Lesson Learned

Isn't life great when you can learn a valuable lesson? And this is a big one too!!!: Do NOT and I repeat, DO NOT start the Slim-Fast Diet the day before you donate blood. Who knew that a mere 24 hours would make such a difference? Last Friday I had Slim-Fast for lunch. I ate a grilled chicken sandwich and fries for dinner. Saturday morning I ate a Breakfast Jack and at noon when I donated blood at the science museum, well, my body was having none of that and violently protested. Mudflap pointed out later, "Your body is smarter than you are." No foolin'!

I've donated blood probably around 30 times in my lifetime and while I've gotten slightly sick just 2-3 times before, this last time was the kicker! Thank God little bro' was there to help carry me to the bathroom. There was no appeasing my system, not juice, not food, nothing! I didn't start to feel ok until 30-45 min. later. And the rest of the day I was wiped out and weak. Somehow I managed to still go grocery shopping and make S's V-day sausage balls--eating cookies helped. Lawd!

The other bad news is that this blood donation revealed that, after many years of having a healthy cholesterol level, now my cholesterol is 201, or borderline high. Not good, although I do credit that to all this recent overindulgence of sweets of various kinds. I have had a couple of arguments lately with friends who are concerned about my desire to lose a few pounds (my ex-Sgt. says, "You look good!") but now I have the evidence to prove that it needs to be done. Today's lunch of a chocolate Slim-Fast was extra satisfying! (Ok. Maybe not.)

Dramatic blood donation experience aside, "Valentina" Day was nice. S came home early from work and caught me making the sausage balls, but he loved having them to snack on that night. He brought home carnations (roses are reserved for our anniversary, 3 days later and sans jacked-up rose prices!) and also the movie Soul Men, which I'd been wanting to watch. Unfortunately we didn't finish it since it wasn't that good.

Sunday I finally got a haircut after 7 months and later met J. Fu at the Big Easy for a blues diva benefit. Our bass player friend Larry asked me to spell him for a set--no need to ask me twice! Even though I had to literally rip off my fingernails and Larry's bass had brutal flat-wound strings on them, it was so fun to get up there and rock out. I miss playing more than I care to think about it.

Monday was a holiday from Job #1 and I gave myself the day off from Job #2 so I could get a patrol shift in. Not much was going on though we did inspect some gang graffiti and I got a good lesson on the meanings of lots of the symbols, signs, letters, etc. We made one arrest of a dumbass idiot that was trying to break into cars and later were called to a non-responsive 75-year old man that had stopped breathing. His wife was crying and his daughter was heroically doing chest compressions and CPR while paramedics got ready to shock him. I got a little teary-eyed feeling their pain and feeling empathy for them, especially in light of such a nice V-day with S, but then reminded myself that I'm a big bad cop and to knock it off. Still, the guy had had 2 previous heart attacks and was taking Lipitor in addition to a number of other medications, which brings me back to the need for me to get my cholesterol back down and lose some weight!