I got my first COVID vaccine March 13, the day before we left for our Gulf Shores vacation. So on Saturday, it was my 4-week follow-up for Moderna shot #2.

Unlike most friends I know who have been vaccinated, I did not have a private appointment at a pharmacy, but a mass appointment with thousands of other people through Austin Public Health at an events center. One of the workers there said they had been mentioned on CNN as having the national record for most people vaccinated at one site in one day at 32,000. Whatever, I was happy to take it any way I could get it and start putting this stupid pandemic behind us. I waited in line for about an hour, and at 12:30 Saturday I got poked.

I had heard some wildly mixed reactions to people’s second doses, from flu-like symptoms, fever, chills, severe muscle pain, and night sweats, to absolutely nothing. My reaction wasn’t nothing, but it wasn’t too crippling. I felt a combination of extreme fogginess and temporary cognitive impairment. I was having a little trouble coming up with my words, forming rational sentences, and some general agitation. I was physically tired and very restless.

At night, I slept very badly. I had a mild headache and my arm was sore, which kept me tossing and turning all night. I slept on and off until 5am then was up for good. Around 8:30 I took some melatonin and was able to go back to bed until 11 and get some solid sleep. Even after that I was still a little disjointed, but around 5:00 I felt 100% again.

If you would have told me in early March that I would be fully vaccinated by mid-April, I would have been very surprised. I was highly disgruntled with Texas’s poor rollout. Even now, Texas is still in the bottom 20% of all states in overall population vaccinated. I am glad that I was able to slip in there early on. Lauren is close behind, with her second shot due in about two weeks.

John Baseball Update

In other news, John’s Blue Jays team is doing great so far in coach-pitch league. The Blue Jays beat the Indians handily Saturday to improve to 3-1 on the year.

John has done great, batting .786 after going 4-for-4 Saturday. As long as you put the ball in play, you’re pretty much guaranteed a hit, as the 6-year-olds aren’t exactly capable of throwing players out at bases or making catches. John has done great at not striking out so far, making good contact almost every time. By my count, he has 11 hits in 14 at-bats so far, all singles, with a few runs and RBI. Our backyard wiffle ball batting practice has paid off.