I have ALL KINDS of freaky allergies and I admit I was apprehensive about the shot, but I figured: "You have a really low probability of dying from the shot, you have a slightly higher probability of dying from COVID if you get it (over 50, overweight, asthma), and you have a really, really high probability of your mental health going to total h-e-double-hocky-sticks if you're stuck in the house for months more"
I did warn the vaccinators and they were like, "okay, cool, go sit over there for half an hour after the vaccine"
First vaccine, no adverse effects, sore arm some hours later, mild headache that could have been allergies the next day. Second vaccine, no adverse events but definite flu-feeling the day after that lasted 2 days. That was over a weekend but if it had been a work day? I'd still have gone to work. I was achy and a little tired but it wasn't BAD.
I didn't faint but I started to cry with my first shot, but they were tears of relief.
I always boggle when I visit my mom in Illinois, that they sell straight-up booze (not just 3.2 beer, not just wine coolers, not even just wine) in the Walgreen's.
it's like, it's right there.
We very recently got the ability for groceries to sell full-point cold beer (there was some rule about it couldn't be cold) and wine. Not all of them do; many don't have space for it or they have owners that object, maybe? I think the two smaller groceries near me sell only beer; the wal-mart had wine (though I've not been in there in over a year now so that might have changed). In fat, Pruett's might not even sell beer....I don't remember seeing it (I'm trying to mentally scan the refrigerated cases and no, nope, i don't remember seeing beer).
We were promised that large grocery chains would come when we were allowed to sell wine. Still hasn't happened.
I wonder what would happen if they legalized recreational pot AND allowed groceries to sell it....(probably they can't, something something protect the kids something). Then again I'm not sure I'd want to see produce or cereal shelves given over to MJ....
1. Puts me in mind of how what the Brits used to call "the French Pox" was called "The English Disease" in France.
2. Banning Pepe - who is a joke and as Kristin pointed out, is meant as a joke at best and a horrible warning at worst - is EASY. Attacking the sleaziness of men in all levels of society (government, entertainment management, university administration, education, etc., etc.) or even considering that some women might act similarly* is HARD. So we do the easy things and pat ourselves on the back for doing SOMETHING.
It's like me feeling good that I picked up and threw away the old envelope from a bill I paid last week while ants invade my kitchen because I spilled sugar and never cleaned it up.
*All the cases of high school teachers (often women in their 20s) "seducing" their male students. Even if it's not statutory rape, there's something really gross about the power dynamic and I admit I am always creeped out when I hear about a prof macking on one of their students - there is SUPPOSED to be a distance there.
I dunno, I found the Pepe cartoons funny when I was a teen, but maybe I was and am just a troglodyte? A lot of what passes for humor now does not amuse me
and there were a lot of Paddington books. (Another thing I liked as a kid were "series books," where if you liked the main character you could follow their adventures through numerous books)
maybe THAT'S why I preferred the Mouse and the Motorcycle books to the Ramona books? I was DEFINITELY a rule follower (and a teacher's pet, though I would argue now that was self defense: the other kids were going to hate me anyway so I needed SOMEONE at school who seemed to be on my side).
But yeah, I get a bit weary of "rebellion for the sake of rebellion." There are times when rules are unjust and you should either try to work within the system to change them (my preference) or flout them if you have to, but being anti-rules as a reflexive position.....well, it's like that guy who's ALWAYS a "contrarian" online, you (me) just get tired of interacting with him and put him on mute.
And also what Lee said about the frustration with the rule-breakers when things go badly for them, and they come running to those of us still working within the system to fix their screw ups. I've seen that too.
Funny, I remember LOVING "My Side of the Mountain" as a kid, and that was pretty much one long rule-break. So I don't know. Then again I may have loved that book because it was someone being purely independent and getting away from other people who told him he could not do the thing he knew he could?
we can get Weetabix here, in a few stores, I assume they are similar? I don't know, the oatmeal works for me because it also reduces the decisions I must make down to nil. More and more these days I find I vapor-lock if I am in a hurry and I have to make too many decisions.
