So, yesterday, I gave blood for the first time ever. A friend of mine was doing it, and I decided to see if I could as well. I’ve never really been sure that I could because of an iron deficiency in my family. Anyway, after an hour-long wait and a lifestyle interview, they sat me down and scrubbed my left arm with iodine. Blech.

I dislike needles. When I was a kid, I had absolutely no problem with getting shots, but now I do. I get all twitchy and tense when I know a thin piece of metal is about to be shoved in my arm. So, I got Jordyn to sit with me when she was done giving blood, and talk to me to keep my mind off it. Since it was my first time, they had me lay all the way down. I had my ipod in one ear, listening to absurdly happy, dancey music, and it wasn’t too bad when the needle went in. The first time. I squeezed the little stress ball and talked to Jordyn while my left arm went numb, so they released the blood pressure thingy a little bit. Toward the end of the donating part, my arm went cold. Creepy. The fun part came when, for some odd reason, the blood clotted up when they were about 30 grams away from finishing. The solution? Move the needle around in my arm! Ack! That was gross. So, they got their baggie of vamp food, and then they needed to take some test tubes full of yet more blood to make sure they could use it. They asked me if it was ok to try my right arm instead and see if that worked better, and I said sure. Otherwise 470 grams of my blood would just go to waste.

My right arm worked better, and they took about five tubes full from that one. I watched about two of them fill up, then had to look away, because eww. I know blood pumps out, but I don’t need to see it.

They took out THAT needle and were putting a band-aid on it when the real fun started. I was talking to Jordyn again, and my vision dimmed a little and I got dizzy. I told the lady who’d been overseeing, and as I did that, my hearing went away, like when you’re holding your hands over your ears. They laid me back down and put a couple of cold cloths over my head and neck, and the lady made Jordyn hold a Coke for me to sip. I didn’t actually black out, and I was aware the whole time, so yay! That’s another thing I’ve never done before–pass out. I can’t cross it off the list, but I came close.

After that, I was fine. Jordyn and I went to dinner with Hidenori-san, and I got permission to call him Hide-kun, then I went back to my dorm, finished off a paper for personal money management, and went to bed. Now my arm is bruised.

Well, once again, I can’t think of a good way to wrap this up, so here’s another belly dance video. Swara Armunn Tribal Belly Dance to a 14th century French song, played on bagpipes by a German band.