Where to find me on Wednesday afternoon

If you are calling my office at 4 on a Wednesday and I do not answer you can bet I am down the street at the Red Cross.

I try to go every other week. Wednesdays always seem like a good day when my customers do not want meetings. It is a 2 hour event. Most people watch a movie from their large library. I like to work and I get the use of one hand so I can answer phone calls and emails (or in the case of today, write this post).

The Red Cross takes Plasma and Platelets. They hook you up to a nifty machine that takes the red blood cells out.
It then “spins” the blood in a process called apheresis (ay-fur-ee-sis), separating red cells from the platelets and plasma (that’s the yellow looking stuff in the bag). The red cells are then returned through the same needle in your arm.

The end results:
You feel pretty much the same way you did when you came in (unlike donating whole blood, which for me leaves me feeling dizzy).
You get to watch a movie or get caught up on your email.
You get to spend a couple of hours with some neat professional people that are not customers and not selling anything.
If you have a common blood type you can donate a higher demand product  (platelets have a very short shelf life so they are needed to be collected on a regular basis).
You can donate more often; every couple of days if wanted to as your body recovers very quickly.
The product also carries a higher dollar value for the Red Cross.
All this and all you have to is just lie there. Great way to do something good for an organization that does so much for others.

Wenesday night on the other hand is Cuban food but that is a whole different conversation.