I have to tell you the spoon story.  In my version of course, Ruby is one of the main characters. Ha!

Two friends, Ruby and Betty are at a diner having coffee and waiting for their food to arrive.  


Ruby is trying to explain to Betty what living with fibromyalgia is.  (I've seen this used for lupus, too.)  Ruby tells Betty, "Go grab all the spoons you can in the diner."  Betty giggles at the game and snags all the spoons she can find off the surrounding tables and comes back to her vinyl seat with a fistful of spoons.  


Ruby says, "Imagine that you wake up and you've only got 6 spoons. For each thing you have to do, you have to use a spoon."  So Ruby counts out 6 spoons and gives them to Betty.  


Betty says, "Well, I first I get ready for work."  And Betty places a spoon on the table.  Then she says, "Then I leave the house." And she places another spoon on the table.  "I work and come home." She places a spoon on the table. "I make dinner."  She places a spoon on the table.  "I watch TV."  She places a spoon on the table. "I get to bed."  She places the  last spoon on the table."


Ruby says, "Well, that's not quite how it works."  Ruby collects the spoons.


"First, I have to wake up." Ruby places a spoon on the table.
"Then I have to actually get out of bed." Ruby places a second spoon the table. 
"Then, I shower."  Ruby places another spoon on the table.  
"Then I have to get dressed."  Ruby places another spoon on the table. 
 "Then I have to get out to the kitchen."  Ruby places another spoon the table. 
"Then I have to eat."  Ruby places the last spoon on the table.


Betty says, "But you're out of spoons! You haven't even gotten to work yet!"  


Ruby says, "Exactly."

The weather changed from this cold front to a warm front and I swear, I could hardly scrape my corpse out of bed at 1PM, when Mike came in and forced me up to eat. Today was what I refer to as a no-spooner.

It was truly awful.  I finally got around to showering this afternoon at 3PM, when Mike informed me that Genny had invited kids over and they were playing with the hose in the yard.  I told him to get a bowl full of ice going and to load it with Orange Crush and that I'd be out in a few.

I showered in slow motion, but managed to get out and get some grapes put together in a bowl  and put them out the the porch.  I watched kids and supervised, so they didn't break any bones from the porch, where I took a phone full of pictures. The kids went home and Genny showered and then, Mike and I convinced even Russell to join us and we all played a game of cards.

Then I crawled back to bed and just kind of collapsed there until dinner and my shoulders and neck began to ache.

After dinner, I had Genny come in and help me hang clothes because my head was all over clearing off my dresser, but my body thought I was smoking crack.  I put them on hangers and she ran them to the closet.  If I tell her I'm having a no spooner, she is pretty sweet about helping me out.  Of course, initially,  I got the lippy response of, "Want me to get you a spoon from the kitchen, Mom?"   If I was feeling better, I'd have tossed a pillow at her, but I gave her a death glare and she said, "Nevermind!" and came in and got hangers.

People used to refer to fibromyalgia as rheumatism and I swear, if there's a weather shift, I can tell you.  When we had tornados and heavy thunderstorms last summer, I swear it felt like someone took a sledgehammer to every part of my body.  Today, I just felt like sludge in molasses.

My legs are sore and while, normally, I'd say I have no good reason for it, I know better. I got Mike to run the thunder massager on my back and the backs of my legs.  We call it the thunder massager because it just thunders over your body. A Brookstone special, I got it for Mother's Day and if I need to loosen the muscles in my shoulders, I just need to wedge that under my shoulders for about 10 minutes and I melt into the bed.  I took a hot shower after I received the thunder treatment and stretched, so now, while the sludge remains, at least the pain in my shoulders and neck has fled.

On days like today, I need a brain transplant on standby because I felt like I was using the same three brain cells and that they had run out of good ideas.  I'm hoping that the weather holds and that I get more spoons tomorrow because my head is well nigh overflowing with the stuff I want to be able to get done.  I just need my body to catch up a bit.