Last weekend, Saturday was Mer’s day. She could have done countless things to show her love and appreciation for me. She decided we should go to the church in New Baltimore and eat breakfast (good) and give blood (ouch). Mer has never given blood because she is afraid of needles. She finally decided she should give this year. The first donation date was snowed out in February, and she had a cold for the second donation date. This was it, though – no snow and Mer felt fine. We got to the church and had a hearty breakfast so as to not pass out when giving blood, and then we filled out the paperwork and had the preliminary stuff taken care of. Turns out that I was fine, but Mer had low iron in her blood, so she could not give that day. She did get to watch me get bled, though, so she could see the process. I have not given in years and years, and it is much the same as I remember it – slightly painful at first, and then uncomfortable, kind of like a pulled muscle. I always start out fast and then slow down, and this was no exception – I went over the suggested time (10 minutes, I think) by a couple of minutes. I then had a couple of glasses of juice, and we headed homeward.

Mer did have more fun, if less noble, plans for the evening. The family of one of Mer’s students has the tradition to throw a dinner for the teachers the sons have at school for that school year. I got to tag along as a spouse (the only one to go, now that I think of it). It is a very nice gesture, done in gratitude and appreciation for the work the various teachers put in. So, we went to the dinner, which turned out to be a pretty great time. The family is very nice, and there were several students (friends) around, so that kept things lively. I like my colleagues, and several were there – Don (Bible), Brittany (math), Dubbs (Latin), and Meredith (English). The family went all out, even up to making dinner from scratch, right down to homemade lasagna noodles. We then spent the rest of the evening chatting and playing a dice game called Farkle that Dubbs brought on her iPad and her iPhone. It was fun to watch people cheering or groaning over dice rolls (and some smack-talking as well). Meredith and I both ate too much (a common problem during the early summer as graduation parties gear up), but we had a great time.