The Vaccine (Part 1)

 The email saying I could register for the Covid vaccine hit my inbox while I was teaching 8th Grade American Government. 

But at the same time, and for the very first time, my students had meaningful questions about their assignment. 

The website kept crashing as I frantically tried to enter my information in between hearing my name called from black, faceless squares on Zoom. One attempt went through. I had an appointment for Wednesday, January 27th at 9:10am. 

The morning of my appointment, I felt elated. I had absolutely no concerns or fears. It was just pure relief. I put up independent work for my students, kissed Jaime and said, "Bye. I'm going to get a life changing vaccine now." 

I got to the hospital right on time despite the ice and snow from the night before and put two quarters in the parking meter hoping I'd bought myself enough time. Then I got lost twice. A nice man gave me directions to the building where they were administering the vaccine. "It has a big purple sign in front of it. Can't miss it." 

The sign was more of a taupey mauve, but I trusted that I was in the right place. 

By then, I was no longer on time so I too excitedly said "yes" when a women inside the entrance asked me if I had an appointment. She told me where to stand, and I got a clipboard. An employee came to collect my paperwork and check me in before skeptically asking if I had any conditions that allowed me to get the vaccine today. I said I didn't but that I'm a teacher and we'd been given the go ahead to register. 

She acted exasperated and explained that they'd realized they didn't have enough of the vaccine the previous afternoon to vaccinate teachers unless they had conditions that put them at a higher risk. 

Okay. Well, I was clearly not at that fucking meeting and quite frankly would have appreciated an email. 

She asked me...and it's very important to me that you know that she asked me...if I wanted to speak to the supervisor. 

This Karen did, so I parked my ass aside to wait for the supervisor. It was during this time that I could finally look down the line I had been standing in. Not only was I the youngest person, I was the youngest by decades, maybe centuries? I was clearly also the healthiest and among the wealthiest despite my sweatpants and serious split ends. But you can get away with those things in your youth. 

Jesus Christ, Karen. 

I got information from the supervisor detailing the list of conditions I thankfully do not have and an explanation that teachers are in Phase 1B- Tier 3: Critical Infrastructure not Phase 1B- Tier 2: High-Risk Individuals and that they only had enough for them...hopefully. 

I spoke to my HR director and sent her a photo of my hard copy, another list in history that might actually decide who lives and who dies, because I didn't want my colleagues to be surprised if they were lucky enough to be turned away, but I also didn't want to discourage them from trying if they weren't so fortunate. 

I wasn't disappointed anymore. I just wanted to get home, but I couldn't find my car. 

When I finally got back to it, I had one minute left on the meter. Fuck yes. I'd timed it perfectly.