10.18.2010

under pressure.

have you ever seen those free blood test machines in the back of pharmacies? thanks to my ridiculous curiosity, i am overly fond of plopping into the chairs, sticking my hand through the armhole, and waiting for my vital statistics. other than the brief  arm squeeze, i have always considered these machines relatively harmless. ummmm.. not anymore!

one of the culprits.
today i was in k-mart (i know, i know, don't ask...) and after selecting some hot pink bottles of shampoo, i bumped into one of these chairs. naturally i sat down and pressed the green button. the arm squeezer squeezed and then it started to let out the air, but then it squeezed again. hmm. weird, but it quickly started to let out the air, so i thought i was in the clear. until it squeezed again. i was stuck. this machine was squeezing my arm and every time it would let out a little air, it would start squeezing again. yipes!! images of firemen cutting my arm out of the machine started popping into my head, which was not the least bit reassuring. thank goodness that after what seemed like a ridiculously long time (probably only 60 seconds) this slightly horrifying routine came to a halt. and my blood pressure was strangely not affected...unless the low numbers were due to my heart dropping to the floor. let us just say that in the future i might not be so eager to take these machines for a spin.