Wednesday, February 06, 2008

bloody cold out



It's snowing out again. It is forecasted to continue basically forever. Oh, well. It's pretty.

I gave blood yesterday, and my arm is sore! It wasn't too bad, though. Interesting facts:

We each have eight to twelve pints of whole blood in our body.

It takes our bodies two to four weeks to replace one pint.




Someone in the U.S. needs a blood transfusion every two seconds.




Over 38 000 blood transfusions are needed every day.


Only about ten percent of the population is eligible to give blood.


This brings me to my rant. One of the categories of people who are not eligible to donate blood are "Men who have sex with another man EVEN ONCE." -- the all caps were on my blood donor info sheet...exact quote. Well, no wonder they are always short on donors! Whine, whine whine.









Monday, February 04, 2008

Yay! It's February



Somehow we have made it to February. Two spontaneous thoughts spring to mind. The first is, "Yay! Good for us." After all, we Mainers are cresting the heartbreak hill of winter and getting ready for an easy coast down the snowy/slushy/muddy slope of Spring. The sun is radiating a rather anemic-yet-determined pallor through my office window as I write. I can't complain about that.

Second spontaneous thought: "Fuck, it's February!"

This is known to be a depressing month. Valentine's Day surely has something to do with that. What sick Ass decided to put a national holiday dedicated to arm candy and/or relationship angst (biological clocks ringing off the table) right in the middle of the barest, coldest, most depressing fucking weather of the year???! Hitler? Bad. Wrong.

Anyhoo, I have to focus myself on the "yay" for purposes of self-preservation. After all, we have survived a formidable January. Maine had record snow accumulation, plus frigid temps. My best friend broke her wrist so badly that she had to have a plate surgically inserted in it. My Mom fell in the icy driveway and is nursing a bruise that takes up roughly 40% of her body. The domestic violence project where I work had the first domestic homicides of the new year a scarce few blocks from one of our offices...and it was a double homicide, to boot.

Yet that month is over. The sun is shining. The day is warm (must be 38 degrees!). It is a leap year. I can do this. Yay!





The Pagan Holiday of Imbolg, which we in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate on February 2, is a time to prepare one's self for the new growth of Spring. As nature gears up to burst forth with a new growth cycle, we humans plan our gardens, clean house, start a health regimin, or shop online for bathing suits. Hey, whatever works. Brace yourselves, people...Spring is almost here!

So, what does that extra R in FebRuary stand for? Let's see:

Rigorous, Rich, Reality, Rotten, Rugged, Rainy, Rusty, Radiant. I guess that will do for a start. Happy February, everyone!