we had a blood drive at work today. they’d been advertising it since last week and i was like YES. i am going to give blood for the first time. i was nervous as hell today (have i ever told you about my fear of needles?) but i was also excited about helping others. at about 1-ish, i head to the place where they were holding the drive in the plant. amazingly, i didn’t get lost in the plant as i often do (if you saw it, you would too). i find the place and sign in and get my free chicken sandwich thing from chik-fil-a (eat mor chikn!) and fill out the slip to win the free gass card for donating. i sit and do the waiting thing for about 15 minutes then get progressively more nervous. the lady calls my name and takes me to this table behind a blue curtain. she asks me if i read the the pamphlet and i’m looking at her like shes on crack. she gets the message from my eyebrow raise that i had no idea what she was talking about so she goes to get it. we go over it briefly and verify that i’m okay to give blood. she puts my info in the computer as i’m a first time donor. then she then takes my temperature, takes my pulse, takes my blood pressure (100/70 thank you, fighting genetics one day at a time), and then pokes my finger to get a blood sample, which hurt and is still hurting. she determines that yes, i eat my green leafy vegetables and my blood is iron rich. so we get to the part where she has to ask me the “40 most ridiculous questions i’ve ever heard in my life.” we’re flying through questions about my sex life and she asks me, “were you out of the country between 1980 and 1996?” of course, i proudly answer, “Yes, I was born in europe in 1980,” with the conviction of a proud military brat. She gives me a look then asks how long i was there. I of course, am not sure and cannot remember that portion of my life so I call my mom who didn’t answer, then i call my dad. he tells me we left in november of 1981 after vehemently telling me what i can tell that lady for questioning my citizenship. i laughed at that, told him i loved him, and hung up. i relayed the information to the red cross lady who then gave me another look followed by a look at the questionnaire….

…”You aren’t eligible to donate.” Um what? Why? Well because I was in Europe for more than 6 months between the years of 1980 and 1990, i could have possibly been exposed to some terrible outbreak of mad cow disease in Europe during that time period. i tell her i was on a military base and she politely points out the part of the webpage she was looking at that explicitly mentions people on military bases during that time frame.

oh.

so she gives me my indefintely ineligible to donate letter and sends me on my way. i didn’t expect to feel such disappointment at not being able to donate blood. i half felt like crying but i just frowned and went back to my desk. i really didn’t feel like working at that point so i went on my lunch break (btw, it will take all i have to stay away from the ben and jerry’s that just opened on windward parkway). so that was my disappointment for the day.

i saw 2 movies over the weekend…war of the worlds after i got off work on friday and the fantastic four on sunday with ketra. war of the worlds is out-friggin-standing. HOWEVER, i only recommend it to people who are able to think on a level outside of their norms. i’ve heard quite frequently from people that “the ending sucked” and “there should have been more comedy.” apparently people can’t handle a well written ending if it doesn’t end in standard movie ending (read: shallow) and they can’t stomach a movie that doesn’t make them laugh frequently (read: small-minded). not that theres anything TOO wrong with those things but it reminds me that i cannot take the word of other people when it comes to movie choices. the fantastic four was okay, standard hollywood flick, lots of action and laughs peppered with the struggling romance. it was fun eye candy but didn’t make me think.

okay, this is enough to read for now. 18 days till my birthday. will YOU be in atlanta on the 30th of july? if so drop a comment, i’ll shoot you an invite to the birthday dinner. no stalkers please, i’d like my birthday dinner to be fun and stress free. also, no guys (or girls for that matter, gotta put that out there when in atlanta) who want to be my date. i have one for that night already.

toodles peoples!