Getting the Jab

 

I got shot #1 of the COVID 19 vaccine today (May 1, 2021.) It was a lovely Saturday and my husband drove me down to a pharmacy in Lynn to get my shot. As he works in construction, he’d gotten his (one shot) vaccine some weeks prior. While I had initially felt that given that I am working from home *everyone* in the Bay State is entitled to get a vaccine before me, I have changed my mind in the past few weeks.

 

For one thing, while there was an initial rush after the rules changed on 04/19 and anyone could sign up things seem to have tapered off a bit. I didn’t feel like I was stealing anyone eles’s place in line.

 

I signed in at the front of the store and got in line. The line went through the hallmark card aisle, so we all stood 6 feet away from each other in between shelves displaying Mother’s day cards and graduation cards in Spanish and English. Most of the people in line were Latinx, but there were a few black ladies and a very large Caucasian dude with a big mullet wearing a t-shirt advertising a local marina. 

 

They were playing 80s tunes in the pharmacy that day. I noticed the guy in front of me dancing a little bit to St Elmo’s fire, but I suspect he was just moving his limbs to keep his knees from feeling stiff.

 

The nurse practitioner who administered the shots was bilingual. She asked every one of us it we were excited to be getting our first dose—whether it was my middle aged self, or the high school kid who went two people after me.  How they found this woman and convincer her that her skills were needed in Lynn is a mystery to me but clearly they picked the right woman for the job.

 

Après jab, we all needed to sit for 15 minutes. During this time, we all stared at out phones. I was reading a book on my phone, but you’d never know. No one had a paper book or newspaper or magazine—just phones. The pharmacy treated us to Come on Irene and a reminder that Mother’s Day is May 9^th.  

 

I was feeling a little addled by the time I left, but I suspect this was more due to the fact that I couldn’t find a lightening cable than to the vaccine dose I’d just had.

 

One down and one to go

 

Getting vaccinated is your duty