Becoming friends a little over a year ago, my dearest Haley and I clicked instantly, hanging out every other day. We always see each other — we’ll stay at each other’s houses until dawn, go on road trips, and even have our “time of the month” synced nearly all of the time. We bond over a lot of things and especially share the desire to live life to the fullest and be spontaneous. So when she suggested we should try handcuffing ourselves to each other for 24 hours, I didn’t even bat an eye before I agreed to it!
We started our experiment by going to Spencer’s at the start of our spring break and purchasing purple fuzzy handcuffs (if we’re going to be handcuffed we might as well go all out!). That next day, I drove to her house, walked in the door, cuffed my wrist to hers and started timing the 24 hours ahead of us. We began by making lunch. Her side of the cuff was her dominant hand so my left arm was getting a real workout while she cooked her eggs for her avocado toast. Also, probably not safe having my hand just wavering over the stove but everything worked out okay. We ate and then decided to go out to the mall and make this public because what would this experiment be if we didn’t completely embarrass ourselves! Our friend graciously drove us because if WE tried to do so, wearing purple fuzzy handcuffs would’ve been the way we left this earth and that’s NOT the way I want to go. We weren’t too obvious about it but I felt a number of stares, some even took out their phone to record us. Paying for things was interesting…it was either do the entire transaction with one hand or have to explain why we are handcuffed to each other. Most of the time we went awkwardly with the first option but a few times like getting some snacks at Shoprite we actually were asked about it. I told them “It’s just for an experiment!” to which they responded, “Oh my, I thought you escaping prison or something!” and her friend adding on, “Well what were you gonna do about it, Margaret?” which is true, I wonder what she would’ve done but also why would prisoner’s handcuffs be fuzzy…? We got somewhat irritable just forgetting that we weren’t able to move on our own without having to drag an entire other body with us.
Yes, I know what you are wondering, we DID pee in the same room. Well, I am chronically “pee-shy” so we had to uncuff when I went, but she had no problem being attached to me when she had to go! That night we watched a movie and thankfully didn’t involve ourselves in anything active. Soon enough, we went to bed and we shared a pull out bed with our wrists attached and held hands to go to sleep. We both managed to get some shut eye! Although half way through the night, I woke up and my shoulder was cramping from being in the same awkward position so I HAD to uncuff or else I would’ve gone insane the next day. We woke up and got ready to go into the city that day. We had to freshen up and yup, SHOWER. We each had one arm getting soaked while the other was showering inside the curtain. You don’t take having two arms for granted until you have to shampoo your hair with only one!
Twenty-two hours in, we were almost done getting ready, and were going a little crazy. (We might have cheated a little and done our hair and makeup without being cuffed, SHH!) It finally hit 2:30 pm, one day after I first cuffed us together and we both took a sigh of relief as I uncuffed us for the last time. We both said that the rest of the day, it felt so weird to not be right next to each other. At the end of the day, it honestly didn’t affect our relationship like some people think it would have. It honestly just gave us another hilarious memory to keep and something to cross off our bucket list! I 1000% recommend trying this with anyone that is up for it. It’s tough to stick to but you just have to not care what people think and have fun with it! (ALSO, be safe! Don’t drive or cut/cook dangerously.) Happy cuffing!