Day 53- Gave away a blanket

Day 53 Gave away a blanket.

Remember yesterday when you read about my experience giving blood? Remember how I said I won a blanket?

After I won my blanket and the initial thrill of victory waned. I realized I had ANOTHER blanket.
We have an abundance of blankets (I bet Nerdfighters thought I was going to say an Abundance of Katherines). My hubby lined all the couches in the house with blankets since our cat Chooch liked to lay on the tops of the couches and my hubby didn't want the cat hair to get embedded into the fabric of the couch.
Now that Chooch is no longer with us, we have like a million blankets.

A million and 1 with this Red Cross blanket.

EVENT:
While I was waiting in the Donation Room-- waiting for my blood NOT to get drawn, a man approached me.
He was wearing a suit. I had noticed him before, during my many different locations of waiting. I assumed he was a business man or a lawyer or something and wanted to donate blood.
It was a Saturday... not a normal suit day.
He sat down next to me, "Hello," he said. "I was talking to your friend in the other room and I was wondering if I could buy your blanket."
"No, here you can just have it."
"Are you sure you don't want any money?"
I shook my head, "No, it's fine you can take it." Then I explained all about project nice.
He hunched over a little bit. "That's what your friend said." He paused, "It's going to my little sister. She lost her mother a week ago. I just got back from the funeral and I thought that the blanket would mean a lot to her."
Oh my God. I practically shoved the blanket in his hands. "Here no take it."
The we started to chat for a while. He spoke, I listened. I wished I had listened more carefully, done all the techniques my teacher education classes had taught me. But I also was texting Cindy and my Hubby to see where they were. I also didn't know what to say.

This happens to me lot, people tell me their life story. I'm fine with it, I love listening to stories, I try to give advice when it's appropriate. I guess I'm not a very threatening looking person. It also happens to my mom a lot, but she's very shy. I'm very proud of her for doing Project Nice. I know it's hard on her.

Back to the man, he was having what could only be the worst week of anyone's life. His Step Mother (who he considered to be his mother) passed away, she was a nurse completely healthy, went to bed and didn't wake up. His girlfriend broke up with him the next day. (For a rant on that, see my other blog) He needs to move back in with this father and help raise his sister, she's 12.
What was he doing at the mall? His cat had eaten a peice off of his camcorder and he was going to radio shack for a new piece. He didn't even know about the blood drive and when he saw it he wanted to donate blood in memory of mother.

REACTION.
Normally the reaction is what happened to the other person. This time it's my reaction. Sometimes we forget that everyone around us has feelings. That people aren't just objects taking up space. We never know what sort of day someone is having when we encounter them.

Life and time is precious.

When I told him about Project Nice, he wanted to sign up. I gave him the e-mail and the blog address. Do I expect him to check it out, not at all. He has a lot more on his plate than I do. I was amazed he took the time to talk to me to ask about my life.

I'm sure he was running on auto pilot and he just needed a stranger to talk to. Sometimes that's all we need. Looking back I wish I had done more for him, but what else could I have done?
Probably not texting... that was VERY wrong on many levels.

He made for an interesting experience. He even tried to find goodie bags for me and Cindy when there was a rumor 98 Rock had run out.

There's a lot of good people out there and some of them are having a rough time. Let's look be thankful for our lives and be nicer to one another.

Would I do it again: yes.
Cost: Nothing- a free blanket.
Effort: Listening to his story made me want to cry. I might have if I wasn't so nervous about giving blood.
Time: 30 minutes