done this often enough in singapore, practically graduating so might as well make myself useful, and they're doing it in the common lounge downstairs, right? so i go in at 2.50 with plenty of time to spare for my 5pm meeting, armed with reading material, and right away i am a nuisance because i've lived abroad and have no social security number and can't give my weight in pounds. and then the paperwork is shuffled away and i'm settling down to read and now they have trouble finding a vein, so the needle is repeatedly withdrawn and reinserted while i look on a tad grumpily thinking eek that hurts! and it would have been nice if the nurse stayed unfrazzled and got on with it quickly, but she kept stopping to ask if i was okay and all i was thinking was, of course i'm grimacing i can't help that, but it's really this dillying that's the problem! and if i thought it was a matter of lying back and reading for 10mins, nope, the flow kept stopping, so thrice they had to reposition the needle. looked on stoically each time (or away) but mentally sighing that this really isn't going very well. also wondering if i was going to be late for thefriend i was meeting for dinner. people who'd come in after me were getting off their chairs and leaving. i was still sitting there smiling politely and feeling increasingly irritated. finally, "you're done" they say. aha! the needle was removed, and i was promptly squirted with blood. some of it got on my arm but most of it landed on the freshly printed sheath of engl 382 notes i had on my lap, which is a good thing, because this means it didn't land on my skirt, and it wasn't anything i had to turn in, but still pretty gross. by the time i trotted upstairs again and washed my arm, i discovered it was already ten to five, and had to go racing off again, with heaps of library books and wishing they'd got my left arm instead. so, all in all, i suspect i was more trouble to them than it was worth.
by the way huck finn is an awfully difficult book for me to read. why?
so here's my very unfortunate experience giving blood today.