Blood Donation and Bollywood Dancing

 

Today I worked on campus, and when I had mentioned signing up for the blood drive yesterday with my FART 5 peeps, one of them signed up for the same time so we could go over together. She did mention that she is a type they aren't really looking for, I think AB, whereas I am Type O so they are always pestering me to give. I sometimes feel like I'm being followed by a vampire toddler: "Give me your blood! Give me your blood! Give me your blood!" So today we went to the blood drive, and she got through the preliminary stuff quickly while I had the odd luck of being the person they used to train a new guy, so it took quite a while. On the other hand, I'm a very quick donor, like five minutes and I'm done, while she had said it takes her a while to fill the bag. I got a phlebotomist who asked my birthdate and then said, "Capricorn sisters!" so I made the mistake of thinking we were now friends and kept talking about random things. She must have gotten fed up, because she had some other phlebotomist finish taking care of me. Then I was sitting in the canteen, eating all sorts of snacks while waiting for my fifteen minutes to be up, when my FART 5 buddy finally got done. She said, "You didn't have to wait for me," and I said, "Well, they told me to wait fifteen minutes, so I'm still not supposed to leave." Apparently they didn't give her the same instructions, so she just had a couple of snacks (and took some to go), then we left. When I got back to the office, my coworker said once he and some other people were having a contest to see who could give the fastest, and you can speed it up by squeezing the ball more often than they tell you to, so I wonder if my speediness is just me squeezing the ball too quickly. My coworker said they tell you not to do that, because if you give blood too quickly, you'll get light-headed. However, I felt fine.

Because I am the Queen of Planning, I scheduled this blood donation on the day I was supposed to have a Bollywood dance lesson right after work. I asked four different people at the blood drive if this would be okay, and I got four different answers, ranging from "No way!" to "I don't see what the problem would be." The lessons at the Monona Terrace are free ones with tons of people, like the bachata lesson I went to last year, and although they make you get a ticket, I doubted anyone would notice if one person who signed up didn't show up. I did decide to brave the dance lesson, figuring I could always leave if it seemed too strenuous. Not a problem at all - nobody was watching me, we were all too busy watching the instructor, so if I wanted to do a move less energetically than everyone else, nobody cared. It was so much fun! It turns out the instructor gives regular lessons, and I am tempted, because if there's one thing I need in my life, it's yet another crazy hobby. She played this song that I loved so much that I had to ask her about it afterwards, and she let me take a photo of it on her phone.

"Mundian to Bach Ke" by Panjabi MC. Google it and listen to it right now. You're welcome.

I realize that I know a lot of people, because it was crazy enough that the Daughter of Denni and our faculty member's twin sister were on the same cancer journey until their paths diverged, but I remembered that I know someone else who lost her identical twin sister to cancer - my Shamrock Club buddy! I asked the faculty member if she would like to talk to her, and she said, "Yes, give her my email address," so I did. So crazy to think I know two people who have been in this situation - I can't imagine what it must be like to lose your twin, since I don't have one. I used to wish I had an identical twin sister, but when I would tell people that, they'd say, "Ugh, I can't imagine TWO of you!" And maybe we would have driven each other crazy. It's been a long time since I've thought about wanting to have a twin, so maybe I just feel more connected to other people now, and that was a need I thought a twin would fulfill. I do know some other sets of identical twins, but thankfully both twins are still living. 

So far I have not noticed any ill effects from Bollywood dancing after a blood donation. Let's hope it stays that way!

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