Copa

@Fyodor She’s in Michigan, where they seem to be sending vaccination appointment invitations to people in waves after you register online. Seems to be lottery-style for anyone meeting the criteria. She’s registered, but hasn’t heard anything and has tried a few times to get a human on the phone without luck. I talked to a friend of mine who lives in the same area and she forwarded me the information for a number to call. She said that you have to be quick on Monday mornings, when they know what’s leftover for that week, and call as soon as the line opens, then sit on hold for like two hours to talk to someone. It’s hit or miss, I think, but she said this is how she was able to get her grandma in and a couple of her grandma’s friends. Another friend who lives in the same county as my mom just texted that she went to a city dems meeting this morning and they announced that the county has vaccinated 11K out of 1.2 million people there. So. It’s slow going.

As far as Chicago vaccinations go, the only people I know outside of my therapist who have been vaccinated work for health systems. Hers is the only experience I know of where she wasn’t taken care of through her employer, so I don’t know how atypical it was. She said she didn’t realizing initially that she fell into the 1(a) phase since she’s only seeing patients virtually. She waffled on the ethics of getting vaccinated early knowing she’s at home all the time, but when she decided to go for it, she said she had to check various websites but relatively easily found an appointment in the city about a week out. (She said she’s heard that Walgreens opens up new appointments at midnight, but I am not sure if this is true since I haven’t looked into it.) I’m not sure when we’ll head into phase 1(c) but I’ll report back my own experience when I start trying to get myself in.

I’ve officially volunteered myself to help my mom get a vaccine appointment and have been trying to figure out what’s going on in her state. A friend there gave me some intel for how she has been helping her older relatives get set up with appointments, but my parents’ area seems more competitive than where her grandma lives. In any case, I’ll be waking up bright & early on Mondays moving forward to make the calls I’ve been told work.

My state is currently in phase 1(b) of vaccine distributions and I found out I should be eligible when we hit phase 1(c). Even if this turns out to not be the case or the guidance for our next phase changes, telling myself that maybe it could be as early as next month makes me feel better. Our winter is NOT the mild one I was hoping for and I’m clinging to anything hopeful at this point.

Uhh, yeah, I’ve read/heard on the news that Illinois is one of the worst states for vaccine rollout so far. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve checked Chicago’s public health website for vaccine info, but they had next to no information last I checked. I’m not expecting to get vaccinated for months still, but was hoping for… well, any amount of information really. Cook County outside of Chicago had more information and a form to fill out for updates/information. We had nothing.

Not sure if I mentioned this here, but my dad actually participated in a vaccine trial. He found out at the beginning of the month that he did receive the vaccine, not the placebo, last October-ish. So that’s great! My mom still needs to get hers but I’m not sure how it’s going. I have a friend in the same city/state my parents live in who has stepped in to get her older relatives get vaccine appointments. Her grandma recommended her services to all her friends so now she’s very popular with her grandma’s crowd. Unsure the process, but I think it requires being quick online, so maybe I’ll ask my mom if she wants me to step in. I’ve gotten my preferred reservation times at ridiculous Chicago hotspot restaurants so I feel like I’m equipped to nab COVID vaccine appointments.

I prefer not to discuss on the forums cause it’d be super easy to find me that way, but happy to connect on social media or something to discuss if you’re curious!

My boyfriend gets his second vaccine shot on Monday. Curious if he’ll have any mild adverse symptoms. My friend’s husband had zero symptoms after his second shot, another friend’s mom had a low-grade fever and chills after hers.

And yes, with the new variant strains, I did stock up on some KN95 masks a few weeks ago. I was mostly using homemade masks from my mom before and while they have a little “pouch” to add layers and have fun designs/patterns, I overall prefer the fit of the KN95 and generally feel like I’m safe and making others safer that way.

OK, that’s kind of hilarious, but man that would be so embarrassing if it happened to you. One of my cousins said she was once on a call where a coworker was scheduling a bikini wax and forgot to mute herself.

I had one angry boss who used to carry a baseball bat around to meetings and take practice swings in his office (floor to ceiling glass). Hated that guy.

A judge I work with routinely sends me “see attached” emails with no attachments. It’s an ongoing issue where she’ll send me nothing, I respond to let her know there’s no attachment, she goes MIA, eventually pops back up only to be confused, there’s a lot of back-and-forth, and eventually things get done on time and from the outside nobody would know the process of getting there is awful. Anyway, today she sent me some whacky email telling me that my inability to receive/download her attachments is a huge problem and suggesting we hold off on some things until the next fiscal year when I have more assistance. Ermm. I have not yet responded because I don’t know how to politely tell someone that I am not the one who needs assistance here and that perhaps she needs to stop conducting business via iPhone. I’m also not getting any additional assistance because ahaha it’s a pandemic and we’re on a hiring/pay freeze and btw I recently absorbed like half of someone else’s job that’s not even from my department because we also had to let some people go. I then Googled her and found several articles dating back to the late 90s saying she’s unqualified to retain her judgeship. Yet here were are 20+ years later.

Over the weekend we found out that one of BG’s childhood best friends, who was diagnosed with colon cancer maybe 4-5 years ago, is out of medical options. He went in for some scans and the doctors told him they think it’s time for him to look into hospice, that he could do another round of chemo, but they don’t think it will prolong his life and certainly won’t make his remaining time better quality. I’m pretty devastated and OMG did my heart hurt watching BG cry about the news. I only met him a few times, but he’s a good guy. Pretty awkward, great heart. It’s so fucking unfair that he’s spent the last year almost entirely alone (he’s single and high risk), and probably will not live to see life return to semi-normal. I’m not sure how his friend feels about this, but I told BG I’d not leave the house to go anywhere (by which I mean the grocery store since that’s basically the only place I go) except walk the dog so that they can safely see each other in person soon.