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It's been a strange day...

It started quietly enough as I took my sweet time getting out of bed, stretching, being lazy and warm under the blankets. Lately, I'm making a habit of drinking a tall glass of water first thing in the morning before eating breakfast. I do so while writing my morning pages. So that's what I was doing when I saw some movement outside my window on the electrical cable that runs right next to my window. I looked up and there was a Red-Tailed Hawk! Not even 6 feet from where I was sitting! I was in awe. I looked at it the whole time that it stayed there (not even a minute.) It was beautiful. Judging by the colour, I think it was a young one though.

At work, kids were acting weird. I don't know if there's a snowstorm coming or what but they were wild.

After the lunch period, I came back home for my lunch. I made myself a yummy sandwich with the Vegetarian spread I made Sunday and added Tuna to it. So tasty! Diesel, of course, hearing me open the can of tuna (same kind of can as her food) came running and wouldn't leave me alone so I dropped a little bit of tuna in her bowl. Believe it or not, she didn't want to eat it because there was lemon juice in it! She's so finicky! And even tonight when I mixed her regular food in it, she still wouldn't eat it! So I threw it away (I hate doing that but if she's not going to eat it at her regular meal time, I'm sure she'll never eat it) and gave put her regular food in a new clean bowl.

After dinner, I had an appointment to give blood. I'm O negative so I try to give whenever I feel well enough to do so. The last two times I wanted to give I couldn't: one time my iron level was so low the nurse kept asking me if I was feeling okay and the second time my heartbeat was way too fast. So before going, I made sure I wasn't stressed, I had eaten plenty to iron-filled foods this week and I kept telling myself "my blood pressure is perfect, my heartbeat is perfect, my iron level is perfect..." until I got there. Guess what? My temperature was slightly too elevated! Good thing they give you a second chance for that so I sat down and tried to "cool down" for fifteen minutes, removing my vest and then went back in. It was right on the limit so I was able to donate! Yay!


Now this may sound weird to some people but here goes anyway. I love to donate blood. Yes, it is a bit painful, mostly when the needle goes in, but I feel so good doing this, knowing that I will be able to save lives and at the same time, I see it as a way to cleanse myself... When you give blood, your body then has to make new blood which is clean and pure. I don't know how else to explain it.

The nurses who took care of me were all smiling, making jokes and making the experience even more enjoyable. The volunteers (this was in a private school so students were there to help) were all very polite and one girl kept coming back to chat with me, clearly enjoying meeting all the people and admiring that so many were donating. She was sweet and made me laugh quite a bit.

I spent the rest of the evening in front of the computer, relaxing, visiting blogs, etc. The images you're seeing in this post are my Daily Art Cards for the 15th, 16th and today. The last image is a page from my journal. I particularly like the second image, the "clean slate" one. It came out exactly how I had envisioned it. Inspired by Keri Smith's collages. I like the messiness of it. For more info and details on these pieces, go to my Flickr page here.