new post, my droogies

Since I'm waiting around to wash some Northerns (this is dork lab speak, you won't understand it if you don't work in a lab) and I thought I might as well write some updates since two days ago, because we all know how utterly riveting my life is.

On Friday, I got up bright and early and did a very altruistic thing (pat on back). I went to the NIH blood bank to donate 500 ml of my blood. I was somewhat nervous, because I didn't know how I would feel after having 10% of my blood drained. However I did make sure to eat a substantial breakfast.

So when I got there at 7:30 AM, I was surprised to see several people there already. I didn't know so many others did this. Anyhoo, they gave me a bunch of questions beforehand, standard questions like, "in the past 6 months, have you had sex with a man who has had sex with another man?" Hm...well, to be honest, how would you know?

After the questions are done, the nurse takes an innocuous looking plastic thing and sticks it on my finger, pricking it. She did something wrong, becuase my finger turned black and blue. it was throbbing actually. But no matter, all in the name of a good cause. Then I went to another room and laid down in a recliner, feet up, back laid down. An elderly man laid next to me. Very soon, vampiric procedures took place and my blood was duly drained. All that was rather uneventful. My blood came out a lot faster than the guy next to me actually. He was there for over 20 minutes at least and the blood was sorta going drip drip drip. But me, hotblooded young thing that I was, I was probably geysering blood. In less than 10 minutes, I was done with my quota and sent off. Oh, this woman came in at some point and she was like, where do I donate blood? The nurses asked if she ate anything and she's like, I never eat breakfast and I don't have the time for it. One of the nurses started doing the arched eyebrow thing that comes on, a signal saying "attittude alert". She snapped at the woman, well, you may not have time for this then, since after you donate blood, you might end up dizzy and passed out for much longer than you would like. All true, but the woman just didn't care. I've never seen such a brusque volunteer. After she was done, she went to the food room and just sat there, amidst all the snacks and delicous juice, on which I was happily slurping down and she just sat there. Not eating a bite. I've never known anyone who had such a disdain for food. Amazing.

In other news, I was able to install a wireless adapter into my dad's new computer without a hitch, i.e., the motherboard didn't decide to turn over and croak as it had with the last computer. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless. Lord knows I need a few more Vs in my life.