Red Cross Blood Donation

Look whom she best endow'd, she gave thee more;
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish:
~Shakespeare, Sonnet 11

I started giving blood last year around this time, after the earthquake in Haiti.  I was sitting in a bar and watching this news footage on TV.  I wanted to do something to help but didn't have the money to contribute to any of the charities that were helping with the disaster.  I know that my blood didn't go to Haiti, but I figured it would help replenish any blood stores in this country and I still feel really positive about that decision.  Apparently I have some sort of enzyme, or lack of enzyme I can't remember which, that allows them to give my blood to babies in the Natal Intensive Care Unit(NICU).

This time, my technician was a jokester.  Which has its good and bad points.  On the good side, having someone who will talk to you and make little jokes puts me at ease and makes me fill comfortable.  Instead of just marking my arm for the needle insertion, he made it look like a smiley face.  On the bad side, after the needle is in my arm I like to have quiet time to read.  All in all, though, the experience was very good and the whole thing was very efficient.  I forgot to drink extra water, however, and this morning I was very dehydrated.  I still feel a little light-headed today and that is very unusual for me. 

I think I might try to organize a blood drive at work for April, the next time I'm allowed to donate.  I'm not really sure what the minimum requirements are, but I think it would be a positive thing to do at the company.  But given the way the Weight Watchers organization went, I don't know.  We were trying to get a group together for weight watchers at the office and needed a minimum of 15 people.  I could only get 10 to commit and weight watchers won't even come out for an informational meeting without the minimum requirement met.  I am thinking about stretching the truth a little to get the informational meeting here and then seeing if we can get the extra 5 people signed up then, but I don't know how that will work.  If I could get the company to help defray the cost a little bit, I know I could get more people involved.