I used to sometimes do the "hot" Grape-Nuts, which is pretty good, except Grape-Nuts has been remarkably hard to find of late.
(small voice: I microwave my oatmeal. It's about all I can manage at 6:15 am. Half cup of the rolled flat stuff, small handful dark chocolate chips, "enough" milk, zap for 2 minutes. Also it means I only have a bowl to wash, not a bowl AND a pan)
look, if I had someone who loved me who wasn't rushing between exercise/preparing to go to work/packing the Sad Work Lunch/practicing piano, maybe I could ask for "real" oatmeal or a "real" breakfast....
I can't do cold cereal any more; a combination of bad teeth and bad sinuses means crunchy foods are unpleasant to me.
also living alone, it feels like more effort than I want to go to to get an Instant Pot and do the steel cut thing.
I'm so old I remember the Procter and Gamble thing. I think I actually lived through most, if not all, of it - the DnD thing being of the devil, the heavy-metal music thing, the false-memories-child-molesting thing (maybe not Satanic Panic but Satanic Panic-adjacent). Probably stuff I'm forgetting, too.
I don't remember the Mr. Ed thing, which is good, because it would have made me sad, Mr. Ed (in re-runs by then) was my absolute favorite tv show when I was about 4.
Seems to me, as a theologically liberal Christian, it's easy enough for people to do wrong (hurt others, damage the community) without making recourse to a literal devil - or seeing Satan worship behind every old logo that contains something they think is Satan-related. There have been, for example, far too many local news stories of church pastors who either cheated pretty flagrantly and awfully on their spouses, or who abused kids, or who embezzled.
(People make me sad a lot of the time)
Though I suppose it's a lot easier to point out the speck in your brother's eye - even if that speck doesn't actually exist - than to try to remove the plank from your own. I think that's a big part of looking for scapegoats; it's easier than cleaning your own house.
Gonna have to be a work-end, getting to be that time of the semester. I need to evaluate departmental-scholarship candidates and the online "portal" the university provides to do this is annoying to say the least. I also have three longish articles to tech-edit for a journal I do this as a volunteer service for.
I probably should also write an exam for one of my classes.
Ah well, I had spring break last week, I guess I am just paying for it now :P
Cynically, I would say "look at when stores asked people to put a literal piece of cloth on their faces in order to try to prevent spread of a potentially deadly disease"
I dunno. I don't like that this is the "normal" we seem to be returning to - that COVID has been bumped out of the news by mass shootings.
the end of my spring break here. It was....pretty good, actually? I got a fair amount of work done, planned my summer research, and even had a little (careful) fun.
tomorrow is Zoom meetup but if I can motivate myself before/after it I really need to clean the house. I made not one but TWO trips south of the border (=into Texas) this past week (once for general shopping, once to drop off a couple quilt tops at a quilter's but also took advantage of being closer to the slightly ritzier grocery store to go there too) so I have plenty of food ahead.
also if I can motivate myself I might bake a batch of Limpa (Swedish rye bread); I finally found rye flour at the natural-foods store.
yeah, but part of the coolness factor of the pendant is that it was from a plant that manufactured Corvettes; a homemade simulacrum wouldn't have the same history factor
At one time also, my dad had a piece of "fused" asphalt from when lightning struct a road; apparently he saw the strike and picked it up later because he wanted to thin section it and look at it (it had gone glassy). Now I don't know what happened to it, if he even kept it...
ThTh5: And it's a limited resource, because the auto companies have changed how they coat cars! (Also: there are a number of craftspeople who have stock of Fordite and make jewelry out of it. I have a Fordite pendant I ordered after seeing the original stuff online because it's just a cool thing)
Possibly? Though I remember when I was a college student, a certain subset of the other white students used to say bad things about both East Asian and South Asian fellow students, mainly in the vein of "we're gonna miss out on OUR chance in life 'cos of them danged furriners" - generally these were people who were going to do okay themselves in life so I didn't quite get it. (Not that there is anything to "get" about racism)
But they seemed to think the Asian folk (who had the stereotype of being high achievers) were going to "take their place." I also know Desi friends of mine in grad school talked about taking abuse from people because they were different and often because they were immigrants or children of immigrants.
