I got pricked and then stuck

Yesterday I donated blood for the first time in Austin. It is something I used to do regularly in Lincoln, but since I moved down here six years ago I've apparently been too lazy to drive the quarter mile from my house to the blood bank and get poked. Ridiculous.

So what motivated me? I heard a PSA about donating blood on KVRX the other morning, and somehow it clicked that it was something I wanted to do. I also remembered reading that UT would give you free time off work to donate blood (up to two hours at a time, four times a year). So I could leave work early, donate blood, and still get paid. Excellent.

Part of the reason I love to give blood (besides all those good "I'm saving lives" feelings) is that the blood bank is like a weird hospital where no one is sick and everyone is happy. The phlebotomists are all smiling and joking around with the donors. You also get to sit on those fun lounges and then watch as they do all those awesome laboratory moves with tubes and bags and iodine and needles. I just love that stuff [possibly because my mom has always worked in a hospital laboratory and I would sometimes come into work with her and look through the microscopes and play with the test tubes and such]. Then afterwards: All the juice and cookies that you can eat! Since I was a first time donor here, I also got a nice gift bag with heart-shaped red hots, a note pad, a clip, a silicone bracelet thingie, and a bunch of brochures.

The moral: if you can give blood, go do it. Especially if you work for the state -- if you can get paid while lounging back and then eating a bunch of cookies, and all you have to do is have a needle in your arm for ten minutes, then you would be a sucker not to do it as much as you possibly can.