The First Dose

A little over a week ago, I received my first COVID-19 vaccine. 

Idaho teachers were moved up as a priority group a couple of weeks ago and deservedly so. Have you seen the Petri dish in which we work?

 

Was I scared? Goodness no! (Cue the Pete the Cat reference for my elementary school teacher friends.) 

 

I scheduled my appointment the night it opened up to educators.

 

For anyone wondering if they should get their vaccine when it becomes available, let me share my experience so far. (Spoiler alert: You should get vaccinated.) 

 

One of my music teacher friends said she had to stand in line for an hour when she arrived for her appointment. And after seeing the long lines on the national news and hearing about vaccine distribution problems here in Idaho, I showed up to my appointment with a book.

 

I also followed the rules laid out on my appointment app and brought my employee badge, medical insurance card, and driver's license. I didn't need any of them. (I'm guessing, since I had been a previous patient in this particular healthcare network, that my information was in the system.)

 

I did need the QR code from the appointment app, however, and I had it pulled up on my phone when I drove into the parking lot. It disappeared by the time I walked through the clinic door.

 

I still don't know what that was all about.

 

"You have a lot in your hands," the healthcare worker at front desk said as she was trying to sanitize me. 

"I thought I might be in line for a while," I said. 

But I wasn't. It ran like a well-oiled machine.

She gave me a surgical mask to wear over my face covering. I started wearing two masks when we returned to school in-person, so now I was wearing three masks. I was triple protected.

 

The clinic employee at the kiosk helped me check in manually. Did I mention the QR code had disappeared off my phone?

"Are you excited?" she asked.

"I don't think I've been so excited for a shot in my life."

 

"That's how I felt when I got mine." 

We talked about my music classroom and the movie, Soul, while people jumped in front of me in line.

We said goodbye, and I got in line, following the socially distanced stickers down the hall until a room freed up. I didn't feel anything, barely a poke from the needle. For a split second, I wondered if I had even received the vaccine.

 

I made my appointment for my booster and sat in waiting area for the 15-minute monitoring period.

 

I didn't read my book at that time either. Instead, I took vaccination card selfies for Facebook.

 

 

 

I know it sounds weird, but I am trying to remember every part of my COVID vaccine journey. I feel as though I am a part of history, like the stories of the kids who lined up to get their polio vaccines back in the 1950's.

 

Not Throwin' Away My Shot!

For the first dose, I had an achy arm and a little swelling at the injection site for a few days. The next day, I even felt good enough to go running.

 

Stay tuned for my second dose update in a few weeks!

 

I heard the side effects might be worse the second time around.

My brother put it like this:

 

"In my 12-person scientific experiment, it seems like if you have side effects after the first shot, you don't as much after the second. But if you have no side effects after the first, the second shot seems to have pretty bad side effects." 

Who knows? 

But still worth it!

 

This heron we saw on the Greenbelt the next morning was happy I got my shot. He thinks you should get vaccinated too.

 

 

Check out Part Two of my vaccine experience: The Second Dose

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.

What Are You Doing For the Rest of the Year?

My mother used to say, "Whatever you do on New Year's Day is what you will be doing for the rest of the year." 

I am not sure if this was her way of preventing me from throwing temper tantrums at least one day of the year or if it was another weird holiday rule about bad luck from her side of the family. 

 

According to my mother and her family in southern Illinois, leaving your Christmas decorations up past New Year's Day meant bad luck. So did not eating black-eyed peas on January 1st. My mother believed this last one so wholeheartedly that she sent me a can of black-eyed peas through the mail every year.

 

Hence, the unknown origins of, "Whatever you do on New Year's Day is what you will be doing for the rest of the year."

I can say for a fact that I was not doing any insane apocalyptic stuff last New Year's Day though, so I will not take responsibility for the way 2020 turned out.

But if any part of my mother's maxim is true, here are some of the things my husband, Dan, and I might be doing for the rest of 2021.

On New Year's Day, we went running, and I almost died a few times on the ice. 

 

We should have jogged on a dirt trail, but we weren't that forward thinking. Instead, we ran on slick pavement. At one point, we found a dirt trail by the river that led to a janky, tree house-type bridge. I slipped on the ice before crossing, landing on my tailbone. I took that as a sign to not cross it. However, Dan did, and he had a tough time getting back over to me and almost landed in the water.

 

The 2021 Crystal Ball: It looks like clumsiness is in our future.

 

After our brush-with-death run, we went through the Starbucks drive-through and ordered overpriced lattes. As we drove out of the parking lot, we were greeted by a no left turn sign, which was the exact direction we needed to turn onto the main road. 

 

"Ugh. There's no one coming," Dan said. "We're in a parking lot. It's just a suggestion." 

 

And with that, he turned left. 

 

"I guess you'll be breaking the law for the rest of 2021," I muttered.

 

The 2021 Crystal Ball: We might be drinking coffee and turning illegally out of parking lots for the rest of the year.

 

 

After our outlaw escape from the Starbucks parking lot, we drove home. We parked in the garage, stayed in the car for a while, drank our lattes, and listened to a classic punk playlist on Spotify.

 

The 2021 Crystal Ball: We live a really wild life.

We did a few more things on New Year's Day. 

We ate pasta.

 

  

Dan finished his LEGO set, a Christmas present from me.

We also finished his Baby Yoda puzzle, a Christmas present from my sister-in-law and brother.

 

 

 

 

The 2021 Crystal Ball: Eating pasta and doing puzzles for the rest of the year? That sounds about right. In fact, we already bought a new puzzle. I have a feeling our dining room table has forever become The Puzzle Table. We will just eat on TV trays for the rest of our lives.

 

We cross-country skied on New Year's Eve, but I don't think NYE is covered in my mother's aphorism.

