"I found another waitlist for you to get on, here's the link."
"How many miles are you willing to travel? Is 50 too many? There's a Safeway in Damascus..."
"No, you can't call anyone, it's all online. You just have to check it every day. Maybe twice a day. Actually, what else are you doing? Can you check it every few hours?"
My role in conversations with my parents has recently shifted into something like vaccine concierge. At first, I was calm, thinking of course two seniors would be able to get the covid vaccine easily when it became available. The disease impacts the elderly the most, so the system has to be user-friendly for that population, right? It turns out I was a bit too optimistic. For my grandmother in an assisted living center, the vaccine just showed up at her door one day. She's double-dosed and ready to bust out of the room she's been confined to for over a year now... unfortunately, my parents in their late 60's and early 70's aren't having such an easy experience.
I'm vaccinated. I'm watching everyone around me get vaccinated. But I can't get appointments for my at-risk parents in another state. It reminds me of a high-stakes version of the old-school method of purchasing concert tickets. When I was a teenager, I'd often log into ticketmaster right when the box office opened, and click refresh over and over, trying to secure seats with rapid fire clicks before they disappeared. It seems like for a life-or-death situation, there should be a better way.
Until then, we'll just keep trying our luck at the vaccine lottery.