This may be one part "distrust of the 'other,'" one part "Hey I might not get 'mine' because someone else came here and worked harder" (or whatever.)
I have crap shopping in my state, so I drive the ~40 ish miles into Texas for better shopping, and now this will really make me go "is it worth it or do I mail order yet again" especially if I have to do the accounting myself of "Oklahoma miles vs. Texas miles" and report it
I dunno. How are they gonna keep track of miles traveled? Make us all have snooper devices on our cars? Rely on us to accurately report? Photograph license plates? Just levy an average on people? Every Road A Turnpike?
This is going to hit people who live in remote areas the hardest.
I don't mind at all paying for road upkeep (if the money *actually* goes to that) but I don't think this is a good system or an equitable system
on the other side of the desk: as a professor, I HATED teaching from home. HATED it. I didn't have the right tools to do it right, my living room (which became my office) felt cramped and miserable, I couldn't stand and pace, I only had a "virtual" whiteboard.
And in spring 2020, when we were told to be all asynchronous-virtual, I had almost NO feedback from students other than "hey can you reopen the quiz I forgot to take it" or "I don't have enough bandwidth to watch your lectures can you make them a lot shorter" and I just wanted to give up.
I suppose some things need to change? but forcing me to wfh forever with no real chance to just casually talk with students (I did over-Zoom office hours; I had two people show up in the past two semesters) I would not last much longer.
I could also feel my skills and cognition atrophying. I am glad to be back in the classroom even if I am also carrying the added work of recording and posting the lectures as Zoom lectures (the students this fall were sternly warned to be sure they had access to enough bandwidth). Even at that there are things that are very suboptimal with how we are doing it now and I am praying this fall we can open up more, especially since the faculty should be fully vaccinated (and I presume many if not all the students will be)
I thought I was a loner but holy Hell this pandemic taught me how I depend on the many small daily interactions not to totally lose my stuff. I came VERY close to the edge several times between March and August 2020.
My spring break is next week. (It unofficially starts for me at 2:30 pm when I walk out of my graduate-level class for today).
My plan for tomorrow is to go back (for the first time in a bit more than a year!) to the big natural-foods store in Sherman. I had not been going because I mostly had not been going to Sherman, or the rare times I did, the "necessary" places were the only places I went. But I'm out of a lot of things they had that I enjoyed (and I hope they still have). They also were advertising what looked like seltzer water but root beer flavored and I really have to try that. (I like root beer but try to limit sugar, and if they can make unsweetened seltzer sufficiently approximate root beer, I will be happy).
Not sure where else I might go, but I feel like I want to go somewhere else while I'm down there.
But yeah. Gonna sleep as late as I need to tomorrow morning, not going to do any grading tomorrow (for a change). I will be working next week (trying to finish at least a draft of a manuscript, and trying to plan summer research, which will involve at least one trip out to a field site).
I'll just say my feelings about fellow humanity are about 80% more sour as a result of the pandemic, and more than once I've gone "go back out into the world? Why would I want to?"
I got vaccinated when I could, despite being apprehensive for myself (I have weird allergies and indeed, I came down with raging hives on top of the flu-like reaction that is typical)
but at least now I won't need to concern myself over "how many unmasked people might be in this store" when I need to buy groceries
this tracks with the experiences of friends of my mom's. One of them got Pfizer, and after her second shot only had a sore arm. The other one got Moderna and she had to go to bed for a day after her second shot. My mom got the Pfizer and only had arm soreness and a mild headache after her second shot
I got Pfizer and I'm feeling the second shot a little (mainly muscle ache and fatigue) but it's not BAD, if today were a teaching day I'd probably have just gone to work and powered through (though maybe asked my dept. chair if I could lie down on the sofa in the conference room between my classes)
this morning, yeah, I do feel a little crummy - muscle aches and tired. Not any worse than the tail end of a regular cold for me, and frankly, it reassures me because I take it to mean the vaccine "took"
also was extremely thirsty last night and drank a lot of water, which is not optimal before going to bed.
