Saturday Bloody Saturday.

       OK, long story time.  I know some of you don't like to read them, but this one has a point, so either bear with me and read it or skip to the end to get to the important part.

       About 20 years ago, I was roused by my mother from a lovely post-school nap to go give blood.  I had never given before, but my mother had read that there was a critical shortage of blood in the area and she wanted me to go with her to give.  She is blood type O negative, which is considered the universal donor, so she was/is a steady donor.  So, I struggled to my sleepy teenage feet and went with her.  The procedure was relatively quick and painless (even the needle part) and they gave me juice and cookies afterward, which is great...anything with juice and cookies at the end can't be all bad.  I didn't think much of it.  Then, literally two days after I gave blood, my grandfather collapsed in his garden.  He had an aortic aneurysm that burst.  Needless to say, this is a quite catastrophic thing to happen.  He was rushed to the hospital and needed 12 pints of blood to get him through his surgery, which was successful.  In my view, and it may not be entirely true, but in a way, I had helped to save my grandfather's life.  I became a blood donation advocate from then on; I have volunteered for the Red Cross over the years, I constantly give blood, and, best of all, my grandfather lived another 16 years.

So this morning, I got up and drove to beautiful downtown Newark, NJ and gave blood.  I try and do it as often as I am allowed and as long as my health will let me.  I even got some sweet swag while doing it:

I am keeping the hat, because, hey, free hat!  But the shirt is only an XL - I haven't fit into XL shirts since I was about 11.  So I have decided to auction off the shirt and give the money right back to the American Red Cross.  Normally, I would never implore you to look at my eBay auctions, but this one is important...

***Hey everyone who didn't want to read my story, this is the important part***

Please click here to view this charity auction.  I know most of you aren't Devils fans but maybe you know one, you could buy it for them, or at least send them the link.  I am not usually the altruistic type, but I happen to think this is all pretty important and believe me, it saves lives.  People always talk about how they can make a difference in the world.  Well, this is a simple thing anyone can do.

Please give blood.  Please donate to the Red Cross.

Thank you.  I now return you to my usual snarky and immature little blog.