Hypochondriacs unite!

In New York, it's sometimes hard to find your peeps. People who really really get you. Quite by accident, I found a few of mine yesterday. Standing on line at CVS, waiting to get our seasonal flu shots.

Now, you have to know that in order to even know about this flu clinic, you had to be the type who did your homework. The clinic was not listed on the nyc.gov website nor did the helpful folks at 311 know about it. After getting shut out of not one but two flu clinics at Duane Reade, I did some major googling. Which led me to this flu clinic at a CVS on 18th Street. The very last flu clinic at any CVS in Manhattan. My daughter got her flu shot at her doctor, my husband was getting his at work. I was not going to be the lone flu target in the house. So I got there 30 minutes early to lines and total mayhem.

Let me first say, I waited for two hours for my shot. Naturally, everyone on line got to know each other pretty well. Here are some bits and pieces of conversation on line. I would like to add that NONE of this is made up or embellished in any way. This is what I heard, word for word, scribbling down in my little black book:

"I'm going to have to do a lot of flying in the next few months. So I guess I should get a face mask."

"Oh yes. You must get a face mask."

"I wonder which aisle they're on?"

"Oh no. Don't buy the ones here. The best ones are at hardware stores. You know, the respirator kinds."

"Maybe we're all getting each other sick, standing so close together on this line."

"No, they won't give the flu shot to anyone here with symptoms. So everyone here is healthy."

"Or maybe they just appear healthy. And tomorrow they will get symptoms. Isn't that when you are most contagious, just before you get something?"

"Do you think they are Purell-ing between people?"

"They better make it cooler in here or people will start passing out. And then CVS will be in big trouble."

"Yes, they should pass out bottles of water."

"I've been shut out of three different flu clinics already."

"Are you going to get the Swine Flu vaccine?"

"I don't know. But I am going to get the pneumonia vaccine."

"Really? I didn't know it existed."

"I might get the pneumonia vaccine but not swine flu. Because that way if I get swine flu, it won't give me pneumonia."

"I didn't know they made so many different kind of protein bars. Or amino acids. Or protein shakes."

"Yeah. I could really go for a malted."

"My friend stopped eating in restaurants because of the flu."

"Well, if she came here to get vaccinated, she wouldn't have to worry."

"Can we pick which nurse gives us the vaccine? I don't like the look of that one."

"If people are willing to wait on line for a movie or a restaurant, why wouldn't they wait on line for this?"

Ah. I love New York.