first shot down

[chelseagirl]

Yesterday I went to the Javits Center to get my first shot. (Pfizer, it turns out.) I realized, as I was waiting on line, that it was in the same space where I'd waited to get Christopher Eccleston's autograph at the last NY Comicon, which was also the last time I was at Javits. (He was lovely; it was a gift for M.)

On the one hand, since NY State has in-person college instructors in the 1B group, and since I am expected on campus to teach my Converged Learning classes -- and have to take public transit to get there -- I feel mostly relief. (NJ, where I teach, has college instructors lower down on the priority list, so my only colleagues who are getting it are 65+ -- which is pretty common among college professors, who are known for retiring around very late -- and the folks like me who commute from NY.)

On the other, I was feeling guilty as anything that my 87 year old mother still didn't have an appointment. She's not on the internet, so a couple of friends were trying to book things for her. And she is self-limited as to how far away she wants to drive these days, which cut out a lot of possible locations -- but shows admirable good sense, I think. Since I'm not actually *from* the Buffalo area, where my parents have lived since just before my junior year of college, I didn't feel overly confident that I would make the right choice for her -- I don't know the area super-well, to be honest.

This morning, I was delighted to get a text that my mom has an appointment for this coming Tuesday. It's in Rochester, which is an hour away, but a family friend is going to drive her. Not only that, but it's the Johnson & Johnson "one and done" vaccine, so she'll be fully protected before I will be -- I have my follow-up on the 25th.

So I get to have much less mixed feelings about having gotten mine. And I'll be able to see her a lot sooner than I'd feared.

I'm pretty wiped out today and decided I'd split today's work tasks between Saturday and Sunday, although I'm not sure if it was the vaccine or a bout of insomnia last night. I am sore at the injection site, as promised.

M, who is not in a group that has priority, has decided it would be better to wait and hopefully get the J&J one-shot at a neighborhood drugstore later on.

Comments

[corvidology]

Congrats on getting your first shot and that's lovely news about your mother getting an appointment! \o/

[chelseagirl]

Thanks! It so much feels better knowing it's started, especially with all the public transit I take . . . .
And mom! They've found her a more local appointment with a two-dose vaccine; I'm not sure hope I feel about that, but I do feel good that friends in her area are looking out for her.

[trepkos]

Hurray for science!

[chelseagirl]

Yay!!!!!!!

[malinaldarose]

Happy shot day for you and I'm glad your Mom got an appointment. We had some slots open up locally, but by the time my mom found out about them, they were gone.

[chelseagirl]

I think it's persistence and luck?

Mom's not going to Rochester now, because friend C found her a more local appointment. It's not the one-shot, so I'm not sure it's an improvement, but I just appreciate that someone's looking out for her in a way that I can't because of distance and unfamiliarity.

[scripsi]

I'm glad your mother is getting her vaccine! My parents still haven't got as far, despite Stockholm City promising everyone over 70 to get theirs during February. It's really mishandled here, and I'm upset.

[chelseagirl]

I am so pleased for her!

That's terrible. It hasn't been great here, but it's getting better, as Washington has new priorities, shell we say? ;-)

[scripsi]

I can imagine!

Part of the problem here is that we have got far less vaccine than promised, but that is certainly not the whole problem, and I'm fuming!

[chelseagirl]

Supply chain issues have been a big problem. So is implementation, in different ways in different places. In the US, it's been so much about being proactive and persistent to get your appointment. My mom should have had hers long ago, but she isn't computer literate. There was almost an "independence penalty" against folks in their 80s and 90s who are able to live on their own, as they're less likely to be able to schedule appointments online. Thank goodness for our friend who persisted. Mom turned her down the first time she offered when she was booking for her own mother -- she assumed it would be like her flu shot and she'd just wander into the drugstore and get it.

[lunabee34]

So happy you got your shot and that your mom is getting hers.

[chelseagirl]

I am so excited!

Also it kind of makes up for all this nonsensical "take high risk public transit to work so maybe a couple of students can attend in person" stuff. NJ doesn't have teachers or professors in as high a priority as NY does, so folks in my department are getting their shots if they a) are 65+, and of course professors never retire so that's quite a few of them, OR b) commute from NY like I do.

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

Our professoriat is very skewed toward the 60+ demographic in large part because it's really hard to convince people to come work here LOL and so most of the younger faculty leave when a better gig comes up; this is just a stepping stone.

[chelseagirl]

I applied for every single job in my field, except at "Christian" colleges, throughout the US and Canada every year. For years. And got very few nibbles. I would have gone anywhere. It's hard for me to believe, in the soul-crushing academic market, that anywhere has trouble recruiting. In the end I only got a full time job because I knew someone who put me onto a "you have to apply for this!" situation.

I still have PTSD from the academic job market. I think I haven't applied for Senior Lecturer, which I qualified for a year or two ago, because getting together a portfolio once again makes it all come rushing back.

[lunabee34]

I am so sorry that happened to you; it sounds utterly soul crushing and horrible.

I hope you do apply for senior lecturer; I think you deserve to be recognized for the excellent teaching you're doing.

I don't know what exactly hurts us so much in recruiting; for example, one year, we got all the way to the interview stage for two open positions, and all six of the candidates we brought onto campus to interview declined. We weren't able to hire anyone that year because of it.

[chelseagirl]

It was maybe five years out of my life. I felt utterly worthless.

Wow. I guess I'd wonder what they were looking for in candidates. I'm pretty sure I know what checkboxes I didn't fit, despite having good qualifications.

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

I'm so sorry you went through that.

[teragramm]

Congrats on getting your first dose. I got mine, last Sunday but it's Moderna. My 2nd dose is April 1st. I'm glad to hear that your mom got an appointment.

My brother lives upstate (near Utica), he too is not really active on the computer. This AM I tried looking for appointments for him. I found quite a few near his house but he wants J&J and no J&J shots were available at this time. CVS is offering J&J but not in a store near my brother. I guess I have to try again next week.

[chelseagirl]

Mom was supposed to get J&J in a CVS in Rochester, but they found her an appointment in the next town over from where she lives. But it's a 2 dose thing. I'm not sure I'm 100% pleased, but I get why and I appreciate that there's a friend watching out for her.

There'll be more J&J coming out, but I can't imagine being that specific at this point. I just want to be fully vaccinated and get on with my still-masked, still-socially distanced, but safer and a bit less circumscribed life!

[herself_nyc]

I was surprised NOT to be sore at the injection site, but I began to feel very wrung out energy-wise even as I was walking home from Javits and was just benched for the rest of the day. But then OK again the following day.

When I got the 2-dose shingles vaccine a couple years ago, my arm hurt for weeks afterwards, like someone had punched me repeatedly in the same spot.