understand things about each other that sighted partners have to be 'trained' for. Neither of us will simply point at stuff and say "It's over there, don't you know". Neither of us would dream of giving directions based on the assumption that the person in question can read street signs, and won't need to rely heavily on their memory or some knowledge of the massive landmarks nearby to find their way. We both implicitly understand that living near shops and public transport has to be a priority. We both get worn out more easily by dealing with the World At Large.
Then there are incidents like the one that occurred tonight. We were sitting on the couch watching The West Wing and I leaned back on the couch at the exact moment he decided to do something with his (long) hair, and of course neither of us saw the other do a thing. As a result, the pointy bit of his elbow met the bridge of my nose.
Nothing's seriously hurt or broken and Matt feels pretty bad about it, what with the fact that he has Elbows of Doom and all. If anything, I found it hysterically funny - 'hysterically' being the operative word there. But it did make me aware that to balance out the times where we understand each other's needs really well, there'll be things we have to be extra careful about when most people could just sit back and relax without putting themselves at risk of bodily harm or nosy domestic violence counsellors.
That, and we need a bigger couch around here.
Bad joke, I know.
Matt and I seem to intuitively understand things about each other that sighted partners have to be 'trained' for. Neither of us will simply point at stuff and say "It's over there, don't you know". Neither of us would dream of giving directions based on the assumption that the person in question can read street signs, and won't need to rely heavily on their memory or some knowledge of the massive landmarks nearby to find their way. We both implicitly understand that living near shops and public transport has to be a priority. We both get worn out more easily by dealing with the World At Large.
Then there are incidents like the one that occurred tonight. We were sitting on the couch watching The West Wing and I leaned back on the couch at the exact moment he decided to do something with his (long) hair, and of course neither of us saw the other do a thing. As a result, the pointy bit of his elbow met the bridge of my nose.
Nothing's seriously hurt or broken and Matt feels pretty bad about it, what with the fact that he has Elbows of Doom and all. If anything, I found it hysterically funny - 'hysterically' being the operative word there. But it did make me aware that to balance out the times where we understand each other's needs really well, there'll be things we have to be extra careful about when most people could just sit back and relax without putting themselves at risk of bodily harm or nosy domestic violence counsellors.
That, and we need a bigger couch around here.
