I finally got around to giving blood again. It took an hour to go through the forms—now computerized with a touch screen laptop—drain me of a couple pints, and then feed me Orange Juice and Nutty Bars. I got another notch on my donor card and a big red rubberband to wear, I guess. (So I am.)
The last time I gave blood was December 2003. That was a particularly stressful time, with a major lifestyle change from employed telecommuter to impoverished student in the next year. The local Red Cross moved from near campus to the West side, making it extremely inconvenient to go there on a regular basis. For a while, they were in temporary digs down by the 10th Street post office, which was extremely convenient for me. Since then, I’ve either noticed signs around campus too late, or not had the logistics to match the drive. Still, 3-1/2 years is a long time.
For anyone in Eigenmann today, stop by and get drained. You may win an iPod, but you’ll definitely get Nutty Bars.
[Let me also add that the auto-save is one of the coolest, unobtrusive features of the new WordPress. As I occasionally do, I searched from my blog-editing window instead of a new one, returning to a blank editing form when I hit back enough times. Thanks to auto-save, though, I didn’t have to start from scratch. Along with the spam comment re-checking link, auto-save is the best of the recent improvements.]
