One whole year

Yesterday afternoon Gregg and I received our second doses of the Covid-19 vaccination. What a relief to know that in two more weeks we'll be fully protected from this dread virus.

It's been almost exactly one year since all this began. I'm glad I didn't know at the time exactly how long the pandemic was going to drag out; I distinctly remember thinking that in a few weeks it would be under control and life would get back to normal. Haha!

I'm thankful for science and the worldwide effort it took to get effective vaccines developed and distributed in such a short amount of time. Well, short is relative but you know what I mean. With all the loss of life and all the suffering, I'm also grateful that neither we nor anyone we're close to and love have gotten seriously ill or died. (I should qualify that and add the word yet so as not to tempt fate). 

So far the side effects from the second shot have been mild. My arm started to hurt sooner this time and was (and is) terribly sore. I had crazy dreams all night and when I woke up this morning I felt jittery and weak and out of sorts, kind of like when you're recovering from a bout of the flu. A good dose of Motrin helped a lot and as I sit here typing this, I feel mostly fine. Maybe a little tired. Gregg felt totally normal this morning and went to work as usual. His arm didn't even get sore this time.

It's strange to think about being able to do social things again soon. I feel a bit gun shy about it, to be honest. The first few times I meet up with other vaccinated friends without masks and without social distancing, I think I'm going to be uncomfortable. After a full year of forced vigilance and fear of getting sick, I can't imagine being able to immediately turn off the anxiety. And some things are probably over forever, like blowing out candles on birthday cakes. It's definitely going to be a "new" normal. I wonder what that will look like?

Still, the President has said that he wants vaccines offered to all adults without exceptions by May 1st, and we're on track to be able to celebrate a normal Independence Day holiday. That sounds good to me! The fourth of July seems like a reasonable target for a return to normalcy if everyone has a chance to get vaccinated starting in May.