Treadmill - I love/ loath you

Thank you Sears gift cards! Two years ago our treadmill, that was a hand me down from a friend, died. The motor just didn't have enough juice it it for us to run on it. As it happened, we had a friend moving into our guest room at the same time, so off the treadmill went to Hannah Homes. On Friday the new and improved and much less used treadmill arrived at our door. 

The two guys from Sears, after politely asking me to put my 'killers' up, quickly and efficiently got everything put together. There are so many buttons I didn't even know where to start. I walked on it for a few minutes, became distracted by the disaster that was the rest of the room around it and dismounted with a new goal of organizing and cleaning. Two days later, donations are catalogued, boxed and sitting on the porch for pickup, the tv is perfectly angled at the treadmill and our yard sale items are piled in a corner out of view. 

I got changed out of work clothes, popped Terminator: Salvation in the DVD player and fired the new treadmill up. Amazingly enough it didn't shake the house when I ran and has the added benefit of a built in fan. After running for 30 minutes I realized I'm no where close to where I was running wise two years ago. I made the decision with the help of Google Maps, which is built in, to download the Boston Marathon route and start training! I love this treadmill! I woke up today and a mile into my bike ride to work decided that i loathe that treadmill.

Tomorrow is another day and one step closer to the Boston marathon! 

Honeymoon: Day 8

My hope was to get up and go to the pool to get a little bit of sun, but mother nature really didn't like us and it was raining again. So instead i packed our bags and we headed to Starbuck then off to the front of the hotel to catch a cab. We were back in San Juan and checking into the Conrad Plaza Hotel.

By this time the sun had come out and we ran down to the pool to take advantage of the sunshine while it was out. The Conrad was the first hotel we were at that had a swim up bar. It would be wrong not to take advantage. Two pina coladas later the rain showed up. We hung out in the hot tub until it started pouring and we retreated to the pool side restaurant.

After realizing the rain was not ending we got cleaned up and went to wait for the bus into Old San Juan. Once in town we made our way to Calle Fortalenza. This street is full of little shops and we popped in all the ones that caught our eye. We got two veigjente masks from one local art store. We made it back to Calle de Cristo and went back to a store we visited the previous week to pick up another mask we had seen. The store director knew everything about pretty much every piece in the store. And on a look around we found a great print that we picked up as well. Of course it's dog related: Perro Elegante. I think it suits our household well.

We wanted to hit up a great local restaurant on our last night in town. Multiple people (locals) from San Juan to Vieques suggested a little place called Marmalade. We walked past the place on our way to Calle de Cristo and nothing really jumped off the menu at us. But after talking the Paul, the gallery director, we decided to go ahead and give it a shot. We were not disappointed. The place was plush! With wall fabrics and upholstered chairs, sofas with pull up tables in the corners, and different hanging lamps over each table.

We each decided to go with the five course sampler. To start out I had the scallop mojito and Jason had the Red Snapper Ceviche, both were equally good. Second course, I had open faced lamb ravioli and Jason had Lobster risotto, while both were good Jason's won out. Third course we both had their special tiny white bean soup topped with prosciutto, scallions and black truffle oil. Amazing! My dad would love this soup. Main course, I had Salmon with risotto and greens. The salmon was so soft it pretty much dissolved when you touched it. Very good, but very rich, almost couldn't eat it all. Jason had the beef tenderloin in a mushroom reduction, it again was delicious. To finish off our meal I had coffee and doughnuts which was a play on benigets and chocolate while Jason had a fruit tart. We left full and happy!

We decided since it was almost 9 p.m. to take a taxi back to the hotel rather than chance the bus. Once back we took our newly acquired art to the room and then tried our luck at the Conrad casino. We ended up playing together on a monopoly lot game and walked away with $100. We spent the rest of the night packing and thinking of how we could relocate to PR.

Honeymoon: Day 7

Finally! We woke up to sunshine! Originally we had planned on renting a car and driving to the rainforest, El Yunke. I had us signed up for zip lining, but we had made an educated decision that we are both big people and dangling from a wire 300 years above the ground is not a good idea. That and after seeing how people drive in PR, I really didn't want to drive anywhere. Instead we decided to make it a beach day.

The El Con doesn't have a beach area where the hotel is, they have a private beach island that is only accessible by boat. We took the funicular down to the marina and took the next ferry over to the island. It was perfect. White sand beaches, rum cabanas, clear blue water. We set up under a palm tree leave umbrella hut and broke out the beach towels. It was just what we both needed a day of doing nothing.

