Back in April 2021, I wrote a blog post about my experience receiving my first two doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Due to a special credential I held, I was able to get vaccinated a lot sooner than the general public, so I wrote it as a way to share an anecdote with my readers who may be looking to hear others’ stories.

The booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was approved a little while back, but because I was out traveling on my road trip when my six-month post-vaccination recommended booster period came around, I decided to wait until I returned back home to Las Vegas before getting my booster. Because of this, a lot of other people have already gotten their third dose, but I figured I would still write about my experience as a sequel to my first blog post.

 
Before I begin, I feel like the United States has evolved (or possibly devolved) into a situation where, if someone makes a statement about anything re­lated to COVID-19 (including things like the efficacy of masking by the general public, or the safety of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines), people will draw conclusions derived from said statement that have no logical continuity. I also personally believe the United States has catastrophically mishandled the pandemic by somehow politicizing it, which has brought great division to the topic—a topic where even any divisiveness is probably too much.

With that being said, I want to clarify that I am not implicitly encouraging everyone to get vaccinated just by sharing my own personal vaccination ex­pe­ri­ence. For a combination of many reasons, I have come to the conclusion that I will respect and honor the decisions of both people who do and do not choose to get vaccinated.

Thus, if you are someone who does not trust the COVID-19 vaccine at the moment, I request that you do not leave comments on this blog post or send me messages accusing me of making other people get vaccinated, because I am not. In a similar vein, if you are someone who supports vaccine mandates and are upset that I am taking a neutral stance, I also request that you do not leave comments on this blog post or send me messages forcing me to force other people to get vaccinated.

 
Returning back to my own vaccination experience, this went a lot better and smoother than my first two doses. As a reminder, if you haven’t read my previous blog post, both of my first two doses were administered to me in the Cashman Center, a massive multipurpose facility… and it still took about two hours for each of my doses, even though I had an appointment.

This time, I went directly to the Southern Nevada Health District on 280 S Decatur Blvd. It was a huge difference compared to the Cashman Center—SNHD is supposed to be closed on the weekends, and this was a special evening and weekend COVID-19 vaccination arrangement, so there was almost nobody there except for the staff and a few vaccination recipients.

Upon entering, there was a massive family in front of me that clearly had absolutely no idea what they were doing, so I had to wait a few mi­nutes for them, but after a different staff member noticed that I was standing in line, she took me off to the side and got me checked in for my appointment.

She scanned my QR code, confirmed my identity, asked which manufacturer of vaccine I wanted (I picked Moderna because it is the vaccine that seems to be performing the best against the newer COVID-19 variants), and let me into the area where tables were set up for vaccinations. There was already a spot open and ready for me, so I sat down, went through some basic questions with the nurse (such as explaining my post-vaccination experience for my previous two doses), received some post-vaccination advice (such as recommending drinking a ton of water), then got vaccinated.

From the time I stepped into the building to the time I was seated off to the side for my 15-minute post-shot waiting period, it was no more than about six mi­nutes, and I spent a total of about 20 mi­nutes at the health district.

 
My vaccination appointment this time around was also in the afternoon, just like my second dose. For my second dose, I started feeling tired in the eve­ning, so I prepared for the same thing to happen after my third dose by washing up and getting in bed after returning to my hotel room. Earlier on in the day, I had also prepared a carton of bottled water and some sugary and fatty snacks, in case I lose my appetite and need the calories.

I browsed social media and watched some videos for a bit, and I was a tiny bit more tired than usual, but I ended up having enough energy left that I got out of bed and started getting some more work done while I could, sort of as a way to cram before my inevitable suffering the following day. I worked fine throughout the evening and night, then fell asleep at 11:30 PM PST.

I woke up at 2 AM, and that’s when the side effects started. I was dizzy and had body aches, and I had the same problems regulating my body tem­per­a­ture as I did for my second dose. I fell back asleep for no longer than an hour and a half at a time before waking up again for another hour or so, with this cycle repeating throughout the night.

For the entire day following the day of my vaccination, I felt very unwell. We all know that you’re supposed to lay in bed and rest up, but I ended up in a very counterproductive situation where, the longer I would lay in bed, the worse I would feel. I would eventually manage to get up, and I would pro­gres­sively start feeling better… but then I would reach a point of exhaustion that I would have to lay back down, then I would pro­gres­sively feel worse a­gain and continue the cycle.

