rant whine 'splain espouse: Please give

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Please give

I'm walking around this afternoon with a bright green bandage on my arm.

I gave blood for the first time today at work (or anywhere, for that matter). I've been wanting to do this for a while, and I even made an appointment at the Heinlein Society's blood drive in San Diego when I thought Ynnej and I were going to go down there for a comic convention a few months ago, but we ended up no going and I ended up not giving blood.

I've been a little freaked out about needles ever since I slipped in the tub as a little kid and cracked my chin open and needed stitches. It took something like four nurses to hold me down. I was pretty scared by the whole ordeal.

It always stuck with me, and whenever I've had a blood test since, I get a little nervous. Once of twice I got a tiny bit woozy. So even though I've always thought it would be great to donate blood, and I think it's an incredibly, wonderfully generous thing to do for your fellow wo/man and a totally insignificant sacrifice of time considering it truly is, as they say, the gift of life, I've always been too nervous to do it. Until today.

CNET made it easy by hosting the event. If your employer or school doesn't do the same, please consider making the tiny bit of extra effort to make an appointment at a location near you.