Around 1 p.m. the rain just couldn't stay away and we were forced to abandon the beach and take the ferry back to the hotel. We hung out in the hotel room and napped until dinner. We had a better dinner experience much do to the great server we had. After dinner we went back to the casino and got wrapped up in Deal or No Deal.

There's not much more to do at an all inclusive resort, so when the casino closed at midnight we went back to the room and got ready for our trip back to San Juan the next day. As much as I was looking forward to spending time at the El Con, I was glad to be heading back to San Juan. I didn't like the big resort and feeling confined to the hotel.

Honeymoon: Day 6

We once again woke up to the sound of rain, which according to the locals is odd for this time of year, normally they don't have any rain. I guess we are just lucky. We made coffee and packed up all our stuff before heading heading down to meet Captain Jay at the pier in Esperanza.

We boarded his boat the Amity and headed out to sea. One of the reasons we decided to go deep sea fishing in Vieques is the short distance to the fishing ground. Most places you have an hour ride or more, here it's 100 yards off shore. Within 15 minutes we had our bait in the water and were trolling for fish. The water was purple! It was like nothing I have ever seen and our captain explained that we were in one of the main costal currents.

The first thing we were told to be on the look for was flying fish because they are what the big fish like to eat. I was expecting something that would hop ad skip a few feet out of the water, when I caught a glimpse of theses fish though, I thought they we birds. They shot out of the water and then sailed for up to 100 feet. Natures other helper was the friget, a bird that looks like a Terradactile. It's wing span is 7-8 feet, but it only weighs 3lbs. They see schools of fish from up above and will dive down to grab their prey.

Within the first hour Jason and I had a double catch both some type of small tuna that's not good for eating. They may have been small but they fought like mad. After our first catch we were both pumped and kept our eyes fixed on the back of the boat while the captain continued to steer us around and tell us more about the island and fishing. All of a sudden we saw a fish shoot up 15ft ( not exaggerating) into the air. It was a king mackerel and he was on my line. It took a little while to reel him in, he was stronger than the tuna. Once we got him to the boat Jason took a picture of me with it from the side of the boat and we let it go. After that the fish went biting too much. Jason caught one more fish and then we called it a day.

We ate lunch in Esperanza one last time before heading to the ferry. We already had our return tickets so this trio wasn't as stressful. We were able to board the boat with no problems, this time making sure we weren't in the special passengers line. Once on board we got comfortable and waited for the ferry to head to Fajardo. A little after 3 p.m. a ferry worker came back and made an announcement in rapid Spanish, we must be obvious tourists because he came over and told us in English that there's was a storm in Fajardo and that they were going to wait another 10-15 minutes before pushing off. Those few minutes became an hour then another worker came back made another announcement in Spanish and didn't bother to translate. We assumed it was not good when everyone around us started sitting down and starting out the windows. That's when the fry started to move. It had to back up into the wind and the crashing waves and turn around. The ferry came within 20 feet of hitting a sailboat that I saw, Jason said there was another one that I didn't see that was even closer.

Now this wouldn't have been so scary if a. We could understand what everyone around us was saying and b. Captain Jay hadn't made a comment earlier about the ferry staff not being able to operate the new larger ferry because they couldn't operate it properly and didn't know the proper evacuation procedures. What I realized in the midst of all this was, this was not the same ferry we rode over on and it did seem larger. Thankfully they got the ferry turned around with no damage to the passengers inside and we we're heading for Fajardo at top speed.

Once at the dock, we took a taxi to the El Conquistador Resort. Along the way the taxi driver explained that a tornado had come through with high winds and hail. Tornados never happen on PR so he didn't even know the English word for hail.pulling up to the hotel we saw palm trees that had been snapped in half. It was pretty scary and made me very glad that the ferry had waited as long as it did.

The El Con resort is huge. Huge! They give you a map of the place when you check in, but even that wasn't very helpful. W were pointed in one direction, but soon realized we were not going the right direction. A security guard took pity on us and walked us to the correct wing and elevator At the opposite end of the hotel. While not the best room, it was definitely the best view so far. Our balcony over looked the marina and the ocean. Whenever you went out on the balcony all you could see saw a sea of blue ocean and white clouds.

We tried to go to the pool, but it was a tad too cold. So we started wandering around trying to find all the restaurants instead. We settled on Striphouse for dinner. The atmosphere was great, but the food was subpar and overpriced. We decided to try our luck at the casino and both had moderate luck, but called it quits before we were too much in the hole.