About four hours in, definitely sore arm, slight back-of-the-head headache, but that's also a common stress headache for me so I'm unwilling to say it's linked to the vaccine.
If there's any genetic link to how one reacts, I'm in for a decent experience: my mother reported almost no side effects (sore arm, mainly) after her second shot, and my uncle (my dad's brother so currently the closest genetic link on that side) said he had a sore arm and a mild headache that didn't even require tylenol.
I get my second dose today and I still feel like it's gonna be a good six months before I consider eating a meal INSIDE a restaurant. Carry out, sure. Maybe even go to a place with outdoor seating and sit there if the weather is good.
I'm contemplating traveling (by train, would be overnight, would get a roommette) to go see my mom in May but I am going to wait a bit longer to see if we get Surge 4 of Wave 1 or not. Because I can't believe this is going to be over. I may need counseling before I can go back out fully into the world but I still think it will be at LEAST six months before it gets more "normal" for me than "hey I don't feel like I'm taking my life into my hands to go buy milk"
I have nothing booked this weekend because second shot and I've been hearing horror stories of people being absolutely flattened for like a day because of the immune response to it. Even arranged to have simple to fix food on hand in case I just can't. Hoping I will be pleasantly surprised.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Champing at the Bit”
I have ALL KINDS of freaky allergies and I admit I was apprehensive about the shot, but I figured: "You have a really low probability of dying from the shot, you have a slightly higher probability of dying from COVID if you get it (over 50, overweight, asthma), and you have a really, really high probability of your mental health going to total h-e-double-hocky-sticks if you're stuck in the house for months more"
I did warn the vaccinators and they were like, "okay, cool, go sit over there for half an hour after the vaccine"
First vaccine, no adverse effects, sore arm some hours later, mild headache that could have been allergies the next day. Second vaccine, no adverse events but definite flu-feeling the day after that lasted 2 days. That was over a weekend but if it had been a work day? I'd still have gone to work. I was achy and a little tired but it wasn't BAD.
I didn't faint but I started to cry with my first shot, but they were tears of relief.
On “Wednesday Writs: 21st Amendment Gets Liquored Up Edition”
I always boggle when I visit my mom in Illinois, that they sell straight-up booze (not just 3.2 beer, not just wine coolers, not even just wine) in the Walgreen's.
it's like, it's right there.
We very recently got the ability for groceries to sell full-point cold beer (there was some rule about it couldn't be cold) and wine. Not all of them do; many don't have space for it or they have owners that object, maybe? I think the two smaller groceries near me sell only beer; the wal-mart had wine (though I've not been in there in over a year now so that might have changed). In fat, Pruett's might not even sell beer....I don't remember seeing it (I'm trying to mentally scan the refrigerated cases and no, nope, i don't remember seeing beer).
We were promised that large grocery chains would come when we were allowed to sell wine. Still hasn't happened.
I wonder what would happen if they legalized recreational pot AND allowed groceries to sell it....(probably they can't, something something protect the kids something). Then again I'm not sure I'd want to see produce or cereal shelves given over to MJ....
On “The Hod Carrier”
makes me wonder if he does that a lot, and if maybe *that's* the reason the hods wear out so fast, a squirmy baby instead of stationary bricks
On “Pepe Le Pew Is Not A Role Model”
1. Puts me in mind of how what the Brits used to call "the French Pox" was called "The English Disease" in France.
2. Banning Pepe - who is a joke and as Kristin pointed out, is meant as a joke at best and a horrible warning at worst - is EASY. Attacking the sleaziness of men in all levels of society (government, entertainment management, university administration, education, etc., etc.) or even considering that some women might act similarly* is HARD. So we do the easy things and pat ourselves on the back for doing SOMETHING.
It's like me feeling good that I picked up and threw away the old envelope from a bill I paid last week while ants invade my kitchen because I spilled sugar and never cleaned it up.
