Saturday, July 23, 2011

On Plasma

So, if you haven't figured it out yet from reading my more recent posts, I'm a little low on cash at the moment. In fact, the term "a little" is a pretty gross understatement. Granted, I have a pretty good-sized wad in my savings mutual fund, but I don't want to dip into that yet. The fact that I chose not to get a summer job may be exacerbating it, but at least now I'm unemployed and have no money and enjoy it instead of being unemployed and having no money and being really depressed about it (or rather, as depressed as Captain Danger can get). But I digress. That really long introduction was to introduce the reason why I finally decided it was time to donate my plasma for money.

I've always viewed this as sinking pretty low and it has never been something that really appealed to me. I never did it because I figured that donating blood was the more noble way to go (and I do, in fact still hold that, but I can't afford to be noble at the moment). However, I finally broke down and did it, and I was really surprised that it went down really well! In fact, I can't believe I didn't get in on this racket sooner!

First of all, the people there are nice and reasonably personable, and they had movies playing on the TVs there! While I was there they played League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The A-Team, both of which are movies that I like. So, basically, I was getting paid for doing what I would have done anyway, I just had a needle stuck in my arm while I was doing it. Granted, I did feel a little ashamed going straight to the store after where the bandages on my arm made it obvious that I had just come from donating plasma and that I was spending the money I had gotten there. But, I'm pretty sure I'll get over that.

That being said, I make an end, leaving you, as ever, with this amazing picture of me:


This is Captain Danger out.

1 comment:

  1. Dear Cliff, welcome to the club. I have donated plasma around six times at Talecris. I can relate to the odd feeling of spending money that you earned with your bodily fluid. As a matter of principle, I decided I would never use blood money to fill my gas tank. The idea of plasma going out to put gas in was too depressing.

    I haven't gone to donate recently because full-time work is going well, but it is nice to get the extra cash every once and a while and watch a sweet flick. A word of caution, however: The first time I went I had a pretty bad stick and had a terrible bruise for several weeks. If you ever feel pain while donating, they probably screwed up; the sooner you tell them, the better your chances of avoiding a heckuva lot of pain.

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