Kimberly and Christine holding HUGE spoon

The adventures of a spoonie are always exciting, rarely uneventful and usually include some serious preparation and legwork prior to the adventure at hand.  So naturally the preparation for The Lupus Alliance of America’s Long Island/Queens Affiliates Blues on the Bay festival for Lupus Awareness, began long before the actual event took place, this past Sunday, September 26^th, 2012.  I’m not talking just the morning of either… No! Preparation for events like this take skillful and carefully executed planning, packing and arrangements.  My family and myself were determined to make it happen in lieu of my most recent health battles… and make it we did.

Not only did I get to arrive in style, with my entourage (aka My mother, father, aunt and friend), but we rolled up in style with our handicap pass ready to go. I was saving all my steps for the festival! No  sooner did we arrive than we signed up for a raffle, entered the gates, and I immediately saw the “ButYouDontLookSick.com” Booth set up, and recognized the young woman working behind it.  None other than our beloved Christine from Bydls.com! We had been exchanging threaded conversations, tweets, facebook messages, and just about any and all other forms of electronic communication prior to and leading up to the event. We were trying to round up all of our local spoonies to come down, show their support and have some fun!

            Now to say I made a beeline towards the vending booth with the super-sized and beautifully engraved spoon outside the booth on display would be an understatement!  I am always excited to meet new spoonies and spoonies I have connected with online, through support groups etc… But this was not any spoonie, this is the creator of “the Spoon Theory” we are talking about. She invented what is the equivalent of what the bible is to a devout catholic, “The Spoon Theory” is the go to refernce for the “world of the chronically ill.” So needless to say I was so ecstatic to finally get to meet Christine and her lovely family. We exchanged conversation and shared Lupus stories, some of which only a spoonie could truly understand or find humor in! It was a fantastic way to kick off my blues on the bay experience!

Stuff Kimberly bought from the butyoudontlooksick.com booth, as well as some cool freebies.

    After we made our rounds, not without a few seated pit stops along the way, we, somehow (not by coincidence!) ended up back at the “ButYouDontLookSick.com” booth because I was obviously in dire need for the shirt that read, “lupus sucks” across the chest, and went with the always classic. “Got Spoons?” one as my second pick! But… It wasn’t all the incredible products at the booth, or the wonderful and informative pamphlets, and magnet freebies (as much as I love some good freebies- SWAG- Stuff We All Get! – one of my favorites!) I was drawn again, back to the booth because of this magnificent, overly sized, awe-inspiring spoon. A spoon so large it would suit the giant in the classic folklore tale of the Giant Paul Bunyan and His Blue Ox Babe. A spoon so large it could be used as a makeshift paddle for a canoe if need be (not that you would have a giant spoon with you on a canoe, but you get the picture!) A spoon so large- could it be? Was this the spoon of all spoons? Did this spoon have enough “miniature spoonie energy” within it that it could get a Spoonie through an entire day with spoons to spare at the day’s end, and still have enough energy and stamina to go for a swim,  a light jog, or dare I say it… Go out for the evening for a few drinks? –A spoon finally Big Enough….Well… it’s close!

Essay written by guest writer Kimberly Lehanka, age 22 Founder/Writer of CHRONICLYsILLy blog. Making Each day you’re chronically ill, A little more CHRONICLYsILLy