blood sweat no tears

i have o negative blood

 i am very popular

 the universal donor 

did you know

 on any given day

 over 44,000 blood donations

 are needed

 every 2 seconds

 someone

 in the u.s. 

needs

 a blood transfusion

 thats a lot of blood

 any healthy individual

 can donate

 blood

 every 56 days

 and

 the blood type 

most 

often 

requested

 by hospitals

 is

 type O

  so

 i give whenever i can

 this past week 

i got a letter

 asking for platelets

 which it turns out

 is a slightly

 more involved

 donation

 taking over 3 hours

it includes

 taking

 your medical history

 having your temperature taken

 as well as

 a small finger prick of blood

 for confirming type

 then

 you get to recline

 on a comfy 'bed' 

hooked up to a machine

 which does most of the work

 you

 have to 

intermittently

 squeeze a rubber ball

 to keep the pressure

 at level

 the machine likes

  i was fine

 til the 45 min mark

 when

 my foot

 then

 leg

 began to cramp

 i was given tums

 because

 tums

 are high in calcium

 which apparently

 gets depleated

 during the process

 an aside here

 i had been told

 to eat foods

 high in calcium 

in the days

 prior to the donation

 um

 i didnt take it seriously

 i should have

 anyway

 it went smoothly

 except for that

 and 

after it was done

 i got a lot of snacks

instructions

 not to smoke

 to drink a lot of fluids

 a purple pressure arm band

 and

 so

 many

 thank you's

 it was embarrassing 

that was my saturday

sunday

i beautified

brunched with my friend cheryl

and

made a short video for my late friend wendy's memorial

and you?

how did you pass the weekend??

are you adjusting to the new sunshine filled extra hour???