*All the cases of high school teachers (often women in their 20s) "seducing" their male students. Even if it's not statutory rape, there's something really gross about the power dynamic and I admit I am always creeped out when I hear about a prof macking on one of their students - there is SUPPOSED to be a distance there.
I dunno, I found the Pepe cartoons funny when I was a teen, but maybe I was and am just a troglodyte? A lot of what passes for humor now does not amuse me
On “Ramona Quimby Is Not A Role Model”
and there were a lot of Paddington books. (Another thing I liked as a kid were "series books," where if you liked the main character you could follow their adventures through numerous books)
"
oh, I loved Paddington. I loved how he was fundamentally polite BUT could level a "hard stare" when someone deserved it.
"
maybe THAT'S why I preferred the Mouse and the Motorcycle books to the Ramona books? I was DEFINITELY a rule follower (and a teacher's pet, though I would argue now that was self defense: the other kids were going to hate me anyway so I needed SOMEONE at school who seemed to be on my side).
But yeah, I get a bit weary of "rebellion for the sake of rebellion." There are times when rules are unjust and you should either try to work within the system to change them (my preference) or flout them if you have to, but being anti-rules as a reflexive position.....well, it's like that guy who's ALWAYS a "contrarian" online, you (me) just get tired of interacting with him and put him on mute.
And also what Lee said about the frustration with the rule-breakers when things go badly for them, and they come running to those of us still working within the system to fix their screw ups. I've seen that too.
Funny, I remember LOVING "My Side of the Mountain" as a kid, and that was pretty much one long rule-break. So I don't know. Then again I may have loved that book because it was someone being purely independent and getting away from other people who told him he could not do the thing he knew he could?
On “Weekend Plans Post: Relearning What My Grandparents Knew About Oatmeal, Of All Things”
we can get Weetabix here, in a few stores, I assume they are similar? I don't know, the oatmeal works for me because it also reduces the decisions I must make down to nil. More and more these days I find I vapor-lock if I am in a hurry and I have to make too many decisions.
I used to sometimes do the "hot" Grape-Nuts, which is pretty good, except Grape-Nuts has been remarkably hard to find of late.
"
*looks around sadly*
(small voice: I microwave my oatmeal. It's about all I can manage at 6:15 am. Half cup of the rolled flat stuff, small handful dark chocolate chips, "enough" milk, zap for 2 minutes. Also it means I only have a bowl to wash, not a bowl AND a pan)
look, if I had someone who loved me who wasn't rushing between exercise/preparing to go to work/packing the Sad Work Lunch/practicing piano, maybe I could ask for "real" oatmeal or a "real" breakfast....
I can't do cold cereal any more; a combination of bad teeth and bad sinuses means crunchy foods are unpleasant to me.
also living alone, it feels like more effort than I want to go to to get an Instant Pot and do the steel cut thing.
On “A Good, Old Fashioned, All-American Satanic Panic”
I'm so old I remember the Procter and Gamble thing. I think I actually lived through most, if not all, of it - the DnD thing being of the devil, the heavy-metal music thing, the false-memories-child-molesting thing (maybe not Satanic Panic but Satanic Panic-adjacent). Probably stuff I'm forgetting, too.
I don't remember the Mr. Ed thing, which is good, because it would have made me sad, Mr. Ed (in re-runs by then) was my absolute favorite tv show when I was about 4.
Seems to me, as a theologically liberal Christian, it's easy enough for people to do wrong (hurt others, damage the community) without making recourse to a literal devil - or seeing Satan worship behind every old logo that contains something they think is Satan-related. There have been, for example, far too many local news stories of church pastors who either cheated pretty flagrantly and awfully on their spouses, or who abused kids, or who embezzled.
(People make me sad a lot of the time)
Though I suppose it's a lot easier to point out the speck in your brother's eye - even if that speck doesn't actually exist - than to try to remove the plank from your own. I think that's a big part of looking for scapegoats; it's easier than cleaning your own house.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Shaking My Head Like I’ve Napped Too Long”
Gonna have to be a work-end, getting to be that time of the semester. I need to evaluate departmental-scholarship candidates and the online "portal" the university provides to do this is annoying to say the least. I also have three longish articles to tech-edit for a journal I do this as a volunteer service for.
