Life Lately

Pulling out a long-ago personal photo because the weather's warming up and it's starting to feel like spring here in NYC! And with all New Yorkers aged 16+ becoming eligible to receive the vaccine on April 6, I think life will start looking better here very soon. 

Before I say anything else, a note about the events in Atlanta on March 16 and other recent examples of violent crimes with Asian American victims, including one very close to home: As you've probably noticed if you've been reading this blog for a while, I write somewhat regularly about my Asian American identity and about certain forms of discrimination against Asian Americans. It's an issue I think about often and one that is very real to me. But I've been unequal to the task of knowing what to say about the more recent spate of violent crimes against Asian Americans, particularly people who are elderly and vulnerable. 

I do not fear for myself, but I do feel some fear for my mom and for K's parents. And I do not know what an effective solution would be, cannot even begin to propose something intelligible. When I write about Asian American issues, it's important to me that I always be conscious of the position of considerable privilege I occupy - by virtue of my economic class, where I grew up, and all kinds of other criteria - and that I not take away from people more vulnerable than me, or usurp their pain or their stories. That makes it difficult to articulate a response to the events of March 16 and from the past year. 

- - - - -  

Whew, I've had an extremely busy few weeks at work, so I haven't been able to publish anything here on the blog since March 16. Things should be a little more quiet at the (virtual) office now, through at least the early part of April, so now I can get some rest. Here are two smaller, lighter things that have been on my mind since I last wrote.

1. // As of March 30, and as someone over the age of 30, I'm officially eligible to sign up for a COVID vaccine in the state of New York! (And on April 6, all ages currently FDA-approved for the vaccines will become eligible.) 

Unfortunately - but not too surprisingly, given that it's barely been 24 hours since we became eligible, and given how dramatic the expansion of eligibility was on that day - K and I have yet to have any luck actually signing up for a vaccine appointment. (A few of our fellow newly-eligible age 30+ friends have managed it, though.) There are lots of providers out there, including pharmacies, city government-run sites, state government-run sites, public hospitals, etc. etc., each with their own sign-up websites, so it might take a lot of madly refreshing several different websites to finally secure our appointments. 

Given that new appointment slots are always being released, I'm generally reasonably confident that K and I will have at least our first shots by the end of April, even if it might be a pain to find and book our appointments. I expect I'll be back in the office full-time almost as soon as I'm fully vaccinated. 

2. // That rather fancy Nespresso Aeroccino 4 (affiliate link) I bought earlier this month has turned out to be an excellent purchase for our household! Both K and I find ourselves using it for at least one tea or coffee "latte" a day, most days. It really does make our at-home caffeinated beverages feel quite a bit more special. As we've only had this Aeroccino milk frother for around two weeks, it's still far too soon to really vouch for its long-term durability or anything like that, but we've been finding it very functional and easy to use and clean. 

And that's it for now, just a very quick post for today. I hope that everyone has been well. I'm expecting to resume a more typical posting schedule next week, and I don't currently have anything else on my work schedule that I think would cause serious disruption to my typical blog-writing pace in the next few months. (But my work schedule as an attorney can be very unpredictable and big projects can come up on short notice, so it's hard to say for sure.)