For every action...

...there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Newton's 3rd law)

I gave blood yesterday for the first time, at Nationwide Arena, where the Columbus BlueJackets play hockey. My friend George went with me to give blood too, and for moral support. The whole thing went pretty well. My iron count was fine, I passed the barrage of questions, so I was allowed to give.

The nurses were really nice, and made my first blood-giving experience a good one. I didn't want to look when they put the needle in or took it out, so the nurse warned me when to look away. Where I was sitting, I was able to look outside where it was sunny and warm, and that worked out well.

Once I was all hooked up, it took just a little over 6 minutes to fill the bag, which evidently is pretty good. It's too bad that 6 minute process took more than 1.5 hours from start to finish, including paperwork, questions, prep and wait time. But they were pretty busy, and all things considered I think the got people through relatively quickly.

After giving blood, you get water and snacks. The donor snack area was set up in an area where people had a view of the ice rink in the arena. The BlueJackets were practicing, so George and I stayed around and watched them practice for a little bit while we enjoyed our snacks. That was pretty cool. After 15 minutes or so, that rounded out a total of 2 full hours for the whole thing. It was a long "lunch hour," but then we had to go back to work.

My arm doesn't even hurt today - I am so impressed. Even when I go to the doctor's office and they take a very small amount of blood, and the needle isn't in my arm as long, my arm usually hurts for a day or two. I often bruise around the area where they put in the needle, and my whole arm hurts a little bit all the way down to my fingers. I do not feel any of that today! The only thing that does hurt is where they had to prick my finger first to test for iron count.

So now for something really ironic, maybe even karmic part about the whole thing. It is the reason I mentioned Newton's law. My mom had to take my dad to the hospital around 2 or 3 am yesterday morning (which is important, but no need to get into too many details on that to make my point here.) In short, he got up in the night to use the bathroom and passed out. After some tests, they found that he has multiple ulcers and a torn esphagus, which caused bleeding, which is why he passed out. His blood count was low, so last night at the hospital they gave him some blood to replace the blood he had lost. And today, my mom said he did look much better and he said he felt much better, and he should get to go home in a couple of days.

The first time I ever gave blood, was the very same day my dad received blood.

I know my dad was about 300 miles away and it's not like he got my blood, specifically. (I don't even know my blood type - yet.) But I can't help but feel a sense of balance from it all.

Summer.. summer... summertime

I just love summer. I love the sun, the warm temperatures, and hanging out at the pool. I love sitting out on the patio at a restaurant. I love not needing a jacket, and being able to wear shorts and tshirts at night and not be cold.

I haven't been out of town for little weekend or 3-day trips nearly as much as usual. I do kind of miss taking little trips. Although I'm not sure what I'd want to do or where I'd want to go right now. I should give that more thought.

I stayed in town for the July 4th independence day holiday. Much thanks to Becca for having everyone over - it was a good time! I think I got some pretty good pictures, too.

However - like it or not- fall is coming. And although I'm bummed about the prospect of the colder temperatures and shorter days to come, I guess fall has a few it's own positive things. The NHL hockey season starts up! The first Blue Jackets preseasons game is Sunday the 16th. And new TV shows will be starting soon, too.

Even though I haven't been up to my usual, there's been some new things going on that I haven't done before. New things keep life from getting boring.

• 5k race - I participated in a 5k last weekend. Several of my friends ran. I walked. :) Yet, part of me has a hard time feeling like that was much of an accomplishment because any able-bodied person of my age can walk. Who cares? But I guess it's better than spending the day on the couch, so I should be happy that I got out there and did it. Thanks to Sheila and Amy for walking with me! And I'm so impressed with my friends who came out to run - good for all of you!

• Giving Blood - I'm signed up to give blood for the first time - ever - next week. I'm a little nervous about it and I'm not entirely sure what to expect. I don't even know my blood type. I don't freak out around needles (although I don't like them either - but who does?) But I definitely can't stand the idea of watching blood coming out of my arm. I even have to turn my head away at the doctor's office when they draw only a small amount of blood. Hopefully I can manage to look away for longer than a few minutes, however long giving blood takes. But it's part of a promotion to get free preseason BlueJacket tickets, and my friend George is going with me to give blood too. That's a good idea on their part for a promotion, since hockey tickets are enough to make me put aside my dislike of needles and blood and give anyway. George says that most times when he's had a "blood buddy" who's a woman, she always get rejected for having low iron. So I'm trying to beef up my iron this week by taking supplements. Hopefully it helps, because if I'm gonna do this - I'm AM getting those tickets! :) Wish me luck!
  

Past 5-month update!

Update: Links to photos from Chicago.

My how time flies. I can't believe it's been almost 5 months since I've posted anything. Does that mean 5 months have gone by without anything postworthy going on? Hmm. Maybe. Although upon proofreading this entry, I must have needed to blog or vent for awhile, b/c this got longer than I imagined it would for as little as I feel I've been up to.