I probably should also write an exam for one of my classes.
Ah well, I had spring break last week, I guess I am just paying for it now :P
On “Shooting at Boulder Grocery Store Leaves 10 Dead”
Cynically, I would say "look at when stores asked people to put a literal piece of cloth on their faces in order to try to prevent spread of a potentially deadly disease"
I dunno. I don't like that this is the "normal" we seem to be returning to - that COVID has been bumped out of the news by mass shootings.
On “Weekend Plans Post: A Year Of Quarantine”
the end of my spring break here. It was....pretty good, actually? I got a fair amount of work done, planned my summer research, and even had a little (careful) fun.
tomorrow is Zoom meetup but if I can motivate myself before/after it I really need to clean the house. I made not one but TWO trips south of the border (=into Texas) this past week (once for general shopping, once to drop off a couple quilt tops at a quilter's but also took advantage of being closer to the slightly ritzier grocery store to go there too) so I have plenty of food ahead.
also if I can motivate myself I might bake a batch of Limpa (Swedish rye bread); I finally found rye flour at the natural-foods store.
On “Thursday Throughput: COVID Vaccine Side Effects Edition”
yeah, but part of the coolness factor of the pendant is that it was from a plant that manufactured Corvettes; a homemade simulacrum wouldn't have the same history factor
At one time also, my dad had a piece of "fused" asphalt from when lightning struct a road; apparently he saw the strike and picked it up later because he wanted to thin section it and look at it (it had gone glassy). Now I don't know what happened to it, if he even kept it...
"
ThTh5: And it's a limited resource, because the auto companies have changed how they coat cars! (Also: there are a number of craftspeople who have stock of Fordite and make jewelry out of it. I have a Fordite pendant I ordered after seeing the original stuff online because it's just a cool thing)
On “8 Killed in Atlanta Massage Parlor Shootings”
Possibly? Though I remember when I was a college student, a certain subset of the other white students used to say bad things about both East Asian and South Asian fellow students, mainly in the vein of "we're gonna miss out on OUR chance in life 'cos of them danged furriners" - generally these were people who were going to do okay themselves in life so I didn't quite get it. (Not that there is anything to "get" about racism)
But they seemed to think the Asian folk (who had the stereotype of being high achievers) were going to "take their place." I also know Desi friends of mine in grad school talked about taking abuse from people because they were different and often because they were immigrants or children of immigrants.
This may be one part "distrust of the 'other,'" one part "Hey I might not get 'mine' because someone else came here and worked harder" (or whatever.)
On “Vehicle Miles-Traveled (VMT) Tax”
I have crap shopping in my state, so I drive the ~40 ish miles into Texas for better shopping, and now this will really make me go "is it worth it or do I mail order yet again" especially if I have to do the accounting myself of "Oklahoma miles vs. Texas miles" and report it
I dunno. How are they gonna keep track of miles traveled? Make us all have snooper devices on our cars? Rely on us to accurately report? Photograph license plates? Just levy an average on people? Every Road A Turnpike?
This is going to hit people who live in remote areas the hardest.
I don't mind at all paying for road upkeep (if the money *actually* goes to that) but I don't think this is a good system or an equitable system
On “The First Day of School, Believing the Science, and Anecdotal Evidence”
on the other side of the desk: as a professor, I HATED teaching from home. HATED it. I didn't have the right tools to do it right, my living room (which became my office) felt cramped and miserable, I couldn't stand and pace, I only had a "virtual" whiteboard.
And in spring 2020, when we were told to be all asynchronous-virtual, I had almost NO feedback from students other than "hey can you reopen the quiz I forgot to take it" or "I don't have enough bandwidth to watch your lectures can you make them a lot shorter" and I just wanted to give up.
I suppose some things need to change? but forcing me to wfh forever with no real chance to just casually talk with students (I did over-Zoom office hours; I had two people show up in the past two semesters) I would not last much longer.
