Is This The Right Job For You?

Posted: September 20, 2023 | Author: dana lange | Filed under: Uncategorized |Leave a comment

There was a blood drive at my Church today that I signed up for. I already had two back to back meetings scheduled at church so I thought I would just give blood before my meetings. I purposely scheduled with a cushion of time just in case.

I arrived and saw some friends who had just given blood. One gave me a little heads up that things were not exactly as planned as they were short staffed. No problem. She got me signed in and showed me how to scan my driver’s license which pulled me up on the system and showed I had filled out the paper work.

I got to talking with another church friend and we waited and waited a good while past our scheduled times. Eventually my name was called. I went and sat down at the little registration booth with the cardboard set up for “privacy.” The woman checking me in asked for my id. I said I had just scanned it. “Well, you didn’t scan it with me.” So I went over to get it out our my purse on another table.

“Have you given blood before?”

“Yes…”

And before I could finish my sentence, “Then you should know that I need to see your Id.”

“Well, you cut me off before I finished my sentence. The last time I gave blood was 25 years ago because I lived in London for five years and the Red Cross wouldn’t take my blood because it thought I might pass on Mad cow disease, until now, when the rules were changed. I’m sorry I don’t remember all the procedures from 25 years ago.”

“Well, I’m sure it’s the same as back then.”

I was tiring of her tone with me so I tried to change the subject and I went for the tact my father always took and changed the subject to be about her. In my most friendly voice I said, “How long have you been doing this?”

“Two years, but I think I am going back to my old job, which was so much better.”

“What was that?”

“I was a CO.”

“In a prison?”

“Yes, in Raliegh.”

“Is that a good prison?”

“Not particularly.”

At that point I gave up because I didn’t think that things for me were going to get better if she thought this job was worse than being a correctional officer in a not great prison. Thankfully she was not the person sticking me.

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