 

ONE MORE EXCITING EVENT COMING UP IN 2021

 

Our state moved teachers up on the timeline for the COVID vaccine. We have been cleared to receive it about a month ahead of the original schedule.

 

By the time you read this post, I will have already gotten my first dose.

 

I have never looked this forward to a shot in my life!

 

  

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.

Book Challenge: Becky's Twenty in 2020

Faithful readers might recall that I set my reading challenge at twenty books this year. I mean, twenty in 2020—who could resist? Faithful readers might also recall that I haven't read twenty books since 2016.

This year, however . . . drum roll please . . . 

 

I did it! 

 

I had a little extra time on my hands for some weird reason (ahem—a global pandemic). I probably should have read more than twenty books. Some of my friends read seventy-five to one hundred books every year. 

 

Don't judge me. 

What's the plan for next year? Twenty-one in 2021, of course. Fingers crossed.

Becky's Twenty in 2020

JANUARY
1. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Notes and Favorites: 

“Who are you after you finish something this magnificent—in constructing it you have also journeyed through it, to the other side. On one end there was who you were before you went underground, and on the other end a new person steps out into the light” (p. 310).

2. My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper
Notes and Favorites: Um . . . Can Ellie Kemper just read all the audiobooks I listen to?
 

FEBRUARY
3. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Notes and Favorites:  I can't believe it took me so long to get around to reading the first true crime masterpiece ever written, considering how much I love bingeing on Dateline and Snapped over summer break.
 

MARCH
4. Miracles by C.S. Lewis
Notes and Favorites: 

“We believe that the sun is in the sky at midday in summer not because we can clearly see the sun (in fact, we cannot) but because we can see everything else.”

5. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Notes and Favorites: I loved this TV series, starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen. Now after reading the book, I am impressed at how well the screen version retained the tone, which is laugh-out-loud funny. 

 

APRIL
6. Dave Barry's Greatest Hits by Dave Barry
Notes and Favorites: You can’t go wrong with Dave Barry. Even though these essays from the 1980s mention outdated concepts like yuppies and Reagan (bleck), he is still hilarious.
 

MAY
7. I'll Mature When I'm Dead: Dave Barry's Amazing Tales of Adulthood by Dave Barry
Notes and Favorites: Even though the title implies a lack of maturity, Dave Barry ventures a little more into introspection in this book, especially in the final chapters. It still includes a hilarious parody of a certain vampire series that will remain unnamed. Having grown up in a baseball family, I especially enjoyed the chapter on parents attending their children’s sporting events: “There are more important things in life than winning such as not being a jerk.”
 

8. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
Notes and Favorites: I enjoyed this modernization of and twist on fairy tale, "The Robber Bridegroom." It was my quarantine read. Fun fact: I ordered it from our local bookshop and received a signed copy. Did I mention Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors?
 

9. I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee
Notes and Favorites: I heard an interview with Samantha Bee when this book came out several years ago and just recently thought, “Oh yeah, I need to read that book.” If I read nonfiction, I like it to be funny, and I was not disappointed in this hilarious collection of essays.
 

JUNE
10. Check Your Privilege by Myisha T. Hill, et al.
Notes and Favorites: 

“Black and brown people can’t not experience racism, discrimination, hatred, abuse, violence, and injustice. They do not have the privilege to ignore these crimes against themselves, their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, or their children.”

11. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Notes and Favorites: “Oh to be a pear tree—any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world.” Hurston’s imagery of the pear tree and the “golden dust of pollen” is one of my favorite passages in literature. (That and the final paragraph of The Great Gatsby . . . )
 

12. Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
Notes and Favorites: Anna Kendrick is a funny storyteller. She writes a lot about her musical theater and behind-the-scenes movie experiences (you had me at musical theater). 

 

JULY
13. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Notes and Favorites: 

"And to him war was a thing like earth and sky and water and why it was no one knew but only that it was" (p. 319).

SEPTEMBER
14. Love and Ruin by Paula McLain
Notes and Favorites: This book was a much more interesting read than The Paris Wife, also about one of Hemingway's spouses. I was rooting for Martha Gelhorn to make it on her own; I liked her a lot better when she was stowing away on boats as a war correspondent than as Hemingway's third wife.  

 

OCTOBER
15. Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Notes and Favorites: Read this book. That is all.
 

16. "The Monkey’s Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
Notes and Favorites: Careful what you wish for this story warns . . . I was in the mood for a spooky read for Halloween . . .
 

17. "The Mortal Immortal" by Mary Shelley
Notes and Favorites: Yes, that Mary Shelley! In case you haven’t noticed the pattern, here is yet another spooky read for Halloween. This story deals with the consequences of immortality as opposed to the Creator vs. Creation dilemma of her best known classic.     
 

NOVEMBER
18. Bound For Glory by Woody Guthrie
Notes and Favorites:

“I never did make up many songs about the cow trails or the moon skipping through the sky, but at first it was funny songs of what all’s wrong, and how it turned out good or bad. Then I got a little braver and made up songs telling what I thought was wrong and how to make it right, songs that said what everybody in that country was thinking.
And this has held me ever since” (p 178).

19. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Notes and Favorites: Such a beautiful and haunting story . . . 

“Six years have already passed since my friend went away from me, with his sheep. If I try to describe him here, it is to make sure I shall not forget him. To forget a friend is sad. Not everyone has had a friend” (p 19).

DECEMBER
20. Bunny by Mona Awad
Notes and Favorites: If you read this one, be prepared for a satirical surrealistic nightmare in the best possible way. Also, it's filled with nods to Gen X pop culture. (The main character's name is Samantha "Heather" Mackey.) As a writer (albeit an amateur), I enjoyed the very literal take on "Kill Your Darlings." 

 

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.