As I predicted, I did indeed lose my appetite. The fatty and sugary snacks helped maintain my caloric intake, and I also ordered a large portion of ice cream on a food delivery app, which helped me reach at least 2,000 calories for the day. I eventually fell asleep at 9:30 PM.

My second night of sleep was much better than the first—after falling asleep at 9:30 PM, I slept uninterrupted until 5:30 AM, when I woke up already feeling much better and very thirsty. I drank some water, went to the bathroom, took some deep breaths, and stretched a bit. My body temperature reg­u­la­tion was back to normal. I actually felt like I had already gotten enough sleep and was rested enough to start my day, but figured that I should still get a few extra hours of sleep in, just to ensure that I’m fully recovered. I fell back asleep at 6:00 AM and woke up for a second time at 9:00 AM.

Throughout the second full day post-vaccination, I was still slightly dizzy, but I was able to resume life as normal. I was able to take a shower and drive safely to a fast food restaurant nearby to get some breakfast in the morning (because I had just barely missed free breakfast hours at the hotel by the time I was ready), then I took on a twelve-hour workday to catch up on stuff I missed from the previous day.

 
One thing that I want to note is that my heart rate monitor alerted me that my heart rate was unusually high throughout the entire first full day after vaccination—so much so that it logged me as having been in fat burn zone for a majority of the day, and miscalculated how many calories I burned that day because of it. One of my co-workers also notified me about this and confirmed that he had the same thing happen to him for his vaccination.

Prior to receiving the vaccination, I had to check a box acknowledging that young men have a higher chance of inflammation of the heart after receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine—specifically, myocarditis, which is the inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, which is the inflammation of the outer lining of the heart. I clearly did not develop either of these conditions from the vaccine, considering that these are both very serious conditions and I was perfectly fine after a day, but I’m curious if a very high heart rate was a sort of milder version of the side effect related to this warning.

By the third full day post-vaccination, I was entirely back to normal health-feeling-wise, and my heart rate seems to have returned to within ~10% of nor­mal levels.

 
If you choose to get a COVID-19 vaccination, may it be your first or third dose, I wish you the best of luck, and also highly recommend leaving a day or two free after your scheduled vaccination appointment so you can rest up and recover, in case you experience side effects like I did.

I’ve had poor eyesight and have worn glasses since I was a fairly young child. My eyesight got progressively worse throughout elementary school and into middle school, so my parents took me to an optometrist on a routine basis to get stronger glasses.

My final optometrist appointment was when I was just shy of 14 years old, in 8th grade. At that time, my dad worked for the United States government and he had some family health spending plan that was about to run out for the calendar year. To make sure we wouldn’t lose out on free money, he got me some new glasses. There was quite a sum of money left in this government-sponsored plan, so we ended up purchasing the most expensive glasses with every single possible additional lens option. The price of the glasses exceeded US$400.00, which, adjusted for inflation, would be over US$530.00 in today’s dollars.

Since then, it didn’t really seem like my eyesight was getting any noticeably worse, so I never went back to the optometrist. I continued wearing those same glasses year after year. “You get what you pay for” definitely applied here, because those glasses were invincible. I would regularly get hit in the face with balls while playing sports, and I’ve gotten kicked in the head on numerous occasions in martial arts. Yet, my trusty glasses stood by my side.

Fifteen years later, at age 29, I am still wearing these same glasses. … At least, I was still wearing these same glasses, until a few days ago, when they de­cid­ed to randomly snap in half.

These glasses were made out of a generic, off-brand version of Flexon, a flexible titanium. You can equate this to a memory foam mattress, but instead, it’s sort of like memory metal glasses. That also probably explains why they seemed to be indestructible—because they actually were, to some extent.

Unfortunately, it seems like this off-brand version of Flexon doesn’t last forever. After 15 years of daily use, it lost its flexibility enough that the bridge of the glasses became brittle and randomly snapped.

