Snow day escape. . .

I DO love my snow days. . .:)

This morning, however, as I watched the various tragedies on CNN at the gym, I decided to do something that would make my snow day much less enjoyable: donate blood.

Donating blood is a huge process for me, often including several days of planning. I try to eat more meat, drink more fluids, etc. You see, I passed out the first time I braved it (at 30. . .I was a chicken!) Every time since then (4.5 times - last time my blood stopped running. . . . .??), I've had a miserable time afterwards.

The actual donating is no problem, in fact, when I donated the first time I was cockily saying "that was nothing" as I ate my snacks and drank my juice. . .and then passed out. However, my body evidently doesn't like being deprived of that pint, so it makes the rest of the day miserable.

After making the decision at the gym this morning, I came home and raced through a list of tasks I wanted to get done ahead of time. One last task was stopping by Family Video and getting movies for "afterwards." I made my way to lunch with a friend, then drove to the Blood Bank at 12:45 - they're open until 1:00, so I tried to get every last minute out of the "good" morning before getting on the table.

When I entered, the nurse told me not to sign in. There were noxious fumes in the clinic from carpet glue somewhere in the vicinity. The environmental people were there discussing whether if was safe to let people donate. . . .the verdict - NO!

I was released from my self-imposed traumatic but GOOD task . . .with a whole afternoon of enjoyable free time just waiting for me. Whoo-hoo!!

So. Until another day. I will probably try again, with as much planning as possible to make it tolerable.

If you are able to donate - and especially if your body handles it well - please do. There are lots of people (like me) who struggle with it, and also many people who just can't at all. We'd love to be able to donate easily!!!

As the slogan says, It's About Life.