Traditional Snacks

I never buy fig newtons. I rarely buy orange-pineapple juice. But I get a fix of both of these snacks every time I give blood. Well, almost every time I give blood. Sometimes they don't have these exact snacks, and I invariably feel ripped off. Even if I get a free t-shirt, I'm a bit miffed if I've allowed some random stranger to poke holes in me and drain out a significant quantity of an important bodily fluid, but they don't have both fig newtons and pineapple-orange juice. I've had random colds most of the winter, so last week was the first time I had been able to give blood in 4 or 5 months. I went at the end of the day and was a bit worried that their snack supply was running low, but when I got done and they had wrapped my elbow in stylish neon green stretchy stuff to cover up the fresh hole in my arm, I found an abundant supply of both of my favorite post-arm-draining snacks. It was a beautiful spring day, so I whipped out a camera and took a celebratory picture when I got to my car. Some people donate blood to save a life, or to give back, or because they or someone they know has needed blood in the past. Some days these are my reasons, but some days I just do it for the Newtons.