"Blood On The Tracks"

This week there was a storm called Stella (go on and Brando it with me, friends, "Stelllaaaaaaa") and it snowed a ton on the east coast. They called it Snowpocalypse, Snowmageddon, Edward Snowden whatever, my world was a tundra (sorry Smashing Pumpkins, this time the world was NOT a vampire) but then on Wednesday when everything attempted  to start thawing I got the call "Timmy T, we need some of that sweet B poz of yours", ok what the blood bank REALLY said was "Tim, the storm hit us hard and we need blood donations if you have time to give". They needed O negative, B positive and platelets. I'm B Positive (yes that's my blood type and I'm saying it in public and if anyone now decides to steal my kidney or whatever, I'll be really disappointed) and I try to help when I can, so I told them I was in on platelets too. The platelets is really a positive thing, it's donating the clotting part of your blood and it goes to help many folks, including cancer and leukemia patients. Leukemia was the first illness I'd ever really seen up close, I'd played youth soccer with a pair of brothers, and we were really young and one of the brothers was being treated for leukemia. Little by little he had to stop playing as he was getting treatments. I like to think he beat it and is now living a very healthy and successful life. That kids name? DAVID BECKHAM. No it was Shawn, and all I knew about leukemia is that when parents of kids on my soccer team heard the word "leukemia" they would always sadly say "I'm so sorry" and I knew Shawn started to get pale the more treatment he got. So I'd always been available to donate a pint, but when I heard about the platelets and how they can be more beneficial, I thought about Shawn, and started giving that when I could. The process is a little more elaborate than just giving a pint of blood, this is about a 2-2 1/2 hour process, and I signed up to do it Wednesday as soon as they called because I had a couple hours to do it. It's kind of a cool process, you get in there, you get a pretty comfy lounge chair, you kick back, relax, they have movies, you do the process, then go have lots of coffee and cookies (these are standard operating procedure I DONT MAKE THESE RULES FRIENDS I SIMPLY FOLLOW 'EM).

Wednesday though, I feel like I rushed the process, I rolled in about 615pm, took the blood donor test they give you everytime you donate, which, by the way has zero chill, it goes kind of like this:
1. Hello
2. How are you
3. DO YOU GET HOOKERS

Seriously these are the questions. No segue, just pleasantries and RIGHT into hooker talk. I get into my sweet lounger, I was going to watch a little SULLY on the dvd player and just reflect on life a little bit (It's Tom Hanks man, Tom's so good he lost a volleyball in a movie, apologized to it AND MADE US ALL CRY don't tell me you didn't.  Fare thee well, Wilson). The DVD player wasn't working, so I watched my first ever episode of THE VOICE (I get why it's a hit, it's got some charm to it #TeamAlicia) but all in all, after a couple hours, a little of watching musicians sit in spinny chairs and giving away some of that B+, we were done, I grabbed an apple juice, some nutter butters and was on my way.

There's nothing to it, I actually sat on a chair and watched tv, and somehow it may make a difference for someone. If you can give, give, I had it, I gave it, and I haven't gotten my 2Pac THUG LIFE tattoo (yet) because then I wouldn't be able to keep giving for 12 months, but really in anything, anywhere, every little bit helps, even if it feels like no big deal, sometimes the smallest drop in the bucket can go a really long way.

Also, I still need to try and see Sully...

Take care and be good, Tim