Blood

Today I gave blood.

There was a blood drive at church so I signed up. I haven't given blood since college. The main reason being that the Red Cross doesn't operate blood donation sites here, just blood drives. I looked them up right after we got married but couldn't find anything. A couple years after that I heard about a drive in the office park I was working at so I went to try to donate there. That's where I found out that Central Blood Bank does the collection in and around Pittsburgh. And that you can't donate blood until a year after you've visited the ruins in Mexico because of the chance of malaria.

I guess after that I didn't think about it again, I still didn't know where to go, and I had a job. And then I had a baby.

But now that I've donated with Central Blood Bank I'm sure they'll start hounding me and I'll learn all about the places I can go to donate.

Anyway. I don't remember it being quite so draining. I mean, I couldn't play in a soccer game after donating but I could walk up some stairs and stand around. After I carried Kaida upstairs to change her diaper I had to sit down. I guess I'm getting old. And it is lame.

So I think I've only donated at two other blood drives before (I would normally just go to one of the Red Cross's permanent sites) but this still seemed a little disorganized to me. I had an appointment for 11. I was 10 minutes early. They took me back to do my questions at 11:40ish. Why did I make an appointment if they were just going to take all the walk-ins ahead of me?

And their instructions weren't very clear. I understand that they say the same instructions a hundred times a day. But I only hear them once and if you're walking away from me and pointing at things while I'm on the other side of a wall from you, your meaning is not going to come across very well.

Maybe Blood Drives get the B-Team, especailly weekend blood drives.

I'm going to get some water now, and go to sleep.