The summer is definitely flying by. And I haven't even done as much travelling as I usually do, especially in the summertime.

I started a new project at work a couple of months ago that I'm really enjoying. I had to play catch-up quite a bit at the beginning to try to remember how to use some technologies I hadn't used in awhile. Amazing how quickly you can become rusty on stuff in the technical world. I guess that enough of it must have come back to me that I'm getting by. I enjoy helping others on the team learn about the few things that I am pretty familiar with on the project. I don't enjoy helping others learn things they think I'm more familar with than I really am :) I guess I'm not as good at winging it as if I know stuff when I don't. Other people seem so good at that. So, I guess some days I feel very busy and overwhelmed, and most days I feel pretty good about my work, so overall it's a good thing. Most importantly I'm challenged and not bored, and that motivates me more than anything. I got the high compliment of being told I am smart and that I had a really good idea that solved a problem we were having today. (Maybe you're right, Dean, maybe I can admit that I do have good ideas once in awhile :) I guess I came down off that high after I broke the build. Ah, karma always has a way of putting you back in your place, doesn't it.

Other than work.... there's been at least 4 weddings to attend this summer alone, 2 cousins' weddings, and 2 friends' weddings. We made it to 3 of them, 2 in Indiana and one in Ohio. Unfortunately we couldn't be in 2 places at once and missed the friend's wedding in Vegas since my cousin's wedding was the same day. I tried to get Jeff to go represent us at the Vegas one while I represented at my cousin's wedding. I guess he didn't believe me that I was really ok with that or something b/c he didn't go to Vegas w/ our friends, but went to my cousin's wedding with me. That or maybe he just wanted to save the money he would have spent travelling. Either way! ;)

My friend Sheila and I drove up to Chicago a few weeks ago to visit my older brother Kyle. I met Sheila through Kyle b/c they were friends in college. It was a fun little road trip. I got to go see one of my favorite bands, Def Leppard, with Sheila, Kyle, and some of Kyle's friends. I could have seen them here in Columbus instead, but a road trip was more fun. Besides, I'm not sure I could have convinced anyone else around here besides Sheila to go. We had lawn seats so it was a gamble, but the weather was perfect all weekend. We got to go rollerblading, and eat breakfast at a really cool waffle restaurant, and eat lunch at a yummy Thai place, and just hang out and relax. (Except for when my finger got pinched in the door of Kyle's apartment building and it hurt and I got really mad and Kyle had to go back to his apt and get me a bandaid because I was bleeding from under my fingernail). And Sheila and I had some great conversation on the drive there and back.

I've gone to 2 technical conferences in the past several months too. Got to attend No Fluff Just Stuff in Columbus in June, which is always a great event. It's the 3rd year I've gotten to go. I think I felt pretty overwhelmed by all the new information the first year I went. I must be learning how to learn stuff without getting so drained because I felt pretty good after the conference this year. Other than a little people-overload ... nothing that a couple hours alone by the pool with a non-technical book didn't solve :) I am an introvert at heart, after all. Then in July I got to attend ERubyCon in Columbus, also a great event. This was the first year for that conference. I hope it's the first annual. I really enjoyed the charity training class held the day before the conference, too. It was very fast-paced but I learned a lot about Ruby and Rails. The conference itself was small this year, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion. It provides a more intimate setting anyway. Lots more chances to talk to everyone; there's at least 1-2 fellow attendees that I feel like I got a chance to get to know a lot better and that was really cool. And smaller means less chance of there being 3 sessions you want to attend all at the same time. I had some great conversation with some of the speakers, too. Most notable to me was talking about why I have no desire to speak at conferences. Did I mention I'm an introvert, after all? But of all the reasons anyone had about why I should speak, what I think I'll take away from it is finally someone saying "if you don't want to, then don't." Good point. You know, if I don't want to do it and I don't have a passion for it, then I'm not going to give 100% and it probably won't be very good... for anyone. I definitely will be at ERubyCon if it happens next year, and I hope it will grow too, so I'll do my best to spread the word.

I didn't get much of a chance to unwind after ERubyCon at all. I had to leave a little early from the conference for the Family Camp (church camp for families to go together) that my parents helped get started when I was little, and that I've attended every year since - 25 years now, yikes. I was in charge of leading the young adult sessions this year. How nerve wracking (remember that introvert thing?) To me that's not too unlike public speaking at a technical conference. But at least a group of 15-18 people, most of which I've known for many years, made it a little easier. Thanks to some encouraging words from a few of the folks, and the help of my brother the last day, I made it through. But I don't think I'll be doing that again unless my brother is willing and able to help me ALL 3 days. I'm definitely more of a behind-the-scenes planner and coordinator and preparer type.

Ok, people, all 2 or 3 of you who read my blog :) I will try to do better at blogging so it's not 5 more months before my next post! I did notice I had a couple of drafts saved on my account. I'll have to revisit those some other time, and see if they're really worth posting at this point. Here's to doing stuff that's blogworthy, and not being too tired to blog about it later!