deathly afraid that i was somehow leaking and catching blood poisoning i lept into aziza's room only to be promptly assured that it had just been a clumpsy entering of the needle by the nurse and would heal like a regular bruise. so much for drama.

unfortunately, this meant that my right arm could not be used for donating blood - it was too sore. add on to that that my left arm apparently have zero good veins and i was set up for ten minutes of squeezing my hand into a fist and two nurses checking for minutes at a time to find anywhere to put the needle.

eventually my nurse (wearing glittery bead necklaces and red lipstick smudged outside the edges) found a spot, and my body happily responded by squirting out blood faster than they had seen all day. in fact, i bled so fast that they asked me to stop squeezing my hand (which you always do to keep the blood coming) and i still squirted happily - i bled a pint in less than 4 minutes (a new record for the blood drive, they said) when the norm is between 5-15 minutes.

came back with a vengeance, didn't i? hah, and i got pizza. woo. as a 4-time donor i only have one thing to say - do it do it do it or you are a WIMP!!! (unless you have a valid reason to abstain, of course.) um. proceed.