Lug-a-mug

My daughter’s school just hosted a muffin breakfast and the invitation said to “lug a mug”. It’s a genius way to cut down on the financial and environmental costs of having to provide paper cups. If everyone brings a travel mug and the school provides the coffee it all works out. So that got me thinking about carrying travel mugs which is something I actually think about quite regularly in a way that I doubt many others do. Since my muscles have begun to fail me over the past year I need to think about every action I carry out. I must assess how much energy this will require. First, “is it possible?” and second, “is it worth it?”

 Carrying a travel mug is not always possible for me. Sometimes my arm muscles will begin to tremor, shake and start failing just from the action of carrying a heavy mug of tea. And then if I’m shopping or driving or doing something else, it’s not really worth it because I would rather use those arm muscles for more functional tasks. But I have found ways to make it work – little tweaks. Holding your mug upright in your hand like most people do is a lot of work, but it you hold your mug down by your side, that saves forearm muscles. However it still wears out your fingers and hand because you need to grip the top of the mug tight. But if you bend your hand into a little shelf down by your side and you let your mug sit on that shelf and rest against the side of your thigh while you walk, carrying that mug of tea becomes a lot more sustainable. It requires very little muscle strength so if I can do that, I can lug a mug. 

These are the little things that I do every day that I don’t even think about consciously anymore but every once in a while I catch what I’m doing and I realize “yeah this is weird. Normal people don’t have to think this way. I didn’t use to have to think this way.” But regardless, I’m very glad that I’ve found little work arounds so that I can still do many of the things that I enjoy doing.