I could also feel my skills and cognition atrophying. I am glad to be back in the classroom even if I am also carrying the added work of recording and posting the lectures as Zoom lectures (the students this fall were sternly warned to be sure they had access to enough bandwidth). Even at that there are things that are very suboptimal with how we are doing it now and I am praying this fall we can open up more, especially since the faculty should be fully vaccinated (and I presume many if not all the students will be)
I thought I was a loner but holy Hell this pandemic taught me how I depend on the many small daily interactions not to totally lose my stuff. I came VERY close to the edge several times between March and August 2020.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Daylight Saving Time and The Storm Of The Century”
My spring break is next week. (It unofficially starts for me at 2:30 pm when I walk out of my graduate-level class for today).
My plan for tomorrow is to go back (for the first time in a bit more than a year!) to the big natural-foods store in Sherman. I had not been going because I mostly had not been going to Sherman, or the rare times I did, the "necessary" places were the only places I went. But I'm out of a lot of things they had that I enjoyed (and I hope they still have). They also were advertising what looked like seltzer water but root beer flavored and I really have to try that. (I like root beer but try to limit sugar, and if they can make unsweetened seltzer sufficiently approximate root beer, I will be happy).
Not sure where else I might go, but I feel like I want to go somewhere else while I'm down there.
But yeah. Gonna sleep as late as I need to tomorrow morning, not going to do any grading tomorrow (for a change). I will be working next week (trying to finish at least a draft of a manuscript, and trying to plan summer research, which will involve at least one trip out to a field site).
On “What is the Goal of Vaccine Discourse?”
I'll just say my feelings about fellow humanity are about 80% more sour as a result of the pandemic, and more than once I've gone "go back out into the world? Why would I want to?"
I got vaccinated when I could, despite being apprehensive for myself (I have weird allergies and indeed, I came down with raging hives on top of the flu-like reaction that is typical)
but at least now I won't need to concern myself over "how many unmasked people might be in this store" when I need to buy groceries
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Home Stretch?”
this tracks with the experiences of friends of my mom's. One of them got Pfizer, and after her second shot only had a sore arm. The other one got Moderna and she had to go to bed for a day after her second shot. My mom got the Pfizer and only had arm soreness and a mild headache after her second shot
I got Pfizer and I'm feeling the second shot a little (mainly muscle ache and fatigue) but it's not BAD, if today were a teaching day I'd probably have just gone to work and powered through (though maybe asked my dept. chair if I could lie down on the sofa in the conference room between my classes)
"
this morning, yeah, I do feel a little crummy - muscle aches and tired. Not any worse than the tail end of a regular cold for me, and frankly, it reassures me because I take it to mean the vaccine "took"
also was extremely thirsty last night and drank a lot of water, which is not optimal before going to bed.
"
About four hours in, definitely sore arm, slight back-of-the-head headache, but that's also a common stress headache for me so I'm unwilling to say it's linked to the vaccine.
"
If there's any genetic link to how one reacts, I'm in for a decent experience: my mother reported almost no side effects (sore arm, mainly) after her second shot, and my uncle (my dad's brother so currently the closest genetic link on that side) said he had a sore arm and a mild headache that didn't even require tylenol.
"
I get my second dose today and I still feel like it's gonna be a good six months before I consider eating a meal INSIDE a restaurant. Carry out, sure. Maybe even go to a place with outdoor seating and sit there if the weather is good.
I'm contemplating traveling (by train, would be overnight, would get a roommette) to go see my mom in May but I am going to wait a bit longer to see if we get Surge 4 of Wave 1 or not. Because I can't believe this is going to be over. I may need counseling before I can go back out fully into the world but I still think it will be at LEAST six months before it gets more "normal" for me than "hey I don't feel like I'm taking my life into my hands to go buy milk"
I have nothing booked this weekend because second shot and I've been hearing horror stories of people being absolutely flattened for like a day because of the immune response to it. Even arranged to have simple to fix food on hand in case I just can't. Hoping I will be pleasantly surprised.
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