Today, we are fully vaccinated! Achieving it wasn’t easy because the vaccination roll-out in New Jersey was horrible. Eligible in early January (Group 1B), we signed up on the NJ State site as well as on other vaccination sites. But week after week, no luck! Finding an appointment was worse than looking for a needle in a haystack. Ultimately, we have our mayor, Jonathan Hornik, to thank for coming to our rescue. On Friday, March 19th, we received an email advising that he was about to make a concerted effort to get all Marlboro seniors vaccinated. Apparently, his office had been receiving complaints about the same difficulty we were experiencing. We immediately signed the necessary on-line forms and figured it would be a while. However, on Monday morning, March 22nd, the phone rang at 8:30 a.m. Shock of shocks, it was a Seniors Dept. staff member calling to tell us that appointments were available the next day! Elation!
On Tuesday, March 23rd, we drove to the County Agricultural Building 10 minutes from our house for our 2:30 p.m. appointment. Checking in at a table in front of the entrance, we noticed two huge white tents alongside the building each holding two lines of people. We were told to go to the further of the two lines in the second tent. There were markers on the floor six feet apart and, of course, everyone was wearing masks. We made our way very slowly along both lines in the first tent and then along both lines in the second tent before arriving at the front and being ushered into the building. It took more than an hour.
Inside, we went to a table where we were officially registered (we had downloaded the necessary paperwork and filled them out at home). We were given our vaccination cards and, since we were getting the Moderna, an appointment for the second shot exactly four weeks away, on April 20th. We then had to contend with another line in a corridor leading to the vaccination room. Once we made it into the room, each of us was sent to a different table (I think there were 7) to get the first shot, after which we waited the required 15 minutes. Total time from arrival to exiting the building: one hour and 45 minutes! We certainly hadn’t expected it to take anywhere near as long especially after hearing from my brother and others who were in and out of their vaccination sites in NY in less than half an hour. We were told that there had been some kind of problem earlier in the day that caused the back-up. In any case, whatever annoyance we felt was tempered by the fact that we had actually gotten the first shot.
The next day, in anticipation of when we’d be fully vaccinated, we made a number of medical appointments in May and, for me, an appointment for a haircut! I’ve been cutting Michael’s hair (we bought the appropriate scissors on Amazon). Since he’s happy with the job I’ve been doing, he wants me to continue doing it.
Fast forward to April 20th. Our appointment was in the morning, at 11:30. As we drove into the Ag Building’s complex, we looked over to the parking lot. Unlike the first time when it was full, this time there were only a few cars. Michael blurted out, “The building must be closed,” while I was thinking: Great! No line! A bit further along there was the sign indicating that the vaccination center was open. And I was right. This time, the entire process, including the required 15-minute after the second shot, took 25 minutes! In two more weeks, on May4th, we’d be fully vaccinated.
Which brings us to today. We did some errands where we went inside buildings which we hadn’t been doing during the past 14 months. The last time we ate in a restaurant was March 10, 2020. So, to celebrate being fully vaccinated, we went out for dinner! Stay tuned for the details.
