Triple dose of microchips for me, please

I went to CVS to get my Moderna booster. I’m a thoroughly Moderna Millie at this point. I’m going to stupid Florida next week so I wanted to get topped off before arriving in Tampa. I’m sure I’d be fine, after all, my 82 year-old mother lives there, Tampa is one of the more rational spots in stupid Florida and it’s not like I’ll be doing much of anything other than hanging out at my mom’s – cleaning her garage and maybe home office time permitting. I’d found through The NY Times a portal and discovered I qualified for the booster, which lead me to the CVS website and by the tenth millionth time I’d entered my RX Group Bin Number and Anthem Blue Cross ID number I figured there was too much time sunk into the whole process to back out now.

I don’t know, but I suspect that every CVS, everywhere is a total nightmare. Weird smelling, packed, understaffed, water spotted drop ceiling tiles. They’re all wretched, right? It’s not like they have to try anymore. They’re the only thing going when it comes to a pharmacy. They can be a shitty as they want, just barely meet their obligations so they can maximize profits. I’d heard once that the lines at CVS for the pharmacy are intentionally long to get you to buy things. That sounds too thought out. Plus the line at my CVS goes through the least interesting vitamin aisle in the world. I showed up 10 minutes before my appointment and had to wait another thirty before my name was called. While waiting I noticed a Chinese gentleman in line in front of me wearing a yellow baseball cap with what at first I thought was an iPhone perpendicular to the top of the hat. Then I realized it was a solar panel and the brim of the hat had a small fan in it, alarmingly close to his eyes. I always thought the Chinese revered their elders but somebody in his family gave him this thing and let him go out of the house wearing it in public. But then again it was the CVS and the slightly dangerous and useless nature of the hat seems to fit the mood of the store.

Now I’m at home and I have a tiny bit of a Moderna hangover. I got out of all the social obligations and spent the day in bed reading. I’m only able to rest when I’m sick. If I’d felt well today I’d have gone on a 2 hour hike this morning and then a baby shower this evening. Dean has a lot of young friends who are having babies now. I feel terrible for the mothers and it’s hard for me to be congratulatory at the baby shower. Congratulations! Everything you wanted to do with your life is now in question — and most likely canceled. Yay! Your happiness is about to precipitously drop as you work to quash resentments toward your child and husband. Did I mention the world your offspring will inherit? Would you like to see a map of global sea ice declines? I really don’t understand why anyone has children, especially now. These bright young women, their lives so full of potential. Plus, I think if you raise a child in Los Angeles it’s 90% likely to grow up to be a cutter or a drug addict. I don’t have data to back that up, it’s just that’s what’s happened to 90% of the children my friends have had over the last 27 years I’ve been here. I’m so glad I had my tubes tied.

One of my students is worried about a project she’s co writing because she’s Chinese Australian and the main character is a Black American. What I didn’t know is that her co-writer is Black, but he’s from Brazil. So the wrong kind of Black, I guess, to be able to write a Black American character? I get wanting to respectfully and authentically tell the stories of characters who are outside of our lived experience but this seems to be at a new level. It’s like we’re headed toward a future when you’re allowed to write one movie: a documentary about your life. I assume this will be read to camera while seated on a stool with content warnings preceding each page. Silly me, I thought myself capable of empathy and research.