The Crimson War

One of our academic and athletic rival schools is fellow ACC member UMD (University of Maryland). Every fall, the week preceeding the football game between our two schools is the Crimson War. Each school has a blood drive, and the school with the most donors wins! I think they do it by sheer numbers, not percentages, which puts our school at a slight disadvantage.

So that's this week. Fortunately, I became eligible to donate on Saturday, just in time to participate. I was 'done' for the day at 2 and decided to go to one of the blood drive centers. There was a long line, as I knew there would be, but I also knew it would be pretty much my only chance all week to donate.

It took about 45 minutes before I was in the bloodmobile in those weirdly-reclined seats, we had to register, then pass the short physical screening, then answer all those questions about our habits and histories. Before each station was another queue. During my wait I worked on a physics take-home midterm.

So there I am, sitting on the floor, scribbling some equations relating to the intensity of light, when suddenly it's my turn for the short 'physical'. I stand up, sit down, and immediately that blood pressure cuff goes around my arm.
They pulse they measured was the lowest I'd ever seen for a blood donation screening. The machine even beeped to alert the screener.

Apparently doing physics makes me very relaxed?


This was the fourth time I donated this year, and all of them were in Virginia. Which means I get a spiffy "Friends 4 Life" shirt from the Virginia Blood Services group! I think I'll try for #5 this December.