Every New Beginning: A Vampire's Dream

Ok, with the Twilight movie coming out on Friday and having just finished the final book in the series, Breaking Dawn, I couldn't resist a vampire reference in this post! :)

I did something for the first time yesterday. I gave blood! This week is the annual Carolina-Clemson Blood Drive where the two schools compete to see who can garner the most donations for the Red Cross. My friend, Jamie, works for the Red Cross and sent a Facebook invitiation. My competitive nature honed right in on this and since my other friend, Paula, had already replied "yes" to attending and I wasn't about to admit my fear to either friend, I checked "yes", too. Then immediately called Paula and set up a time that we could go together. I know myself well and there was NO CHANCE I would back out with a witness.

So, we set our time for yesterday after both of us got off work and we headed over to Russell House at USC. That place was packed! Hopefully that means USC will win the blood drive AND the game!

Since we are "old" (ie...not students) we were bumped to the front of the line. They did my paperwork; having to stick my finger twice because my hemoglobin was low at first. Paula has donated before so she was whisked off rather quickly. Once my paperwork was complete, I picked up my really, really cute tee shirt and went to wait to be taken to my chair. I felt like I was in a third world country triage with the set up! It didn't take but about 5 minutes and I was taken to a chair which was by pure luck right across from Paula. She hadn't even gotten started yet.

I had a great "vampire" (person doing the taking). She gave me her story about finding her "right" man and we chatted pretty much the whole time. (When Paula and I weren't laughing and taking pictures of course!)

The whole thing was painless and satisfying. It felt good to know I was helping others and it was great to spend time with P.