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I saw on my Facebook Memories this morning that I got my covid booster shot on this date last year. I haven't even made an appointment yet this year, for multiple reasons: I have no idea what kind of challenge there may be to getting one after the CDC's stupid change in guidance thanks to a vaccine-hostile administration; I don't know whether I'll have a copay and if so how much it will be (I emailed our Benefits alias here at work last week to ask and haven't heard back); I also kind of just haven't thought about it. Except my cousin Tammy's husband, Erin, just posted yesterday that he tested positive for covid, and it just kind of hammered the point that it's still going around and relatively easy to get.
I've gotten the booster every year since the initial two-vaccine shots were given in the spring of 2021. I'd rather not miss it this year just because of idiotic leadership, even though data all over the place these days shows that vaccines don't do much anymore to prevent infection but rather minimize severity, hospitalizations and death. I had covid once, and it was in 2022—it's now been one and a half times the amount of time since I had it as there had been since covid first broke before I had it. I have no idea how long I'll just luckily keep avoiding it or if I'm on a ticking clock until getting it a second time, though I have been somewhat lax in max-wearing in certain areas where I should probably pick that back up again. Whatever the case, I'd sure feel better if I can get a booster shot.
I went to see if I could schedule a shot at Walgreens, and there's information there about how it's only "recommended" for people over 65 or otherwise with underlying health conditions. I could probably get around that pretty easily, but it still gave me pause—which, unfortunately, is probably by design. I do have my next doctor appointment on Tuesday next week, though, so maybe I'll just talk to him about it and see what he says.
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Shobhit had a TPS "mixer" last night that was only for TPS people. He texted me a photo of the one drink he got with a drink ticket, a "pickle martini" that was called "Savory Girl." It had a pickle in it and the very thought of it kind of made me want to throw up. I told him it sounded nasty; he replied:
It's definitely weird.
He had asked if maybe I could come and pick him up at Seattle Center when the event was over, after he walked down there. I said okay. He texted me at around 7:00 that he should be ready to go in about 20 minutes; then texted again at 7:20 that I must not have seen his texts so he'll start walking; I only noticed
that at 7:30. I texted him back a few times, then called him. I still drove down to pick him up, but he was already to 7th and Pine when I got that far downtown on Pine. At his suggestion I then cut through an alley to go over to Pike Street, and drove us back home, where we watched this week's episode of
Alien: Earth—a show I kind of can't get enough of even though it has many narrative lapses in logic.
Anyway, I only bring all that up because of
why I didn't notice Shobhit's texts for half an hour: my phone was not in my pocket, it was on my desk, and as my phone is always on vibrate, my music drowned out the sound of any buzzing. And this was because I was so locked into what I was doing, which was working on a list of things I want to do when we go to Amsterdam for World Pride next summer.
I have found a lot of stuff. We already decided we will take a roughly two-week trip and limit our area of exploration to The Netherlands and Belgium. Specifically, we will focus on four cities: three in The Netherlands (Amsterdam; Rotterdam; The Hague) and one in Belgium (Brussels). These are all very easy train rides from Amsterdam, and I think in all likelihood we will only find places to stay in Amsterdam and Brussels—Rotterdam and The Hague are so close to Amsterdam they will be easy day trips from there.
I've gone through the requisite things I now look for in every place I travel to: I found at least one observation deck in all four cities. Amsterdam is the nominal capital of The Netherlands and thus will have the Royal Palace to visit; The Haugue is the functional capial of The Netherlands and will thus have a parliament building to visit (a centuries-old one in a Gothic-style castle); Brussels is a central meeting place of the European Parliament and will thus have a "Hemicycle" (meeting chamber, and buildings) to visit—that's at minimum three government buildings to visit. And then of course there are libraries, a big interest of mine, and all four of these cities have a central public libary, and two of them have a National or Royal library that looks worth visiting.
All of that's not even to mention the other attractions I have found: I'll want to visit a canal museum that's in Amsterdam; I'll definitely want to take at least one canal boat tour; we'll have to be sure to visit the Anne Frank House; there's a few other things I've found. I mentioned some of this stuff to Shobhit last night, and he was like, "We'll be very busy." Indeed we will! But, I won't be militant about it either. In my experience we can go out and explore, kind of go with the flow while also tracking what happens to be near us, and usually I wind up visiting everything I keep on a list organically anyway. The trick though is to have everything I'm interested in
on a list. So far so good!
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[posted 1:08pm]
