How We Met

October 18 was a Wednesday that year, and Wednesdays were Ladies' Night at Horsefeathers.  My cousin's boyfriend had recently broken up with her, and she wanted to go out and drown her sorrows.  She needed a designated driver, so she called me.  

My limited nightclub experience had been confined to the Bardstown Road/Baxter Avenue bars.  I had never been to Horsefeathers, but even with my minimal knowledge of clubs, I didn't have high hopes of having much fun that night.  There were just a handful of people in the bar when we walked in, but even so, my cousin knew several of them.  I got my free soft drink and followed her while she made the rounds.  We finally sat down at a tall table near the dance floor, and I sipped my Coke and kept time to the music while my cousin talked to friends.

People had started coming in, and before I knew it, the dance floor was filling up.  My cousin was still chatting away, and I began people watching, but I really wanted to dance. In a booth against the wall were three guys in their early 20s.  I could tell they were soldiers by their haircuts and black watches.  They were cute, and I watched them spitting ice at a waitress when she wasn't looking.  It wasn't very nice, but it was funny.  One of them caught me laughing at them and smiled at me.  

My cousin was wrapping up her conversations, and since she had work and I had class at UofL early the next morning, I knew we'd be leaving soon.  I saw an older guy making his way to our table.  I thought he was another of my cousin's friends, but he started talking to me.  All of a sudden, he turned around, and one of the soldiers was standing there instead.

"Would you like to dance?" he asked.

"Oh gosh," I said, "we are about to leave."

My cousin looked at me, knowing how much I'd been wanting to get out on the dance floor, and said, "Oh, go ahead.  We can stay awhile."

So the soldier and I walked onto the dance floor and started...talking. He told me his name, Kirk, and asked me mine.  He was from Minnesota and confirmed he was stationed at Ft. Knox at Armor Officer Basic Training.  He said his buddy's wife had just left him, and he was the designated driver that night.  I told him I was an English major, and we talked about books we'd read and who our favorite authors were, all the while barely moving to the music.

After about 15 or 20 minutes, my cousin was tapping on her watch.  I told the soldier I had to go, and he walked me over to the table.  The whole way back, a voice in my head was whispering, 

"Don't let him get away!  You will regret it for the rest of your life!"

So I did something I never did with a guy I had just met in a bar.  I said, "Why don't you give me a call?" and wrote down my number on a napkin.  He wrote down his number for me, and then my cousin and I left.

In the car on the way back to her apartment, I told her, "I have just met the man of my dreams."

She laughed at me, but I said, "I'm serious! I've just met the man of my dreams."

That Friday at dinner, the phone rang, and it was Kirk.  "Hey!  You might not remember me, but we met at the bar the other night..."

We made plans to go to see a movie the next night.  I didn't want him to know where I lived just yet, so I told him I'd meet him at the McDonald's on Bardstown Road by the Showcase Cinemas.  We saw Dead Poets' Society and after we went to Shoney's and sat in the booth until well after midnight drinking coffee and splitting a hot fudge cake.

For our second date, I drove to Ft. Knox, and he took me repelling off the training tower and made me spaghetti.  I knew by December that I wanted to marry him.

That was 1989.  He moved to Ft. Hood, Texas in February, and after his brief trip to Saudi Arabia for the Persian Gulf War, we were married in August 1992.  We lived in Texas, Arizona, and Hawaii before coming home to Kentucky where we have raised three wonderful children, now about the same ages we were when we met.

Sitting here on Valentine's Day thinking about those young kids we were, we had no idea what life would throw at us.  We just knew we loved each other, and that has been enough.

One Down, One to Go

I have been getting a lot of spam calls on my cell phone lately, so when it rang late Thursday afternoon, I almost didn't answer.

"Hello?" I said, expecting to hear, "Don't hang up!  We have been trying to reach you about your credit card..."

Instead, a voice said, "Hi, this is Sydney from the Louisville Health Department.  Is this Sharron?"

Every day that I volunteered last week, I had to put my name down for contact tracing, so I figured I'd learn that someone I worked with had tested positive for Covid.  

"Have you gotten your vaccine yet?" she asked.

"No," I replied.

"We have some extra doses, and we're reaching out to all of the people who got their 40 hours. We have a vaccine for you if you can be here by 5:30."

"I'm leaving now!" I replied and hung up the phone.  "Hey Kirk," I shouted downstairs, "guess who's getting her first vaccine!"

I threw on my rain boots and a coat and hopped into my van for the 20 minute ride to Broadbent Arena.  When I got to the volunteer check in entrance, the doors were locked, but a man came to open them for me.  

"I got a call to come get a vaccine," I said.

"Are you a 40?" he asked.

"I got my 40 hours on Wednesday,"I answered.

"She'll take you at the desk," he directed and then yelled, "We've got another 40!"

I looked over to the break area and saw about 30 people in yellow vests waiting for what I assumed were vaccines.  There were always people waiting for the few extra doses at the end of a daily shift.  Usually there were less than ten to give out, but lately, the health department would open another vial if there were exactly 10 more people than the number needed to use up the left over doses.  Today was different.  The people waiting well exceeded the 19 max doses available, and they all looked to be that day's volunteers. 

The lady at the desk waved me up.  I gave her my name, and she looked me up.

"Yep!  There you are!  Here's your paperwork.  Follow Mary.  She'll show you where to go."

Mary took me into Broadbent and showed me an area of chairs full of waiting people. 

"Fill our your paperwork and then one of the nurses will give you your vaccine," she said.

I still wasn't really sure why I had been called or what was going on.  Normally, the volunteers who completed 40 hours got an email on the Monday after the week they finished their hours with a link to schedule their first vaccine dose the following week.  I had just finished my hours the day before, and it wasn't Monday.

"Excuse me," I asked Mary, "what is going on?  Why did I get called today?  I thought I was supposed to get an email."

She explained that they had over 100 doses left over that day and they were calling everyone who had completed 40 hours that week to get a vaccine.  Any extra doses after those volunteers had arrived would go to that day's volunteers according to hours accumulated and age.

I sat in my chair and filled out my paperwork.  Once I was ready, I motioned to the nurse, and she came over with a time card and the shot.  She looked over my paperwork, asked me my arm preference and gave me my first dose of the Moderna vaccine.  Then she sent me into a waiting area for the required 15 minute wait time.  Someone else showed me how to sign up for the daily check-in text questions to see what kind of reaction I was having.

I sat with a big grin on my face and did what everybody else who had gotten the vaccine did...took selfies! 

The only side effect I had was a VERY sore arm at the injection site.  Like wake me up in the middle of the night when I turned over sore.  Like couldn't raise my arm to take off my shirt sore.  But that only lasted a day. Then it was just regular sore for another day and then it didn't hurt anymore.

I go back on March 4 for my second dose.

I've heard the vaccine called "an injection of hope," and that is truly what it is.  Hope that we can move beyond the stress and anxiety of the last 11 months.  Hope that we can hug our friends and families again.  Hope that we can get our kids back in school and go out to eat and go to concerts and ball games and get back to normal. 

I have not felt this much optimism in a long time.  I can't wait for everyone to feel the same.