I remember that time in March when I was finally eligible for the COVID vaccine. I was in a frenzy to get vaccinated, losing my shit because the computer system New Jersey had set up was awful and the closest appointments were 50 miles away. When I finally was able to get an appointment - by using the toll free number to do it - I gladly drove 35 miles (one way) to do it. It was a mass vaccination site. The Army (or maybe the National Guard?) was basically running it. There was a military efficiency to it and a lot of relieved people. We politely waited our 15 minutes after getting our doses and went back out into the world. Not knowing what to expect, I gave myself the day off from working out (and the next day too!) and hoped to get back to some sense of normalcy. For a while I did. I even held out some hope of summer adventures, maybe some ~ intimacy ~ but then Delta swept through and just crushed all of that. The last few months have been a mental grind. Not so much because I feared getting COVID. I was (and am) good with the concept of getting vaccinated as protection against severe infection if I do get COVID but I still feel like my sails have been trimmed.
In any event, I went to get my booster today with so much less enthusiasm and excitement than when I got my first dose (I got J and J back in April and also for my booster). Just no joy, no sense of anticipation for a future that looks something close to normal, no people applauding or the selfie station they had set up at the mass vaccination site I went to in the spring. It had all the excitement of a trip to the dentist's office or renewing your driver's license. So yay, I am now vaccinated and boosted.
No comments:
Post a Comment