I donated blood the other day and it's been a while. I think the last time I donated was in 2001. That was the year I ran my first* marathon and, and at the time, I didn't think I could spare it. I couldn't tell you why I didn't go back to donating blood after that.
Turns out, things have changed over the last decade. Some good, some not so good. The biggest difference was how they asked those embarrassing, very personal, questions. They don't. You still have to answer them but you get to do it on a touch-screen laptop while the interviewer takes a smoke break.
Another difference, and this is during the face-to-face interview, was the intake person asked me to give my gender. I wonder what would have happened if I said, "Male."** I wasn't brave enough to find out.
I did, once, answer the following question in the following manner:
Q: Have you ever taken money or drugs for sex, even once?It didn't go over well so I don't do that anymore.
A: Of course! I'm married!
The most disheartening change was there wasn't a cookie waiting for me after it was all over; they had Cheez-Its. I don't have anything against Cheez-Its. In fact, some of my favorite cracker-like snacks are cheese-like crackers. But, I wanted a cookie. Hell, I earned it! I mean, if I had known I wouldn't get a cookie I might not have made the effort!
Oh, well. At least I wasn't making a blood withdrawal.
*of two - and in the interest of full disclosure, I ran it in 4:45:03. I improved my time by ninety seconds when I ran the Cincinnati Flying Pigs Marathon roughly six months later in 4:43:37. I wouldn't want to be innacurate with regard to my marathon time. Sheesh, who would do that??
**Also, and there's no full disclosure here, I'm female.
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