I'd learned it was a possibility just a couple hours ahead of time, so I dressed carefully for it. It paid off.
Tonight at 7:33 was Steve's covid vaccination appointment. I had to drive anyway, due to his night vision and abhorrence of city traffic. We'd done the daytime scouting of the location, and thought we knew how to enter the stadium grounds, and how much ahead of time to get there. Just to be sure, I went online again to try to suss out whether our plan was adequate or erring a large amount on either side of too much or too little time. While there, Google offered me a chance to hit one of those question/answer sites, which in turn led me to a first-person account of their experience.
It was the first I'd heard of the opportunity to get my shot too, just for being a second person in the car and of a qualifying category, not requiringing an actual appointment for that time slot. It's a way of getting as many shots in arms as possible and not having to waste any for no-shows since the vaccine can't be refrozen. State Farm Stadium was providing the opportunity - maybe.
Behind the steering wheel is a very clunky place to have to roll up a sleeve unless it is very short and loose. It was cold out, however, and I wasn't willing to go that route. However, I'd been wearing a knit shirt all day with a very wide boat neckline. I threw my fleece vest over it and gave it a test. Yep, I could stretch out the neck enough past the shoulder to expose the top of my arm. We were a go.
Fingers crossed.
We left the house at 6:15 and took about 10 minutes to get there. Except.... We drove the route we'd mapped out ahead of time and there was absolutely no entry we could see to get into the parking lot. We did a complete circle around the area, including getting back on the freeway, going past the exit we'd first gotten off on (traffic) and swinging around again. This time we spotted the entrance. There had been no traffic entering as we passed the first time, and it happened to be one-way the opposite direction we were traveling in. Now other cars were showing us the way. Fortunately, there was a gap big enough for a (semi-legal, ahem, since nobody was watching) u-turn, and we joined the line.
Cones were everywhere, along with helpers in yellow vests and lit pointers, laying out lanes zig-zagging back and forth and back and forth and.... It reminded me of going to the parking lot of a big event where you were directed to an exact unmarked spot in a big field so the most cars could be packed in, in order of appearance, like for one of those Halloween hayride events. Except we weren't parked, we just proceeded through the turns so our line didn't stretch a mile or two out into city traffic before we made our first stop.
We were asked almost immediately whether there was one or two for shots. I answered one, unless there was extra vaccine so I could get mine also. Apparently they had a lot on hand, since that answer prompted them having us turn on our 4-way flashers and proceed through another zig-zag-zig-zag-zig to a designated one of series of numbered lanes. There were a whole lot of us with flashers going.
There was paperwork to fill out and questions to answer once we finally got to our first drive-thru tent. Steve had a formal appointment, so somebody marked his number on our windshield, followed by a +1. It was lousy handwriting, and he had to refer to his confirmation email number so they could figure out who he actually was at every stop as we went through the rest of the process. This was where I had to show my driver's license, proof of age qualification. It was also the last place I needed to show it, but nobody said I could put it away until a few stops later when I asked. Steve never needed to show his.
The next line was our wait to get our shots. This was the slowest line, despite having the most tents. And I still needed my 4-ways flashing. Nobody explained why, but I guessed it was to signal there was more than one person in the car getting shots. We "flashers" seemed to be in a certain set of lanes all the way through. While waiting, somebody came up to each car with more questions, paperwork, reading numbers as well as possible off the windshield (I had one there too now), or whatever their task was. The questions never changed, but perhaps they thought if they asked often enough the story might change? Did we currently have covid or symptoms? First or second shot? How did we feel? On blood thinners or any bleeding disorder? Allergies? Mostly that one was phrased as severe allergies, but when they didn't include severe, I answered "pollen" and got a weird look. Hey, honesty!
The shots themselves were almost a letdown. You've seen all those TV bits of poking the needle in, withdrawing it a bit, and poking it in harder, right? Kinda creeps me out. I'm one of those who always looks away from a needle. It's not the shot, or the blood draw as long as they get it right, but the having-to-look-at-it part that does it. Mine was a very gentle poke, just enough to know that they'd done it. Steve had to ask when they were going to start his, just to find out they had finished.
The next line we had to wait in accomplished several things. We were given cards which listed the date of the shot, which vaccine was used (Pfizer), and our appointment for dose number two. People with tablets (must have been a wi-fi hot spot) asked our preference for when to get those, and we requested two together so we could do what we'd just done. Was 8:45 AM too early? Heck no! We go back February 18th. And yes, I need to call on Monday to cancel my previously scheduled appointment so somebody else could use it. Once we finished all that and finally approached the final tent, the person there looked at the last number which had been written on our windshield, the time of our shots. We had to wait 15 minutes to make sure we were feeling well and not reacting poorly to the shot. Once that passed, she had a cloth with the proper solvent to remove the greasy letters and numbers, and we were on our way.
Time on-site: about 45 minutes. This included the extra paperwork needed by my being a plus 1. I expect next time to be faster. It took close to another hour to get home, since we stopped at 2 fast-food places (different appetites) and got gas first. It was almost enough time for the excitement to wear off.
Almost.
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