Honeymoon: Day 5

After falling asleep to the sounds of the coqui, we woke up to the sound of rain, which was very peaceful, but disappointing knowing that the sun wasn't out. We took advantage of all the stocked items in our room by making coffee, toast and scrambled eggs. We decided that since it had stopped raining to try to find one of the famed beaches and settled on Green beach at the NW tip of the island. For years, up until 2003, the US Navy occupied most of the island using it for military storage and bomb testing. Green beach is in the wildlife refuge near the old military base.

The roads were par to course for the island until we got onto the wildlife refuge. The next five miles were spent avoiding potholes and puddles. When we finally came to the fork in the road where we could either go to green beach swimming area or green beach snorkel area there were giant puddles in either direction. After contemplating the beach route with the bigger puddles I chose the path with lesser resistance and we headed towards the snorkel beach. Five puddles later we reached the beach, which was rocky with coral reefs right off the shore. Great for snorkeling, not so great for swimming. We packed back up and re-traversed the puddles, but I chickened out when we got the the even bigger puddles going toward the beach and we turned back and went to Esparanza instead.

Esparanza is the perfect little beach town. Theres not much of a sun bathing beach, but you can layout it you want to, then there is a nice ocean side boardwalk where you can admire the crystal clear water and boats mooring off shore, complimented by the local shops and houses lining the other side of the street. All the restaurants had open front patios so you could look over the water, fabulous. After looking for seashells, since it was still overcast, we landed at Belly Buttons for lunch who to my delight had fried pickles on the menu!

I had signed us up for an all in one kayak, snorkeling, bioluminescence bay tour which started at 2:00 p.m. S we made our way back to the hotel to change and put the underwater camera case together. This thing is so cool, it really looks like a clear time capsule. Wile Jason was doing that I went to ask for a late check out. Joann at the front desk knew who I was when I walked in ( we had not met before) asked how Jason and I were enjoying our trip (his name wasn't on the reservation ), and when I asked about a late check out said sure no problem we should have a great time fishing with Jay ( the fishing guide we had booked less than an hour ago ). Word travels fast and this woman knows everything.

Back in Esparanza we met the tour group and the other three couples we would be spending the rest of the day with. They were from NY, MI, and CA. It's amazing how many people from all over are learning about this little place. We went through Abe's Snorkeling and our tour guide was Abe Jr. We all loaded into their "new" van and took off for mosquito bay. I'm just glad they were driving, because I never would have made it through to the launch site.

Jason and I loaded into our two person kayak and we took off for the mangrove forests. It was a beautiful sight, all the roots grow into the water and intertwine with each other. We were able to get some great pictures and videos going through the forests. After the mangroves we paddled out to the mouth of the bay and beached our kayaks on a beach that's only accessible via kayak. The sand was pure white and we were able to walk around the shore looking for fossils. Because Vieques was a bomb test site there were signs up discouraging people from going inland due to the possibility of random undetonated bomb material. We took to their warning and stayed in the beach.

Next activity was snorkeling. We went right off shore and we able to see hundreds of fish swimming in and out of the sea grass and hiding in the coral shelf. Thanks to our handy dandy waterproof camera case we we're able to get some of the fishes on film! After we had enough of swimming wit the fishes we took to shore where our guides had made a camp fire and we had Dinner on the beach while watching the sun set.

Our last experience was kayaking back into the bay to experience the denophilles. Thousands of tiny micro organisms that live in the highly concentrated salt water that light up when touched. We were able to get in the water and swim around with them! It was amazing! When you move the water around you glows. I felt like a marvel comic super hero! Unfortunately it was too dark out for us to get any good pictures or video, but it's something that I will never forget. After getting back in our kayaks we paddled around the bay trying to spook fish because their fast retreat would leave a bright light trail underwater, like lightening.

Unfortunately our tour had to come to an end at some point and we beached our kayaks and loaded back into the van. Once back in Esparanza we went back to Duffy's for a few piña coladas before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night.

Honeymoon: Day 4

Our last morning at La Concha started well enough. Jason ordered room service while we got everything packed up and ready to go, when it arrived we ate breakfast on the patio and convinced ourselves the rest of our trip would be just as nice. I had arranged to have a town car take us from San Juan to Fajardo the day before with the concierge, diligently we were downstairs waiting at 10:30 a.m.. At 10:45 I started questioning where this guy was, but Jason told me to hold tight and that they would be there soon. At 10:50 a.m. I couldn't hold tight anymore and went to the front desk. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with the driver they assured me they would keep trying and let me know as soon as they heard anything. I went back to waiting outside and was informed 10 minutes later the town car wasn't going to make it because he didn't know he was supposed to pick us up. I will be writing a review about Paradise Tours on trip advisor.com under never to use.

