This past Wednesday, I decided to go to the blood bank with my niece, Chrissy, who donates on a regular basis. I had never donated blood, or plasma, in the past because I was of the belief that since I was born with infantile jaundice, I could never give blood. I recently learned that my belief was false.
My niece had an appointment so I asked her if I could also go and donate at the same time. I really hate needles, but I know there is a need so I would swallow my fear of needles and give back where I could. Unfortunately, I went to bed very late the night before so I was still sleeping when my niece called to tell me she was on her way to my house for breakfast.
When the phone rang, I shot off the bed to grab it so I could intercept the call before the answering machine could get it. With my eyes barely open and being totally witless at that moment, I readily agreed to let my niece come for breakfast. I hung up the phone and rushed into the kitchen to put the coffee on. I knew that as soon as I had a cup of steaming coffee, I would be able to collect my marbles.
I let my niece in, had a cup of coffee and let her make her own breakfast while I took a shower. The night before, I had heard that we were going to get a weather bomb on Wednesday and the weather would be unseasonably warm for late October. I could handle that. What I didn’t allow for was the fact the winds were gale force. I hadn’t used any hair spray. The moment I stepped outside, the winds snatched at my hair and created a whole new hairstyle that didn’t do anything to flatter me. I tried the best I could to push my hair back in place, to no avail. The raging winds chilled me to the bone. I thought about going back home to get a warmer jacket and a comb to fix my hair, but there wasn’t enough time.
We arrived at the blood bank on time. The first thing they wanted from me was to take my picture. Yikes! I had run out without putting any makeup on and my hair was standing on end. I am not exactly what one might call photogenic at the best of times, so you can imagine how bad I looked that day. I remarked that I could look better at times, but my comment was not acknowledged. There were lots of ways I could have taken their silence and none of them were good.
I had to fill out a medical questionnaire and wait to be seen by a nurse. When the nurse came in to see me, she said that the cut off age to give blood was sixty-one. Since I was over that, I would have to get a paper from my doctor saying that I was fit to donate blood. I was not allowed to donate on that day. I had to wait for my niece who was donating plasma. The nurse told me to wait in the lounge and to help myself to the refreshments.
I didn’t want anything at first, but then I remembered that my niece told me that they had really great raisin bread. I took a cup of coffee and two slices of raisin bread. She was right. The raisin bread was exceptionally good.
Once she was finished donating plasma, we had a good hike to get to where she had parked the car. I felt good, but I have to say, with little sleep the night before, I was looking forward to getting home so I could have a nap before supper. By the time my niece left, it was time to fix supper. I struggled to stay awake until I had eaten. My niece told me she was going grocery shopping after supper so I asked her to call me when she was ready to go. I went and sat in the parlor to watch television while I waited for her, but somehow, I fell into a sound sleep, while sitting in the chair.
When I woke up, I didn’t feel refreshed at all. I felt out of sorts. I decided to go on the internet and check to see if my pension had been deposited into my account. To my shock and horror, I had been denied access to my account information. I did what any woman my age would have done. I totally lost my mind.
When I took a moment to breathe, I saw a number on the page that would lead me to a technical person who could help me get into my account. I phoned the number and got their automated guideline. I followed the instructions, but I still couldn’t get through. When asked to, I entered my client card number and got a recording saying I had to dial one in front of the number in order to get connected. I hadn’t dialled a phone number. I had only entered my client card number. Again and again, I tried, but the same thing kept happening. I tried eight times with the same result. Finally, I shouted an expletive at the recorded voice and hung up the phone. I was angry…very, very angry.
I was losing my patience, but I tried one last time. I kept getting to a page that wanted me to re-enter my password. Not a problem. I entered it then was told to answer some personal identifying questions. I opened the account so long ago that I couldn’t remember what my answers were to my three special questions. I was so frustrated that I closed my computer and walked away. I intended to ask my niece to fix the mess for me when she came to pick me up for shopping.
It was so late by the time she arrived that we decided that it would be better if we went for groceries first and fixed the computer problem once we got home again. I didn’t need too much and neither did my niece. I got my few things then went through the line to pay for it. I had passed my niece a couple of times in the aisles and she told me she was nearly finished. I hurried with my shopping because I didn’t want to keep her waiting. Besides, the store was closing and the cashiers were just waiting for the last few stragglers.
When I went outside, I expected to see my niece in her van waiting for me. I could see the van, but no one was in it. The winds picked up and the rains fell fast and hard like monsoon rains. The rain came down like a wall of water. I was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place at that moment. In order to get back inside the store, I would have to walk through that wall of pounding rain. I was already getting very wet and so were my groceries.
Instead of doing the trek back into the store to wait for my niece, I found a tight spot under the overhang and behind the store’s huge Halloween display. That spot gave me shelter from the fierce winds and driving rains. It also put me right against the store’s window and gave me a good view of all the checkout lines.
Finally, I spotted my niece in one of the aisles. She appeared to be reading the contents of a package she was holding. I watched her in hopes of getting her attention, but she didn’t look up. She stood there and read, and read, and read and then read some more. The weather changed three times while she stood there motionless and read the side of the small package she was holding.
Once again, the winds picked up alarming speed. Yet again, there was a sudden opening of the skies that sent water cascading to the ground as though it was going over Niagara Falls. It was fierce outside.
I stood there for so long that I was getting tired and the muscles in my legs and feet began cramping. I had nothing to do, but stare at her as she read her darn package. I guessed that it must have been written in Chinese or Greek and it was hard for her to decipher. I took my cigarette out of my pocket and read the label that said that cigarettes can make you impotent. I lit one. Suddenly, my niece looked up. I took advantage and I flapped my arms at her through the window, but she didn’t seem to notice me. Half an hour later, I lit another cigarette, just for something to do. I thought about the message on the package and thought to myself that I was getting more and more impotent by the moment while I waited for her, to say nothing of how fast I was aging as I waited.
Finally, I saw her head over towards the checkout line. Someone who had passed through that line earlier had dropped a lot of cards and things from her wallet. I saw what appeared to be a folded twenty dollar bill on the floor. The woman picked everything up except what looked like a folded twenty dollar bill.
As my niece was unloading her purchases onto the conveyer, she and the cashier seemed to be having a conversation. Both of them looked in my direction from time to time.
Through the store window, I tried to point out the folded twenty dollar bill on the floor to my niece. She didn’t seem to understand, or so I thought. I did a massive amount of charades to get her to look for it. My niece and the cashier started to laugh.
Finally, my niece came out and told me that the cashier had said that there was a woman outside who had been there for a very long time and she was acting very odd. My niece let the cashier go on and on about it before finally telling her that I was her aunt.
What I had thought was a folded twenty dollar bill was in fact just the tops of the green shopping bags. As we were loading our groceries into the van, we both got absolutely soaked to the skin.
We arrived home about ten-thirty. My niece, Chrissy, set about fixing my computer so I could once again access my banking. I was so very grateful. When she left, I was so tired that I barely had the energy left to put away my groceries. All I wanted to do was to check my emails and go to bed for the night. My sister, Patsy, frequently sends me a bunch of emails every night and that night was no different. I sat there ready for bed in my clean pj’s and read my emails, though I was barely able to focus. One of them was a shock email that made me wet myself. Oh, why did I let myself fall for it? Thank you, Patsy.
I had to clean myself up, change my clothes and then I went to bed. There was nothing else to do, because it was just another rainy Wednesday.
The End