the perils of

I need advice.  Some months ago, I got "reassigned" to one of my city's vaccination posts, where I work as a vaccination doctor. My main job there is to handle all sorts of medical concerns related to vaccination, like when someone's blood pressure is too high before getting jabbed, or when someone has a medical condition that needs further assessment.  But in between all those things, I mainly help the screeners. Screeners are what we call the nurses who interview patients to find out if they're medically fit for vaccination. I'm not really required to do it, since there are other people hired to do that specific job. But I do it anyway because sometimes there are just too many patients coming in, and they need my help.  Screening is easy. You just ask the same questions over and over again. Is this your first time getting vaccinated? How are you feeling today? Do you have any allergies? Do you have any underlying medical conditions? Were you recently a close

This post is sponsored by Anonymous Commenter #1. Thank you for checking in. I can summarize the past couple of months in one terrible haiku: I'm really sick of my job at the vaccination post. But before we go there, there are a few updates that need mentioning.  One, I've long recovered from Covid. Which means I can joke about it now. Two, I'm fully vaccinated. And three: I've adopted two cats !  The decision to do so was borne of a deep dark sense of mid-pandemic loneliness some months ago. With Delta cases on the rise, my mom didn't feel it was safe for me to come home on the weekends anymore, what with me working in a vaccination post with plenty of sick people. She was right. But I found myself with nothing to do, nothing to look forward to, nothing to strive for. Going home to my family was the thing I looked forward to each week. But with that off the table, every day I would come home from a bleak workday into an empty apartment and try to distract myself fr