Getting my Covid Vaccine Shot #1!

One of my greatest frustrations of this pandemic has been how different the rules, regulations, and procedures have been from state to state.  The inconsistencies have infuriated me over and over again, especially since we live in a state that has always been much more strict than other states when it comes to sending our children back to school and allowing them to participate in activities and sports outside of school.  Another recent frustration has been how slow our state has proceeded in making the vaccine accessible to the general, adult population in comparison to many other states in our country.  As of right now, a healthy adult who doesn't work in a specific industry (that has already been approved to receive an early vaccine) or who lives in a multi-generational household has to wait until May 1st to begin the laborious and often difficult process of making an appointment to get the first shot.  This is in comparison to several states who have already begun vaccinating anyone 16 years or older.  Since there is nothing that I can do about it, I just accepted this unfortunate circumstance and was hoping and praying that I would be vaccinated by the time we leave in July for our big trip to North Carolina.  And, then out of the blue today, I got an email from Ron that changed everything!

His high school campus has been host to a large, vaccination site every Wednesday for months now.  Since it is run by our county's department of health, Ron has had very little to do with it.  In fact, only one district employee was put in charge of it, but she is someone who Ron works with on a regular basis for activities and events relating to his high school.  Whenever there has been extra vaccines at the end of the day, they have always been offered to school employees.  However, in the past month, all school employees in our state have been vaccinated due to our governor making this a mandate.  So, for the first time ever, Ron realized that there might be a chance that a spouse of a school employee might be able to get a vaccine if there were any extras.  After asking the district employee in charge, he sent me an email yesterday morning informing me that I could receive one of these extra doses and to be ready to jump whenever he got the green light.  Luckily, all of Ella's birthday gifts were already wrapped and most of her birthday dinner could be made the hour or two before we sat down to eat.  This allowed me to drop everything on a day when I could have been a total stress case.

At one o'clock Ron emailed and called me and told me that I needed to come right now.  Since I had just put Emmett down for his nap and Wednesdays are one of two days that Lia and Logan are at school, I needed a babysitter to come and be in my house while I was gone.  Luckily, one of Lia's good friends goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and was available and willing to help me out.  So, after quickly driving to her house two minutes away to pick her up, I dropped her off, and drove the 15 minutes to Ron's school.  I pulled up at 1:25 and sighed a big sigh of relief since I was told to be there at 1:30.  With five minutes to spare, I pulled into line and quickly realized that I would not be getting my shot at 1:30.  I learned really fast that the line of cars that I had just pulled into is guided around all four sides of Ron's large high school before we are finished!  It is a very clever way to keep the traffic off of the road, but also deceiving when you first pull up.  

After waiting in line and slowly crawling around Ron's entire high school, I pulled up to vaccination tent exactly one hour later to the minute!  Two minutes later, I had received my vaccine, and was led to the front of Ron's school where I was told to wait for 15 minutes before leaving (to make sure that I didn't have any negative side effects that would prevent me from safely driving home).  Although I was so grateful to have received my first Covid shot before the rest of the general population does in my state, I was just as grateful to not have had my two-year old in the car with me the entire time!  It would have been an absolute nightmare to have had Emmett or any of my children in the car with me as I unexpectantly had to wait in such a lone line.  I was so grateful that I was able to leave my napping toddler at home with a babysitter while my other three children were in school.  Everything worked out perfectly and I was able to get home by 3 p.m. in time to pick Logan and Ella up from the school bus and have enough time to cook Ella's dinner for her party!  Now, if I can just stay Covid-free before I get my second vaccine in four weeks!

The FOUR lanes of cars that we were directed to drive into on the back side of Ron's high school.

Getting close to the front!  The row of white tents that the drivers pull into to receive their vaccine.

Next up!  Waiting in line to pull up for my shot after the car in front of me was done.

The tent that housed my vaccine.

Giving my camera a "thumb's up" sign while waiting in my car for 15 minutes after getting my shot.  What a relief and what a blessing to have a husband who could pull a serious string for me!  Thanks, Ron!