tkil took me to the Red Cross earlier today, followed by a trip to Stone Brewing.
He gives blood every few weeks, which I've always found somewhat noble
of him. Anyways, since I was there with him this time he talked
me into giving blood too. I've never given blood before, so I
figure I'll give it a try, if for no other reason than to see what the
whole process is like. So I'm sitting in the chair, squeezing the
little rubber ball every few seconds, and letting blood pressure,
gravity, and probably a few other forces of nature gather that precious
red liquid from my veins. Somewhere along the way, the person
helping me notices that the liquid filling the bag slows down quite a
bit, and she asks if I'm OK. My comment was something like "I'm
feeling a little light," at which point she just called the whole thing
off. Nothing went wrong, I didn't faint, or feel queasy, or have
any other issue, it's just that my body didn't react so well to the
event. It could be because of the the rather large lunch I had
eaten just before, or it could have been my slight bit of nervousness,
or it could have been a natural reaction to the needle. Whatever
it was, I'll have to look to see if the event repeats itself in the
future.After a short rest period, we headed off to the Stone Brewery and filled up a couple of three liter bottles of the Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale. ABA is a beer that nobody should like, but surprisingly quite a number do. The oaked version adds an interesting layer to that. If you get a chance to try some, I suggest you run away, as your pallet should not be introduced to such things without careful forethought.
