I love how easy it can be to help so many people nowadays.
Take, for instance, blood drives. One pint can save three lives! (At least, I think that's the number...) By sacrificing some of your blood, you can save lives! Though it may be kind of strange to think about how your blood might be circulating through someone else's veins...
We had a blood drive today at school. I finally mustered the courage to donate blood, no matter how painful the process might be and no matter how many times the nurse might miss my vein. (Ouch.)
Take, for instance, blood drives. One pint can save three lives! (At least, I think that's the number...) By sacrificing some of your blood, you can save lives! Though it may be kind of strange to think about how your blood might be circulating through someone else's veins...
We had a blood drive today at school. I finally mustered the courage to donate blood, no matter how painful the process might be and no matter how many times the nurse might miss my vein. (Ouch.)
When I signed up yesterday, I chose to donate my blood during fifth period, during Spanish. Spanish is the easiest class I have, so I didn't have to worry about missing anything super-important. I got a slip during Spanish excusing me to go to the gym, where the blood drive was taking place. Three other students and I went over there together. I saw my friend at the gym and went over to her after showing my photo ID and getting the pre-donation reading materials. I read through everything and gave the reading materials back and I got a number: 47. My friend was number 40. When I read through the reading materials, I learned that gay men cannot donate blood. Or, more specifically, gay men who have had sex with other men. It seriously said that in the the materials! "You cannot donate blood if...you are a male who has had sexual intercourse with another male as of after 1977..." (It's a sort of paraphrase, but it's really close to what the book said.)
We waited some more. I saw people on cots getting blood drawn from them, and I started getting nervous again. I can do this. I kept repeating this thought to myself over and over. My friend and I talked to eliminate some of the nervousness. My friend then decided to go and get her stuff from math class since she figured that we would have to wait here until after fifth period, at lunch. She then returned, and after a few minutes, her number was called, and she went into one of the confidential interview stalls. I was left alone with my thoughts.
After what seemed like an eternity, a nurse came to the bleachers where I was sitting and called out, "42?" Pause. "43?" Pause. "44?" Pause. "45?" Pause. "46?" Pause. "47?" She looked at my paper with the number on it. "Oh, that's you. Come on over." And we went into another stall.
The nurse asked for my student ID and information such as my name and my DOB. Then, she took out a bandage, a cleaning sponge, and a strange tube-like thing. She told me to show her my right middle finger so that she could take a sample of my blood. While I lay my hand on the table, I looked for the syringe, but never found it. The nurse wiped the sponge on my finger and then put the tube-like thing on my finger and pressed a button. My finger then started to bleed, and she collected a few drops in a flat, glass case which she stuck into a boxy, metal object and plugged into a machine. She then asked me more questions. Finally, she looked at the results of my blood test on the computer.
Obviously, I agreed, and so another nurse came to test me.
The result was the same. I had too little iron in my blood to donate. I was devastated.
Ha! I caught you guys really off-guard there, didn't I? You were expecting a story about how I donated blood like a BOSS and was super-proud of it afterwards even if it hurt a little, but instead, you get a story about how I got REJECTED from donating my iron-deficient blood! Ha...heh...heh....
Well, now I know that I shouldn't bother donating blood when I have my period. I guess that should be common sense, but...I lack common sense! Come on, older readers, you know this!
I still got cookies and snacks and juice, so I was sort of happy. Ish.
Anyway, the MAIN reason I wrote this post was to talk about how my blog was carbon-neutral, but instead I got sidetracked. I always get sidetracked. Thanks to Gabi's wonderful blog, I found out about an initiative by an organization called the Arbor Day Foundation. This foundation will plant a tree for every blog that puts the cool button that's on my sidebar with a leaf in it on itself (preferably on the sidebar). For more information, click the awesome button! :)
Amazing how I managed to write only one paragraph on the topic I intended this post to be about...
I use ellipses too much.
