Give Blood, Get Cookies!

 I dropped in on the Wasilla Blood Bank a few weeks ago to make a donation. I think I'm allowed to give blood about every eight weeks, maybe its six weeks, I can't recall. They gave me a card with my blood pressure, temperature and pulse, and a date when I can donate again. I think it's August 6th, but I'll have to check.

Anyway, when I went in, behind the counter there were three stacks of girl scout cookies. What the heck? Are they trying to sell cookies at the blood bank? It seems like they'd have more luck if they tried across the street at the WalMart parking lot. I looked at what they have and was disappointed to see that of all the many cases of cookies, there were no thin mints. I mentioned it to the young gal, Kaylee, who is now managing the place, and she pointed across the room to four or five more stacks of delightful, however, most likely unhealthy treats. There was a stack of my beloved Thin Mints.  I merely needed to depart with a pint of my blood to walk away with one of the boxes, not an entire carton, just one box.

As it turned out, with my latest donation, I was now at the 3 Gallon mark. Since I first started giving blood here, I've donated 3 gallons. That doesn't seem possible. I would love to live long enough to make it to the 10 gallon mark, but chances are I won't live that long, or if I do, they may not want wrinkled blood. You know, blood that comes from an arm that's so wrinkled they feel like they have to bring out the ironing board before they can poke you with the needle. If I can make it to the 5 gallon mark, I'll be pretty happy.

On a previous visit, Kaylee had mentioned that you lose a pound every time you give a pint of blood. I asked if I could come in once a week and donate and she said no. Who needs Ozympic or Zepbound or one of those other GLP1 drugs when you can lose a pound a week just giving a pint of blood?  A person might look a little pale, but think of the benefits. You'd lose weight, you could save another person's life, and Dracula would lose interest in you.

Fortunately, they don't give away Thin Mints year round, or the blood loss/ weight loss would probably fail. I'd still rather have a box of Thin Mints as apposed to a T-shirt with a mosquito on it. In any event, if you can, they could sure use some more blood of all kinds, regardless of where you live.