No worries though, the bell hops got us a cab at the same rate and we were on the road to Fajardo and the Vieques ferry by 11:15 a.m. It took about an hour to reach the ferry, at which point we we able to buy round trip tickets for $4.00 per person. Much better than the $230 plane ticket. It once again became painstakingly obvious that we need to learn Spanish. There were two lines: resident and special passengers. Going with the assumption that we are not residents we got in the special passengers line. We made to the to gate where we were then informed that 'special passengers' is handicapped boarding, we then had to go to the end of the resident line. Now I was stressed by this point, I had read in several places that the ferry oversells tickets so sometimes even if you have a ticket in hand you won't be able to get on the ferry. Since we were now at the back of the line I was a tad panicky. With four people left in front of us the attendant taking tickets stopped the line and started speaking in rapid Spanish. I didn't think we were going to get on the ferry. Fortunately, they started letting people on again at which point I pushed forward in line threw our tickets at the attendant and made for the boat as quickly as possible, they couldn't kick me off the boat once I was on right?

With the stress of getting on the ferry behind us, I tried to relax while people continued to board. I saw people around us pulling out blankets and jackets and while it was chilly I was sure they would cut the air. They didn't. It stayed a drudges 50 degrees or less the entire ride. Thankfully they had a good headwind and the whole trip only took about an hour. Martineau rental car picked us up at the dock when we landed and traversed the narrow streets of Isabella Segunda, the main town on Vieques. On our way we passed a herd of native island ponies and a flock of chickens. This place is off the beaten path!

We got a banged up Dodge Durango and a map of the island and headed off the the Hix Island house. The roads looked narrow when someone else was driving, but they were super narrow when I got behind the wheel. When someone comes the other direction both cars slow down and have to gently ease onto the shoulder. We ran into a couple more ponies and some very happy looking dogs before we reached the hotel.

The Hix Island house is completely made from concrete and has three separate buildings. We stayed in the roudando, which came standard with a open air patio overlooking the pool, a hanging day bed and an open shower. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. They also stocked each room with fresh baked bread, coffee, jam, and eggs. There is no Internet, no television and while there were electric outlets there really weren't any electronics. Once again. Amazing.

For dinner we decided to venture into Esparanza. A nice easy going sea side town only 10 minutes away. After checking out the pier and the beach we settled on Duffy's for dinner and drinks. While looking over the menu a couple of locals drinking at the bar next to us bought us a local shot, which i can't remember how to pronounce, but is 1/2 rum and 1/2 anis, totally delicious. We talked with them and did a few more shots until they left. We both order burgers and took in more of the local scenery.

Navigating the winding roads back to the hotel was easier at night because there were fewer cars and ponies. Once back at the hotel we lit tea light candle lamps around the room and listen to the coqui ( local tree frog ) until it put me to sleep.

Honeymoon: Day 3

No alarms or places to be before sunrise today! I slept in until 8:30 a.m., made coffee, meandered around the room and then decided that I would be less obtrusive to Jason's sleep time if I just wasn't there. Off to the beach!!

This was the first day we actually had full sunshine. It's been a little overcast and we even got some rain on Tuesday, but not this morning! The sun was shining, I pulled out a beach chair, slathered on some sunscreen and lay back to listen to the waves. Jason got the note I left and came down to join me within the hour. We were even able to get in the ocean, it wasn't too cold and the sandbar goes out far enough that you can can float in the tide, but put your feet down if it starts carrying you out. After about an hour we abandoned the beach for the infinity pool and then went back to the room to get ready for a walking tour of Old San Juan.

With Fromer's travel guide in hand we took the bus or parada into San Juan and headed for the Plaza de Imigration. We walked the city wall and took pictures of all the status dotting the passageways. It was amazing to me that we were walking along a cobblestone pathway that had been there for 400 plus years, but could still get wi-fi! Once we made it half way through the walking tour we both needed something to eat so we stopped in a small cafe and had the least expensive and one of the most satisfying lunches of our trip.

Our next stop was to find Jason a hat. We stopped in four stores along Calle de Cristo until we finally found the perfect Panama hat. Good looking and functional! We talked with a couple people about the festival masks and decided we would come back on Monday to pick out the one we want to ship back to Birmingham. We made a quick stop at the Pigeon Park where people feed hundreds of eager and insatiable pigeons. As someone who has done this before we just stood back and watched. With my medical history who knows what one in a million illness I could contract from a pigeon and we didn't want to get any poop on Jason's nice new hat.

