On labor day I went to the Red Cross blood donor station temporarily set up at a local mall, and there was such a long line of people there that 4 hours ended up elapsing between when I put my name on the wait list and when I finally got stuck.

At least it was in the mall, so I could go to the food court and Waldenbooks, etc., while waiting. And like I said, waiting to give blood is a hell of a lot better than waiting to get blood.

People in other cities have told me that they experienced the same thing. More than one person has said that when they went to volunteer last week, they were put on a waiting list and told "don't call us, we'll call you".

I really hope that this represents a surplus of folks wanting to help, rather than a lack of proper organization to do something with them all.