doily

after a year on the bench, i was called back in to donate blood. our trip to the south pacific disqualified me for one year, but now i'm back on track. in the past the nurses have had difficulty finding my veins. my mom has that problem too, and nurses often have to resort to taking blood out of the back of her hand instead. the nurse yesterday told me that my veins are very small and the needle is very big. in fact, the needle is the same size of my veins, which makes it very difficult. that being said, they did find one that worked well and managed to get a complete pint of my body. one time they were only able to fill half a pint. my lean and handsome 'band has the most beautiful veins i've ever seen. they expose themselves, raised on his arms and hands like lines on a map. no doubt he could give blood very easily, but has not, as of yet, developed the proverbial thick-skin to stomach even the thought of such a procedure. in the meantime i will enjoy all the juice and cookies i want. apparently i'm the brave lorimer with my tiny veins and low iron :p

being at the clinic reminded me of all the things i look forward to doing some day when i'm retired. maybe if i'm lucky before then. i'd totally volunteer at the blood clinic. i feel that it's a good sign that my life is at a good pace when new activities appeal to me. that i have the energy to take on projects and enterprises.

i picked up a copy of reading lolita in tehran at value village the other day. ferrence suggested it to me years ago, so i thought i'd give it a whirl. within the first chapter i was hooked. it's so beautifully written. so wonderfully engaging. it is a nice change from the tragic and impersonal great gatsby. i didn't mind the great gatsby. it just seems incomplete. like entire sentences were missing. characters would arrive and depart without mention. significant plot happenings would take place without my notice because they were subtly suggested rather than out rightly stated. i was reading about it on wikipedia after, and finally pieced together what exactly happened at the end. it wasn't a bad book. i'm definitely glad i read it, just very vague.

you know what's amazing? the thesaurus. frig... it's partly cool just because it sounds like the name of a smart dinosaur. but mostly it's simply cool because it essentially defines a word using one single other word. i write a lot for work these days. newsletters and brochures. i really love it - writing for work that is - and find myself referring to the thesaurus constantly. oh thesaurus, you are one fine device.

after hearing in detail the story behind the guess who song "american woman" i was a little startled at how little has changed in 30+ years.

 

i don't need your war machines,
i don't need your ghetto scenes.