We strolled around downtown, then headed for Casa Blanca, the original home of Ponce de Leon. Unfortunately the home and it's gardens we're closed for renovations. We skipped that piece of history and headed to El Morro, the largest of the three Spanish forts guarding the old city. At this point we had been walking around for four hours and decided to only see the top three levels, we just weren't into another three flights of stairs up and down. The fort was amazing, with some great views of both the ocean and the city.

After leaving the fort we walked back to the bus station and caught the bus back to the hotel. I will take a $ .75 bus over a $15 cab ride any day. We met a couple and their son on the bus who were visiting from Virginia, their son goes to Alabama, even though I could swear I have seen him at UAB. Its a small world. Our dinner reservations weren't until 8 p.m. so we went and enjoyed the pool one last time with a couple if piña coladas to help relax.

We decided to save the best for last, at La Concha anyway, and went to their feature restaurant Perla for dinner. The dining room is inside a giant clam shell over looking the ocean, with low track lighting and hanging pearl chandlers that gave everything a soft pink glow. It was absolutely amazing! Our waiter Wilburto also did not disappoint, he was friendly knowledgeable and keeping with the setting always spoke in a just loud enough soothing tone.

Since it was our first married date we kicked things off with a bottle of malbec and split the roasted pear and gorgonzola salad. I don't like gorgonzola cheese normally, but this was amazing. Next were fresh baked rolls until our dinner came, surf and turf for Jason ( petite filet with crab cakes and fingerling potatoes ) and the grill filet for me served with black truffle mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. Amazing. No other word can describe it. Everything was cooked to perfection the flavors blended perfectly, I didn't want food to disappear from my plate. So of course we ordered dessert. I got the chocolate soufflé with the chambored whipped cream and vanilla ice cream while Jason got the cinnamon nut cake. Both again were amazing.

Far from disappointed, very full, and after leaving a glowing review on their customer feedback card, we head to the casino to see if our luck would continue. For me at least it did. I found a 'Going to the Chapel' slot game that must have known I was recently a brief because after putting my initial $5 I walked away with $20. Yeah! We tried our luck and some type of number wheel and then decided to call it a night and were able to break even.

Even though we are looking forward to going to Veiques, were both a little sad to be leaving La Concha. Great hotel with great staff, highly recommended!

Honeymoon: Day 2

Our first full day in Puerto Rico actually started at 4:45 a.m. We went bass fishing. Not just any kind of bass though mind you, peacock bass fishing! According to Jason and YouTube they are one of the most aggressive types of bass and are beautiful to look at. So for this reason I found myself sitting in the hotel lobby barely obvious at 5:00 a.m.

Our tour guide and captain, Captain Paco met us in the hotel lobby, which was great because after seeing how people here drive I do not want to get behind the wheel. I was extremely surprised to see he had the bass boat with him and that we would be hauling it to the dock with us. On top of having crazy drivers, the streets are ridiculously narrow, they should honestly be one way streets, but are being used as two lanes. I braced myself.

W had our first "wow, we really should have learned Spanish" moment when we stopped for coffee at McDonalds in somewhere, PR. The poor cashier looked at us like we were crazy and then we did the same when he started speaking. He finally went and got his manager who was able to translate that we wanted to coffees and that they would be $2.18. Relearn Spanish is now on my things to do list. I'm still unsure why we even stopped for offer because the next road that we traversed was so winding a bumpy half my coffee ended up on me or on the back seat of Capt. Paco's car.

It was worth it though. The lake was beautiful, the sun was just rising over the Mountains and there were dozens of white herons and pelicans in the trees and diving into the lake. Our guide was amazing, we were catching fish within 10 minutes of getting to our first fishing spot. There were three main types of fish that were biting: Red Devils, Peacock Bass, and Jaguar Bass. They were all beautiful looking fish with bright colors, the fought like crazy so it was a fun time trying to get them in the boat and I soon fund out that Jaguar bass actually have two fangs. A bit scary.

I total we caught around 20 fish, which was amazing. Capt. Paco packed up his boat and took us back to San Juan where we spent the rest of the day pool side with a pitcher of sangria trying to decide where we were going to eat dinner. We eventually decided that we were going to go to Pikayo in the Conrad hotel and then try out there casino. Once we walked there and the saw menu and found out there was no poker in the casino we decided to go elsewhere and had dinner at Vitara instead, a wood burning rotisserie place. Jason and I split the caesar salad with fried plantains, then he had the new York strip with mashed potatoes while I had a yellowfin tuna with grilled asparagus. Both were good, but a little underwhelming given the price tag. We wouldn't go there again if we came back.

