Vid Shot

My fiancé and I took an Uber to the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey to get our first Covid vaccine shot.

When we got there I knew we had walked into a dystopian movie. I think any time a sports facility is repurposed you’re in a dystopian movie. When there’s army men. When you don’t know what anyone looks like and nobody knows what you look like. When you have tinnitus and everyone is wearing a mask and you can’t hear what anyone is saying. And there’s slogans everywhere. We have walked into a dystopian movie.

I decided to watch as they injected my fiance. I’m glad I went first. The needle is about an inch long. They shove that whole thing in. After two open heart surgeries, I did not know that the whole metal part was shoved in your arm. It’s not like an IV that travels parallel to your skin’s surface. It goes straight in. Perpendicular.

By evening my shoulder was sore as hell. I was not able to avoid the side effects, and now, once I get the second shot, I am sure I will be all feverish and weak, as others have described. Inescapable reality.

After the shot we went to the 15 minute self monitoring area. We couldn’t find seats next to each other. They were playing “People are Strange,” on the radio. I thought “Strange days.” They really are.

“Dancing Days” came on next. Are they here again?
The only upside to this mess is that the Mask (Uppercase Mask) interferes with government facial recognition. But we probably have that chip in us now. It’s hard to feel good about any of this. I read a report that somebody got

Covid the day after getting the vax. Everything about this situation seems mixed up and confused. There’s pro government people screaming, “Wear a fucking mask,” and “Stay the fuck home!” There’s anti government people, who I tend to agree with, who still seem suspect. Again, it’s hard to feel good about anything these days.