Corny Tuesday

 

Today I worked from home, and during the course of the day I had some popcorn and some Inka corn. Then at dinner we had corn on the cob, and I said, "I've had a lot of corn today," so Travalon said, "It's a corny Tuesday," and I said, "That should be my blog post title."

I now have a new aspiration: to be the person my phlebotomist thinks I am. I have made phlebotomists laugh in the past, but I've never made one cry before. Some background: I am in a cancer prevention study, and they asked me to do a blood draw, so I had to go to a particular place. No problem, it's not far from my house, so I got there in plenty of time... and they said I was at the wrong place. They gave me a map, so I carefully followed it and got to another building with visitor parking, so all seemed good... and they said I was in the wrong place. By then I was nearly in tears: "Are you sending me back to the first building? They said that was the wrong place!" So the security guard led me in his car to yet a third place, and that was the right one. A very chipper phlebotomist ushered me in, and I said they like the veins on my left arm when I give blood, so she said, "You give blood? You are such a good person!" (True confession: I have not given blood since that time they took my driver's license and didn't give it back, and they never called to tell me they had it, yet they can call me every other day to ask for my blood. I feel like I'm being followed around by a vampire toddler: "Give me your blood. Give me your blood. Give me your blood. Give me your blood.") I said yes, I'm Type O+, and she said, "You have saved so many lives!" then she said something about how people don't register for marrow donation, and I said, "I'm registered for that too." At that she got tears in her eyes and said, "You are such a good person! Don't ever change! Don't let the world change you!" It was an interesting moment, because my first impulse was to tell her that I'm not nearly as good as she thinks, but I bit my tongue and then began to wonder if I am a more selfless person than the majority of humanity. I don't want to get a big head over it, but it is true that I do a number of things that don't benefit me directly to try to help others. Though after a while they did start to benefit me directly, because I won that Staff Excellence Award and get to go to events with the Chancellor. But the point is, that isn't why I did those things. I had no idea they would lead me to such blessings. Maybe I am almost as good a person as the phlebotomist thinks.

Famous Hat