A Bloody Endeavor

Went to the blood drive at the high school yesterday. Hadn't donated blood in a real long time so I was a little wired through the whole experience. Didn't help my nerves when the nurse kept fidgeting with the needle that was already in my arm. Wasn't flowing smoothly or something because the needle kept sliding in just a smidge too far, so she kept adjusting it and such until it positioned correctly. But yeah, I was afraid that she was gonna say that she would have to retry and stick it in my other arm or something (it was joked about at one point to try sticking the needle into the heart. Would've sped up the process maybe, which you could look in a couple of ways; process of donating the pint of blood or quickening yourself to death).

But before all of that went down, I waited FOREVER for pretty much the whole student body to go through before me. And wow were they rude. When I got there the waiting table where you fill out the paperwork had kids crawling all over it so I squeezed in the end amongst all the extra school supplies/textbooks that weren't supposed to be there. Right next to me was recycling can thing, and while I was filling out the paperwork some girl comes over and carelessly slams a bottle that still had some water in it into the can, splattering me and my paper. There was also the typical case of some kid, who was off dinking around somewhere else in the room, cutting past us when we finally got through the line, but it was ok. I know that teenagers are not very bright and I can only hope that they'll straighten up. Most don't but hey.

Despite all the nervousness and nincompoopery, Matt, Ryan, and eventually Jarom (who didn't donate, the pansy) were there to make it all a little more enjoyable. Had some good laughs while hanging out. They're pretty good guys. I'll let them live.

But yeah, overall I had a good time, like I usually do with blood drives. I admit I first wanted to do them because of the pizza (yesterday was no exception), but I soon got into them because it's a pretty special thing to do. Everybody feels good from doing a service for somebody else. With this case, however, of doing a relatively easy yet crucial part of the whole process, you learn a little about gratitude when you take into account that although your part is short and effortless there are heaps of people who work on this project. There's all kinds of crazy equipments and procedures needed to save lives, and I'm grateful to have all those people with the know-how to do that.

Ok. I'm done blabbering.