a visit to the vampires

...or, In Which I Spurt Blood Everywhere And Almost Pass Out.

Or not.

Okay, the almost passing out part was true (but then I got to recline in a comfortable chair, be fanned, and drink apple juice... basically I was like Cleopatra, except I wasn't wearing cat-eye liner today) but the only blood-squirting was within the designated bag. (For which I'm sure everyone was thankful.)

In case you haven't guessed... today I went to donate blood, and for my troubles, I recieved... this lovely sticker!

(I tried wearing it on my face but was reprimanded by a nurse...)

It actually wasn't bad. (I do think they should play up the vampire aspect a little more... it might attract hordes of Twilight and/or Vampire Diaries fans!) It was also, for those of you who worry, not very painful. The only parts that hurt a bit were...

1- the iron check. (Which, amazingly, I passed! Obviously Popeye was right and eating tons of spinach makes you strong) This actually hurts, especially because the nurse then kneads your finger until it turns the colours of a sunset.

2- the actual needle-being-stuck-into-your-arm part. This actually didn't hurt any more than accidentally sticking yourself with a brooch (Am I the only one who does this on a regular basis?) and was less painful than a mosquito bite.

3- taking off the surgical tape that you're bandaged with. This was PAIN. Like, tweezing your eyebrows and waxing at the same time pain. Thankfully it was just a small bandage...

(adding to the glamour: it totally matched my nailpolish!) 

Do any of you donate blood? Any interesting experiences?

On another note, if you haven't already, please take a little bit of time to tweet and comment on my S-Trip profile, which is here. Part of the judging criteria for the scholarship is how many supports, shares, comments and tweets the candidate can get... so if you could just take a little time to do one of these for me, I'd really appreciate it!

books for sale!

Fact: volunteering at a library book sale is the best volunteer position ever. So maybe it's not quite as useful for humanity as starting a women's shelter or flying to Haiti... but hey, you get to help save (and read!) books... and in my books (ahaha, see what I did there) that's a definite bonus. (Basically, as thanks, you're allowed to take as many books as you want. SCORE.)

...and there were a lot of books.

(and this is only half the room!) 

Since there weren't nearly as many people, I basically wandered around straightening and... reading. (So, again, this is my dream job. Is there any way I can be paid for this?) Along the way, I found some pretty amusing titles...

• Cabbagetown Gang (obviously a group of tough guys who run around wearing cabbage-leaf hats)
• Cooking With Ferret (is Ferret someone's nickname, or does it literally mean eating ferrets? I was too scared to check)
• Farmageddon (here I imagine strawberries the size of nuclear bombs) 
• Start and Run a Profitable Gift-Basket Business (...but really though. REALLY.)
• Methane- Planning a Digester (...I don't even want to think what kind of instructions this gives)
• The Hamster Revolution (no need to worry about the zombie apocalypse- hamsters are demanding their rights! Or maybe it's zombie hamsters?) 
• ABCs for Angry Men (A is for Anger! R is for Rage! and so on)

Not all of my experience was fun and games, however. All of the remaining books (which was well over half) were set to be... recycled.

-insert horrified books here-

As someone who is addicted to reading, and who wants to be published one day herself, the thought of so many words being crushed is devastating. Perhaps they'll give new life to other stories... but the fact remains that someone's craft is being destroyed because it's unwanted... and isn't that every writer's worst fear? (Other than starving to death because you can't even get published.) My one hope is that, whatever objects they go on to make, those objects will be imbued with a certain essence de book- and will encourage whoever holds them to go find something to read, and fast.