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Creator is exactly
Matt Williams
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2021-01-14
Vaccine Clinic and Personal Vaccine
I work at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA. My role is usually in education with a background in pre-hospital emergency medicine. Because of my background as a paramedic, I was asked to work in the vaccine clinic for the hospital staff as an observer. My position was to keep an eye on the hospital staff for 15 minutes after they received their Covid vaccine, just in case there were any reactions. Thankfully, my shifts have been very uneventful due to the safety of the vaccine. It was fascinating to talk with the staff when they came back for their second dose, as I was given insight into their experiences with the first dose. This meant that when I went in for my first dose in mid-January, I fully knew what to expect. I received the Moderna vaccine. About four hours after getting the shot, my arm felt quite sore. By the night of the vaccine, my shoulder was throbbing, but it was manageable. For the price of some shoulder pain, the opportunity to receive the shot during the first wave was well worth the discomfort. I get my second dose in early February, so I will see then if I feel as crummy as some of my friends and co-workers have after the second dose. -
2020-08-09
First Potato Harvest
I have been a home gardener for a few years now, and love to cook using the things from my garden. When Covid started to hit the US in late February/early March, the resulting panic resulted in widespread shortages in the grocery stores for many common items of American households. News reports consistently told us that food supply networks were in jeapordy. I had never grown potatoes before (though I have grown sweet potatoes), but I decided that for its nutritional value to space ratio, it would be worth growing potatoes this year. Thankfully, the media had seemingly overblown the shortage problem (at least in my area), but that didn't matter because I enjoyed growing potatoes and had a great harvest. My first dish I made with my homegrown potatoes (and homegrown carrots) was a delishous pot roast. I was able to include a glass of y homebrewed beer to complete the meal. Sitting down for this meal was certainly a bright spot during the pandemic and was the culmination of several months of labor and enjoyment. -
2021-01-13
Pandemic Hacks
At the beginning of the pandemic, it seemed for a bit of time that the infrastructure of the world was on shakey ground. Thankfully, our food supplies and economy did not collapse. However, the experience and extra-time during the pandemic led to me trying to become more self-sufficient in my livelihood. I have had a vegetable garden for years, but I started to grow different things this year than before. The picture above was my sweet potato harvest experiment, which I was pleased with and had a good amount of nutritious sweet potatoes. I had similar results with things like beans and regular potatoes (very nutritious and filling). On top of these things, I also tried to learn how to make products that I used regularly (even if these were more luxury items than necessities). Growing various herbs and spices, I began to make my own salad dressings, marinades, sauces, and pestos. Additionally, as a fan of craft beer, I enjoy drinking new and exciting beers but do not enjoy paying premium prices. During the lock down, I learned how to brew my own delicious beer for less than half of the cost from the store. All of these projects were fun to do, diminished boredom, and are skills which I can use to enrich my life moving forward. -
2021-01-13
Pandemic Favorite Things
As so many people's lives have become overturned by Covid, and people had more time on their hands than ever before to become engrossed in a hobby or activity, I feel that it is both a blessing and a curse being in a Masters degree program. Obtaining an advanced degree certainly seems to be a wise use of my pandemic time, but I cannot help but feel slight jealousy sometimes when I have to work on assignments instead of some of the interesting things that people have been doing this past year. However, I do enjoy gardening, fishing, kayaking, playing with my dog, and cooking. All of these are the things that have kept me sane and happy during the pandemic. Especially during the spring and summer, I ensured to take time away from school and work for a bit everyday to do some of those things. I am very fortunate that I live on a river/lake, so I could work in my garden, then launch my kayak with my dog in the passenger seat, and go fish until it was time to cook dinner whenever I wanted. It was a total blessing for me during Covid, for as isolating as it was at times, I was very lucky to have space and the ability to do my favorite things on a daily basis. -
2021-01-13
Covid Holidays
My family normally meets at my parent's house for Christmas every year with my Dad's infamous filet minion dinner. However, I have not been there in-person for the past decade or so because I always work on Christmas. Unfortunately (or I suppose fortunately), paramedics are needed to staff ambulances on holidays. Though I did not work on Christmas this year, I was still unable to go to the family party due to Covid. The biggest difference this year for me was that for the first time, I was not the only family member who participated in the holiday party remotely. This is not to say that I was happy that my family could not get together like normal, but there was something oddly comforting to not being the only person on zoom/whats app/etc. during the holidays. Everyone prepared their own dinners at home, we jumped on zoom and did a family toast and showed each other our respective meals. We all logged off to eat and then jumped back on to continue to celebrate the holiday and do the annual secret Santa exchange. Overall, it was a more normal holiday for me than for the rest of my family, but it was overall a great Christmas.