Apparently, I sometimes think that the rules don’t apply to me.
I donated blood one day this week. I scheduled an 8:15 am appointment because I had a massage to do at 10:00 am and lunch with a friend at 11:30. You know how they say you should eat a good meal before you give blood? Pshaw, I thought. I had been eating nothing but goodies the last few days. Christmas candy and Christmas cookies and ham and lasagna and cranberry orange bread and all of my favorite carb laden foods. So much deliciousness!
I was feeling the effects of that and wanted a day of healthier eating. I’d tried intermittent fasting over the years, a way of spacing out meals so that my body has a chance to rest and recover from the onslaught of food I’d been feeding it. I often skip breakfast, have been donating blood for years, and handle the stress of it just fine (except for the time that I passed out while giving blood in high school years ago, but that’s another story), so it seemed like it wouldn’t be a problem to skip breakfast, give blood, and enjoy an early lunch. Sure, they warn you not to pilot a plane or sit in a hot tub for a day or so after your donation, but really, all I had to do was one appointment before lunch. It was going to be an easy day!
After my donation, I sat in the waiting area for fifteen minutes like they tell you to do and sipped my diet soda and begrudgingly ate a few almonds. I didn’t actually want to eat the almonds, because that immediately ended my intermittent fasting period. But I did anyway, to make the folks who run the center happy. Then I hopped in the car, drove to my office, and waited for my client. I was fine! Except about 15 minutes into the treatment, I started to feel strangely hot and a little faint. Thirsty. I paused the session, probably the first time in nearly twenty-five years of massage work that I’d had to do that. I drank some water. Ate another handful of almonds from the pack they gave me at the blood bank. Went back to finish the session.
Except I kept feeling worse. I confessed to my client, who has become a friend in the ten years that we’ve worked together, that I wasn’t feeling so good. My face was pale, my skin was clammy. I worked a little more, but then finally had to sit down. I honestly could not finish. We rescheduled her appointment; I apologized profusely. She said that was not a problem, but that she was worried about me. She even texted an hour or so later to make sure I was OK. (I really have the best clients). After she left, I grabbed a pillow and blanket from the chiropractor’s storeroom, laid down on my massage table, and didn’t move for about an hour.
I made it to lunch and ate everything that was on my plate (so much for avoiding carb laden foods): teriyaki chicken, a few potstickers, cabbage salad, white rice: every bite of the Thursday lunch special. I basically continued eating nonstop the rest of the day: more ham, local mandarin oranges, an apple, more almonds.
Unfortunately, this was not the only instance of operator error that I experienced this week.
I ordered a few copies of the book that I just finished writing at the end of November and paid for expedited shipping, because I was anxious to see what it looked like. I knew that there might be an understandable delay, because of the holidays and the fact that Thanksgiving Day was the day after I ordered. But still! I was hoping to receive the copies in early December.
They still had not arrived.
I was starting to feel a little ornery about this.
I went to the website to complain, because it had almost been a month! And I have not heard anything from the company!
Except when I went to my order page and read it more carefully, I realized that I had checked a box: a teeny, tiny box. A box that said that I didn’t want my books to ship until my supposed actual publication day, which was a day I made up for February of next year. And here I was, thinking unkind thoughts about this publishing company and the lazy sluggards who worked there and their terrible customer service.
My fault. Again.
On Christmas Day, a day when I did not think there would be any helpful customer support people available, a kind person (or Bot. Who can say?) worked through the problem with me and changed my order so that the books will ship as soon as possible. As of this writing? The books are on their way.
So often, mistakes can be fixed. And really, it’s wonderful that there are still so many lessons to learn. They aren’t all pleasant, that’s for sure. But wouldn’t life be boring if we had it all figured out? So I’m grateful that my books will arrive soon, and also grateful for a renewed sense of my own frailty. And I will definitely eat before I give blood again.
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