Erythrocyte Liberation

They didn't want my blood today.

I went into the blood drive feeling rather - it must be said - cocky, and when the first finger-stick showed an iron level of 12.1 (it must be 12.5 or over), I said to myself, "Ha! The second one will be higher. That's what happened last time." So I gave my other hand to the next nurse and was poked again, with a result of 11.2.

So, I didn't donate today. Pity. I was rather looking forward to it. We had a whole bunch of Honours College Writing II people there - we called ourselves the Erythrocyte Liberation Front - and the weather was perfect for donating (nice and warm, since you're cold afterwards anyway). However, I got to walk around the donation area and talk to people, checking morales, monitoring for pallor, coming up with totally random metaphors for various situations, and generally getting in the doctors' ways. I also got two gauze pads for my finger boo-boos and a sticker that says, "I tried."

Oh well. Maybe next time.