I have given blood three or four times at the Rhode Island Blood Center. I find it calming, because when I have gone to the Brown blood drives instead, it is crazy with lots and lots of people all giving blood at once, and I get kind of panicky, and the drafts of cold air in that old building ... so the Blood Center is better. But the little cookie table is exactly as you describe it. Last time the tech. told me that all the techs give a lot of plasma, because it takes a long time, and on a slow day with few donors, it gives them something to do. I don't think I have the guts to do that one, though. Good for you! I hope your headache isn't fatal :-) or anything!

I made a mental note of this information and vowed to guzzle water like it was something you'd drink like water (but obviously not water itself, or that would just make the analogy ridiculous) ...

Every time I see something like this, the line from Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave, when Gromit, the dog, is (wrongly) suspected of killing a sheep, and Wallace says to Gromit "They'll hunt you down like, well, a dog!"