Honeymoon: Day 1

After a year and a half of planning the wedding is over and the honeymoon can begin! We left for the Birmingham airport via cab at 4:45 a.m. and took off for Miami. Once in Miami we had a two hour layover and spent the time trying not to fall asleep and people watching. About 30 minutes before take off to San Juan an eight grade class showed up at our gate, unfortunately they were all getting on our plane. Two and a half very loud and aggravating hours later, we landed in San Juan, retrieved our bags and hopped in a cab to the La Concha Marriott Renaissance Resort.

It never hurts to play up a good thing, so we let everyone know we were on our honeymoon. This little tactic landed us with free champagne and an upgraded room. Fabulous! Our first stop after getting moved in we headed down to the pool, had lunch a few medella's (local beer), and enjoyed the sunshine. We took a short walk on the beach, but discovered the water was a bit too cold, so retreated to our room.

We tried to sample the hotels Italian restaurant, Voga, but they are closed on Mondays, so we started off down the beach. We found a cute Italian restaurant a block down. I have decided to try as many mojitos as I can while we are here, the first one at Di Parma was pretty delicious. I had the linguini al pesto with jumbo shrimp and Jason had the goat cheese pizza with spinach, bacon and tomatoes. Bellies full we headed back to the hotel to crash and get ready for another early morning.

The Red Cross

I have for many years been a loyal blood donor as well as a gracious recipient. It was in September 2009 that the Red Cross decided that loyal or not, they just didn't want my blood. In an effort to help support a student run blood drive I went to the REC Center and donated at the Red Cross mobile unit. This was prior to all my other health drama, so I quickly made it through screening.

Afterwards, I felt tired (not uncommon) and slightly nauseous (also not uncommon). So I ate the OREOs and drank the diet coke they gave me and headed on my way. I felt crummy for the next two days and figured I had caught the funk that was going around. By day three I was completely back to normal and thought nothing of it.

A month later I recieved a rather bulky letter in the mail from the American Red Cross. The art of being subtle is lost on whoever wrote this letter:

"Dear Ms. Ciarkowski,

Your recently blood donation tested positive for the West Nile Virus. Please see your doctor immediately if you are experiencing symptoms.

Sincerely,

The American Red Cross"

The rest of the paperwork went on to explain the measures they take to test the blood, what they test for, how they determine if blood is reactive, etc. The last page then informed me that I was now Blacklisted from donating and to please not attempt to donate blood at any upcoming drives.

Now this was all quite humerous, because really what are the chances of catching West Nile in Birmingham, AL. Turns out the Birmingham evening news had the answer. Five cases of West Nile were reported in the state, one in Birmingham. Thankfully they didn't name names, but word got around and I got many a phone call and email from people saying they heard about me on the news. All friends of course, no crazy random people.

I had to wait 120 days and then I went to the local Red Cross Chapter office to be re-tested. They said they would let me know. It was no surprise that they in fact never got back to me. About the time I started thinking about it was the time I was sent to the hospital, so the Red Cross went to the back burner.

After recieving a blood transfusion you have to wait a minimum of one year to donate blood again. I guess they figure if you needed it, you need it, and they shouldn't be taking it from you. A year to the day after my discharge we had a bone marrow donor sign up group on campus. I went ahead and signed up, but once they heard TTP they said "no way." Which got me thinking about the Red Cross again.

I tried called the local office. No answer. Left a message. Called the regional support person. Number disconnected. Visited the website. Sent an email to the regional office. No response.

So next month Campus Restaurants is hosting a blood drive on campus and I wanted to be able to donate blood. I got the donor resource number from the representative we have been working with. After being on hold for 15 minutes I was told there was nothing they could see that would prevent me from donating and that I needed to go to my local Red Cross and ask them. At that point I got a tad perturbed and may have said something along the lines of "no wonder people weren't donating if this is how they treated donors." I was forwarded up the chain.

I finally got to talk to a donation counselor. Who informed me I am still on the Blacklist because when they tested my sample back in 08 it was still reactive to the West Nile. Now I personally thought that would have been great to know back in 08, but who am I. So now someone is supposed to be getting in touch with me to set up another sample time. We will see if I ever get back in the Red Cross's good graces.