The Hobbit Vs. The World: How Do You Spell Fiasco?

H1N1!

Humble Readers, if someone actually spent more than 5 minutes of thought into how these clinics were going to run, I would be very surprised.

Our little city's second H1N1 public vaccine clinic was today. It was held in one of the bigger churches in town. My Beloved and I got to the church at 7:45am. It was still dark (0ne of the things I'm still not used to living here on the flatland... the sun doesn't come up until well after 8 in the fall and winter), and -6 degrees. We were prepared to wait outside until the doors were scheduled to open at 9am.

When we got there, the line up was already more than halfway around the parking lot. The people at the front of the line got there at 5am. By 9:30am there was a traffic jam on the cross street and the highway, and they were turning people away.

We ended up having to wait outside, in the very chilly morning, for more than two and a half hours, before we actually got into the church. My toes were so numb they hurt, and my poor Beloved's ears were redder than a tomatoe. When we got inside the church, we ended up having to wait another two and a half hours in line, just to get to the gymnasium where we were given a number (853 & 854, respectively) and were able to sit down. There wasn't even a separate line for people in wheelchairs, for pregnant women, or the elderly.

Did I mention that I was supposed to be at work at 11am? (and guess who hates to be late for anything?)

I hadn't eaten breakfast, and all I had to drink was some peppermint tea that I thought to bring last minute. I was starving, which I will admit made me cranky. Sitting in a very echoe-y gym, surrounded by a lot of stressed out moms with fussing children in tow (not that I blame the moms or the tots). When we finally got called up, I was about ready to lose it.

We got our shots, and were supposed to then wait there for 15 minutes, just to make sure that we didn't have a reaction to the shot. Of course, we didn't and we took off as quickly as we could. My Beloved dropped me at work, 2 hours late (still having not eaten) and I had to get right down to it.

The whole time I was there, I kept thinking that they could have come up with some better way to do this. They health minister was on tv the other night saying how they weren't expecting the response they have gotten. That they were not able to anticipate how inadequate their plan for dispersing the vaccine was. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?? He's the same guy who went on tv a couple of months ago with the dire predictions of how many people were expected to be hospitalized or even die from this. Grab a clue!

(And don't even get me started on all the people who are saying they aren't going to get the vaccine because they have heard that it will cause sterility or birth defects or will turn you into a monkey... Gah!)

I ended up staying at work until close, to cover for our GM who went home sick, so at least I made up the hours I missed. I'm tired, my arm really hurts at the injection site, and my back is aching in that distinctive pre-AF way.

I just have to keep telling myself it could have been a lot worse. It could have been snowing like it is now. *sigh*

This cranky hobbit is off to bed. Hopefully everything will be normal when I wake up in the morning.