No word of a lie: quite possibly my favorite phrase from our Canadian friends up north. Since today is a day most people devote to fooling others, I thought I’d mix it up a bit and air some of my Red Cross-related secrets for the world to know. Yup, these are all the honest truth.
(Credit to my friend Robin for putting the idea in my head about having a day devoted to the opposite of April Fool’s. I think it’s brilliant.)
1. The most appealing part of donating blood to me is the chance to portion off a break in the middle of the day. Doing good and helping someone in need is great, but on a purely selfish level, I rather like the excuse to leave my desk and sit in a comfy chair with a blanket and just concentrate on bleeding into a bag. Thanks to the excellent phlebotomists at our donation center, the experience has always been quick and easy – making it more likely that I’ll want to keep donating. Win/win.
2. I’m an earthquake newbie, and I kind of want to experience one so I can test my skills. Here at the Red Cross, we all eventually start to know the preparedness and safety tips by heart. In 2011, the DC area experienced the largest earthquake in the region for 100+ years. I was actually on the beach in the Outer Banks at the time enjoying my vacation, so I completely missed it. Luckily, the earthquake didn’t cause widespread damage and all of my friends and family were just fine. Many people said that when the quake happened, they froze; even my colleagues who were in the office at the time experienced some hesitation. A tiny part of me really wishes that I had actually been in DC so I could test my earthquake survival skills.
3. My favorite part of my job is reading the occasional hilarious Red Cross-related tweet. As a social engagement team member, I try to stay on top of what people are saying about topics the Red Cross cares about every day. I’ve had many literal LOL moments in the office when reading mentions of Red Cross online. We deal with so many serious topics that sometimes a little bit of humor can go a long way. Keep it coming, folks!
4. Walking the walk is much harder than I thought it would be. As mentioned above, I know a LOT of preparedness and safety tips by heart. However, I still struggle with maintaining a good emergency kit in my home. Recently, I tweeted about this with the hashtag #prepconfessions to try to get myself motivated to do something about it. I did come away from the conversations I had with some new ideas, however – hopefully this means that I’ll finally fill out my emergency kit with some food and tools that can help when disaster strikes.
One revelation that I’m going to try out:
#prepconfessions worry #1 is $$. Idea for Amazon shoppers: make a wishlist of stuff for an em. kit, add 1 item to cart each time you order.
— Gloria Huang (@riaglo) March 27, 2013
5. The coolest part of my recent tour of Clara Barton’s home in Glen Echo, MD was the painting of her cat in the dining room. What can I say, I love cats.
Happy April, everyone!