sometimes life is good
Jul. 8th, 2019 03:17 pmRandom nice but weird things that have happened to me recently:
1. A few days ago I got a letter from the Red Cross saying that they'd tested my blood (routine screening, done for all blood donors) and it turns out I have never caught/been exposed to cytomegalovirus (CMV). Which is apparently a flu-like virus that something like 85% of people have antibodies for by age 40. It's mostly harmless to adults, but can apparently do a real number on infants, so people who have no CMV antibodies are important blood donors for neonatal patients.
The Red Cross already really like me because I'm O+ and donate several times a year. Now they really really like me.
Which is nice! But also weird, because if CMV is a flu-like virus, that to me implies that it's an upper respiratory thing... and I am so susceptible to upper respiratory viruses that it would be difficult to exaggerate. So for me to somehow NOT have caught this one is frankly absurd. *wry*
2. A few months back my bank ran a little "contest" where anyone who took two free online financial education courses (which were ~5 minutes a pop) was entered into a drawing for a $50 prepaid Amazon gift card. I figured what the heck, financial literacy is a good thing in general, and ran through four or five that looked useful. I assumed that was the end of it, because I never win things... but apparently this time my luck changed. Because this morning I got an email saying I'd won, and should come pick up my card sometime in the next couple weeks.
So that's two nice but weird things in my recent life. :)
1. A few days ago I got a letter from the Red Cross saying that they'd tested my blood (routine screening, done for all blood donors) and it turns out I have never caught/been exposed to cytomegalovirus (CMV). Which is apparently a flu-like virus that something like 85% of people have antibodies for by age 40. It's mostly harmless to adults, but can apparently do a real number on infants, so people who have no CMV antibodies are important blood donors for neonatal patients.
The Red Cross already really like me because I'm O+ and donate several times a year. Now they really really like me.
Which is nice! But also weird, because if CMV is a flu-like virus, that to me implies that it's an upper respiratory thing... and I am so susceptible to upper respiratory viruses that it would be difficult to exaggerate. So for me to somehow NOT have caught this one is frankly absurd. *wry*
2. A few months back my bank ran a little "contest" where anyone who took two free online financial education courses (which were ~5 minutes a pop) was entered into a drawing for a $50 prepaid Amazon gift card. I figured what the heck, financial literacy is a good thing in general, and ran through four or five that looked useful. I assumed that was the end of it, because I never win things... but apparently this time my luck changed. Because this morning I got an email saying I'd won, and should come pick up my card sometime in the next couple weeks.
So that's two nice but weird things in my recent life. :)