So here's how the week started. Last Sunday, February 28, Ashton played in an awesome hockey game against Dedham. It was literally 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, and so on. They ended up winning by one goal and it was epic. Ashton scored a great goal, Grandma was there (vaccinated herself and visiting! Yay!!), GG watched online, and it was just one of those great ones.
Monday morning they went off to school for the first time in 16 days. After February vacation and then a remote week, boy was everyone ready.
The joy was shortlived. Tuesday morning at 10 am we get the email: a player on the Dedham team had tested positive. Because Ashton's team had played them, according to the strict rules that govern hockey, they had to be quarantined and tested. So we pulled Ashton out of school and he spent the rest of the week bored out of his mind and flopping around the living room. All his hockey practices had been cancelled, he couldn't play football with kids in the neighborhood, and he was unable to attend the first indoor lacrosse clinic. Luckily he tested negative on Friday, as did the rest of his team. But like, UGH. And this upcoming week is remote so by the time he goes back to school in person on March 15, he will have gone 1 full day in 4 weeks. ONE.
In the middle of all this, one of the neighboring towns announced their plan to bring all kids back to school, in grades K-5, full time, by April 5. Natick is no doubt going to feel tremendous pressure to get all the kids in our district back as well, and in fact there is a huge meeting tomorrow night about it. As of last Friday, the Commissioner was likely to gain a state Board of Education vote mandating it.
In the meantime, two additional important things are going on. First, they opened vaccination eligibility to all teachers and staff in K-12. Second, Natick launched pooled testing for the district last week. What this is is basically blanket COVID testing for any child whose parents have opted in. Kids are tested in groups of 10, and if a pool comes back positive, then those 10 kids will be individually tested to find out where the positive is. It's faster and cheaper to do it this way and quite effective. There is state funding for the next 6 weeks to do this, but they send minimal staff and they put out a desperate call for volunteers to help keep the program running as long as necessary. I asked my director if she would mind me helping, since it is during work hours, and she said as long as it didn't conflict with anything, I could. I signed up, and feel so good about it. I'll be going into three different elementary schools (starting tomorrow/Monday 3/8) to coordinate nasal swabbing and the general administration/bar coding/etc that goes with all the samples.
This is from the latest newsletter (3 days ago) from Natick Public Schools about it:
Pooled testing is designed to catch any asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic cases. In that vein, I was talking to my friend about it and she was like Oh my gosh,
go get the vaccine. I was like, But I'm not a teacher. She said, you are a volunteer ("staff") and you're going in to test students. Go get it.
I pondered. I didn't want to cut anyone but then realized I could actually justify it. (We had previously joked that I was technically a teacher because of CCD, but classes are virtual right now LOL so of course that didn't feel right.)
So part 2 was getting an appointment. The first few times I tried, nothing. CVS is the only place doing this group until 3/11. They release their appointments very early in the morning and if you don't get in, you are put in a virtual waiting room for hours, it times out, etc. There is widespread frustration about it so I didn't have high hopes. ALL the threads on my local Facebook group are about the impossibility of getting through.
I tried at several random intervals over a day or two, and nothing. Thursday morning I was up at 4:30 am to go to the bathroom. Not having high hopes but because it was right there, I picked up my phone and hit "Refresh" on the CVS appointments page, expecting to get the same message which was that all appointments (this is state wide, by the way) were booked and to try again later.
Instead, they said, "Welcome to CVS! Enter your zip code for the closest available appointment."
I think I actually gasped. I punched in 01760 and it said "Why, you can go right across the street to our Wellesley store! How is Saturday? What time would you like?"
I hastily entered all my information and:
I couldn't believe it. I woke Jason up. I was elated and actually had trouble going back to sleep. I got an appointment! And for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which is just one dose!
I think I double checked the clock a million times yesterday. I didn't want to miss it. Something about the appointment felt so fragile to me, so lucky. Honestly I have been operating under the idea that I would be the last person to get a vaccine and didn't think I would feel so differently about it, but I do. Clearly! This blog post is maybe (er, definitely) longer than it needs to be but it deserves it. The fact that there even is a vaccine for a virus that is ravaging the world and I have joined the small group that is vaccinated for it...I will never forget it.
Today I've had some small physical symptoms (mainly tiredness and my body having some trouble regulating temperature), but I will happily take it. The vaccine is a privilege that, frankly, changes everything. I was just talking to Jason about it, how different it feels and how I can't explain it, and he said "Well, yeah, because now it's over for you."
He's 100% right. It's over for me. And thank god, pretty soon it will be for everyone.
