Aurora's Blog

I know we have so much kidney stuff to talk about (oh, so much – many, many posts).

But, since I’m gonna be posting about other things for a while, and I’m heading out from my Ohio vacation, I just wanted to say I had a pretty lovely time (for the most part… some of the kidney stuff was a bit stressful. Just wait ’til you hear about it…)

Back to Ohio stories at hand – I finally gave blood again. (Embarrassingly, I’m pretty positive I didn’t give in all of 2012. (I did give in December of 2011, though…))

When I turned 17, I was incredibly excited to be able to give blood. I was all, “I’m gonna go every 56 days – always.” Sometimes I am better about it than others. But, I’m often too low in iron to give. One time my blood pressure was too low (but they let me go eat a bunch of salty foods and try again, and we were able to get it high enough to give that day).

I’m so often discouraged by my low iron that it’s made me try to give blood less often… But this time, I was in the 14s baby! (Minimum 12.5) I couldn’t believe it. So, hopefully I really will make giving blood (and getting iron) more of a priority. I have been trying to be better about iron supplements recently, and I think that shows in my awesomely high iron count.

Also, why have I even been talking about iron for 2 paragraphs? What is this, a blog or diary? (That line is definitely blurred sometimes!)

(Side note: I always loved giving blood at Children’s Hospital Boston. That was my go-to place after I moved there. They always had awesome swag for giving – shirts, bags, water bottles. It was like Christmas every time you went in there… And I always treated myself to a grilled cheese in the cafeteria, ’cause they were delicious.)

Other than giving blood, I also got to have “game show hour” with my sister while I was here. (I adore game shows… And I guess I kinda like my sister. ;))

“Game show hour” is when we’d go to the gym from 7-8, and work out next to each other on the treadmills. One of us (me, usually) would put on Jeopardy! followed by Wheel of Fortune. The other one would put on Family Feud. And we could watch 2 game shows at once. Amazing, right?

I also had fun running a few errands for my dad. I don’t love driving. (And I don’t have a car.) I think if I had to drive all the time, I might go a little nuts. But as someone who barely drives, it makes it fun every once in a while to hear all the pop songs I’m missing out on.

Running errands around Worthington really brought me back to high school. As a junior and senior, I probably spent 1/4 of my time doing theater errands – mainly getting props for shows (sometimes getting or dropping off people as well). Boy, oh boy, those were the days. So, it was nice to feel like a little high schooler running around the city again.

I also got to see a movie at the dollar theater! That’s right. There are movies here you can watch for $1. Why is Ohio so awesome?

I saw Wreck-It Ralph. I laughed and cried (as I do in oh-so-many kids movies because they are so emotional and imaginative, and I just (sniffles) love them.

Luckily, my friend who went with me seemed to think it was endearing instead of crazy.

In conclusion, Ohio was pretty awesome.

I really believe that it’s wildly important when you live in L.A. to do your best to escape, kind of as much as you can… I was going to say at least once a year, but let’s get real. You should probably just get out whenever you’re not working.

I like to remember what it’s like not to have the sun beating down on you everyday. (I saw snow while I was here in OH! Really. Snow!)

And I think it’s incredibly important to try to not get “too L.A.” I’ve seen people successfully live there for a while and still be wonderful human beings… (But not all are that lucky (and impervious).)

So, that’s it for Ohio. We will get back to kidney talk… but first, we’re gonna have to talk about The Price is Right. Don’t forget to watch Monday! (Tomorrow’s post is just a reminder for that.)