The World's Common Tater

Yesterday was one of the more normal “almost holiday season” afternoons I’ve had in quite some time.

It started with a more “new normal”(I hate that expression) event. My daughter and I went to get our Covid booster shots. My wife drove with us as we were doing the normal part of the day after. This meant that even though she was the one who said we should leave early, we left later than planned. We still got to the store in time for our appointments. That meant nothing.

First, they lost my daughter’s appointment booking and the consent form we did online. They still honored the appointment but she had to do the form again. We then waited. And waited. And waited. No one else was there getting the shot. It was just normal traffic of people picking up prescriptions, yet we waited. Finally, 40 minutes after the appointment time, we got the shots. I’m a little disappointed that I don’t have side effects that will excuse me reading and napping on the couch all day.

After this came the somewhat normal part of the night. We left after the shots and went shopping. First, we went to a “mall” that has an antique center. We somehow managed to only buy a book for my daughter there. It wasn’t even an old book. We also stopped at a chocolate place in the mall and bought a piece of chocolate each. We left there and went to the library where I picked up my holds while my daughter looked for books to read over the holiday.

We left there to go to an actual mall. I was like a tourist walking through pointing out all of the new stuff since the last time I was at the mall.

“Look, there’s an escape room now”

“Is that laser tag?”

“That cheesesteak place is new”

etc.

We didn’t buy a lot or go to many stores. We had a specific thing we were there to get. Still, it was nice to be out and about and experiencing a little normal.