Chronicles of a Late Bloomer

I was having a foul-mood day on Thursday, out of nowhere. Well, it was probably less “out of nowhere” than it was “out of staying up until 2 a.m. every night watching the Olympics.” Seriously, NBC. I appreciate that you are trying to show these events live, but COME ON ALREADY.

So, in the midst of my crankiness, I decided to purposefully go and do something nice for someone else. On my lunch break, I wandered into the blood donation center at the hospital and gave a pint.

Well, the pint gave back to me with a few pleasant surprises:

1. My blood pressure was 119/74. Yay!
   
2. I had plenty of hemoglobin and was not anemic — something I wonder about from time to time when I am not eating as much (or as much red meat!) as I used to. Maybe the daily multi-vitamin is saving me in this department.
   
3. After donating, as I sipped on orange juice (and turned down the brownies — stating that “I’m allergic to chocolate” now that I know it causes my migraines), a teenaged volunteer came around with a stack of t-shirts.

   “Would you like one?” he gawked.

   “No thanks, I don’t think they’d fit me,” I answered, matter-of-factly, between jokes with the phlebotomist who was bagging and tagging my blood. Generally, I require a 3X and sometimes a 4X. Since I was pretty sure they wouldn’t have anything larger than an XL (the gold standard for free t-shirt giveaways), I just waved him off.

   Later on, another employee came around, unaware that I had already rejected the offer. “Would you like a 1X or 2X?” he asked.

   As I sipped the juice, something inside me did a little flip. I held up two fingers and smiled my gratitude.

   Then I ran back down to my office, locked the door, stripped from the waist up, and pulled the 2X over my head.

   It fit.