"You're from the East Coast, aren't you?"

One of the things I had been rather loud about, while at Augustine, was donating blood. And Moon Unit had promised, back in the day, that she would go with me and donate next time I did. Of course, shortly after the promising I moved back to Newfoundland, so she seemingly escaped from that pledge. 

And then I came to visit! *evil laughter* 

I even made the appointments for us, and dragged Moon Unit along with me. We drove to a park-and-ride, and then rode the bus across town to the national headquarters. This was Moon Unit's first donation, so she was a bit- not nervous, but tense. Something about needles and blood and the smells of a hospital tends to do that to people. I don't know why... *pretends she wasn't flinching at small noises the whole time herself* 

So we filled out the detailed questionaries. Those always amuse me, in a perverse way. Mostly because I answer no to all the questions about health issues, travel, and especially relationships. I'm just not a high risk individual!

And then we got to sit in big cushy laz-e-boy chairs, while they stuck needles in our arms. Don't you wish you were there? I got hooked up a little before Moon Unit, but then I kept clotting up, so the nurses were doing a lot of hovering. "Just squeeze this ball here, every ten seconds, okay? Keep the arm still. *adjusts needle* Keep squeezing..." 

During the delicate operation of adjusting the needle again, one of the nurses spent some time staring at my chest. And, carefully not meeting my eyes, said the following. 

"I saw your shirt, and first I thought it said "I heart Baby Seals." And I thought, that's nice, that's nice, Seals are cute. But then I looked again, and I saw there was a club there." She paused. "You're from the East Coast, aren't you?" 

And I laughed and said I was, and she went to deal with Moon Unit, who was bleeding beautifully. In fact, Moon Unit finished her donation about five minutes before I was done, and stood by my chair until the nurses decided they were not going to get a full donation out of me, and pulled the needle out.

Then we headed on to get refreshments! Free tea and cookies, what is not to love? So I was trying to figure out the coffee machine, when from behind me I hear Moon Unit say dreamily, "I'm just gonna.. sit down.. here." Looking around quickly proved that she was about the colour of a sheet of paper, and listing to the right. The volunteers and nurses quickly had her sit down and put her head between her knees, and then rushed over a stretcher, and wheeled her away behind a curtain, and took her blood pressure, and fed her juice, and fanned her, and generally Moon Unit was the centre of attention. Meanwhile, I drank tea, and juice, and ate my way through the basket of cookies. I'm such a considerate friend. 

At any rate, they eventually let her out, and I made her eat some more cookies. Then we decided to take our free mugs and get out of the hospital-smelling atmosphere. To the mall! Moon Unit magically had some more bus tickets, so that was good. Though while waiting for the bus we were both tired enough that we just sat down by the sidewalk- and found later that we'd been sitting in a collection of broken glass. You know the pebbles of safety glass that get everywhere after a windshield is broken? Apparently someone had had a windshield broken right about where we chose to sit down. But we only realized this later, observant girls. 

It was right about that time that we started joking that I had been having all the attention on me, so Moon Unit had to faint to get the attention on her. We just want attention! 

And then I started feeling stomach sick. Tempting fate much? Oops....  Maybe we just need to eat. That sound about right! So when we got to the mall we reconvene at the food court. We decide on Thai food and root beer, and head off in separate directions to get said food and drink. 

Standing in line in front of the heat lamps, Moon Unit almost falls over. "I'm.. just... gonna sit down... over here. Call me when it's ready!" *she escapes the evil line and sits down* And then she comes back to the table, and finds me lying across two chairs, eyes closed. 

Moon unit: "Are you okay?"

Me: "Fine..."

Moon Unit: "Do you want to eat-"

Me: "No!"

She was rather pale at the time too. I took this particular picture to show how much better she was looking, now that she had some colour back in her face. And then I looked at it and went whatttt???? That's less pale???? *cough*

Then we decided that the attention seeking was getting out of control, so we should just take the bus home before we were hit by a bus or set ourselves on fire, or something. Moon Unit ate the Pad Thai, and I drank the Root Beer, and we headed for the bus stop. *sigh* I made it about a hundred yards before I had to run for a garbage can to throw up in. Fortunately for the mall staff I was NOT actually sick, I just attempted to cough up a lung, and then collapsed on a bench.  (See picture there. \/ )

At that was when Moon Unit called her dad and asked him to drive us to where we'd left the car. It was very exciting. 

Some people can ride the bus to places, or give blood, without incident. Lesson of the day: we are not those people.