Of course, this couldn’t have just happened a month ago while I was still home. Oh no, that would be far too convenient. So now, instead, I am in Salt Lake City, three weeks into my cross-country road trip, and I do not have functional glasses.

I found some tape.

Considering that I literally cannot see or do anything without my glasses, I needed to find some sort of solution that was more viable than having a strip of packaging tape loosely holding the two halves of my glasses together as securely as an ant trying to carry a twig sixty times its mass. Because of this, eve­ry­thing was in a constant flux of random distortion, sending me in a spiral of dizziness.

I did some research online and found a glasses repair shop. It was almost half an hour away and two cities over from where I’m staying in Salt Lake City, but it appeared to be the only dedicated glasses repair shop in the entire Salt Lake City metropolitan area. I sent them an email ahead of time to confirm that they could fix my glasses; they let me know that they could grind off the existing bridge and install a new one, and it would take about an hour.

I showed up at the repair shop, only to discover that I was 5th in line to get my glasses repaired. The actual process itself did indeed take about an hour, but I would have to wait about four hours before the technician could start working on my glasses. The worst part is that, during the diagnosis, he took off the packaging tape that I had so intricately applied to the bridge of my glasses. So now I was left with a five-hour wait time and re-broken glasses.

He told me to come back tomorrow morning if I wanted to avoid a long wait. In the meantime, he spent about a minute haphazardly soldering my glass­es back together so I could at least put them back on to drive back to my hotel room and be a functional human being for the rest of the day. He said the solder might come apart after a day and claimed it was scuffed, but it was definitely far more reliable than the tape I had put on prior.

There was also one additional minor problem. Apparently, getting my glasses fixed in this manner would cost $89. I understand that installing a new bridge and properly realigning a pair of glasses requires specialized skill, but that amount still felt a bit too high for my liking.

I started looking for some alternatives and found an eyeglass store literally next door to the repair shop. Apparently I would be able to get an eye exam (which I was clearly overdue for, seeing as the recommended time between exams is 2 years) by an optometrist on-site, and be able to walk out with a new pair of glasses on the same day in most circumstances.

For the first time in 15 years, I got my eyes checked again.

After getting my new prescription, I headed out to the retail area of the store where I went through a good 12 or so pairs of glasses until I found some that I liked. The glasses I picked? An off-brand generic version of Flexon glasses. Again.

The eyeglass store I went to apparently has a miniature laboratory at every location, so if they have the appropriate frames and lenses in stock, a tech­ni­cian can put together the glasses within a day. I was originally promised the glasses tomorrow morning, but they ended up having it ready for pickup by the evening, so I ended up getting same-day service.

This is my first time with new glasses in 15 years (obviously), and it’s quite a jarring experience. I have a massive headache, I’m dizzy, I have distorted vi­sion around the edges of my glasses, I have blurred vision near the center, and I’m having much more trouble with depth perception (which is bad, be­cause I already had issues with depth perception).

Apparently it’s normal for it to take a few days, or even up to a few weeks, for your eyes to adjust to the new lenses. My myopia got a little bit worse, but apparently I developed a substantial amount of astigmatism, and it appears like the new astigmatism correction on my lenses is what’s causing a majority of these symptoms.

I did some additional research online, and the general consensus appears to be that the quickest way to get accustomed to new glasses is to keep wearing them. Thus, I am sitting here at my computer, fighting through the nausea, writing about how everything in my life loves to troll me, even my glasses.

I leave for Wyoming on Saturday. Here’s to hoping my eyes finish adjusting before then.

—

Edit (June 24, 2021):

Well, the story doesn’t end here. The distortion on my glasses didn’t get better. In fact, it got significantly worse. The instant I put my new glasses on yes­ter­day, I got a severe headache that lasted the rest of the day. My absence of depth perception persisted, and if I moved my eyes around at all (as op­posed to just looking straight ahead), everything would be out of proportion.

I also had a few “incidents,” to say the least. The first involved exiting my hotel room and trying to go down the stairs, but literally missing the first step because I couldn’t tell how far away it was, and falling down the stairs. The second was a bit more severe and involved. It was… an “unfortunate driving situation.” I’ll leave it at that. (Nobody got hurt, and no property ended up being damaged.)

I decided that now was not the time to get new glasses. It’s not that I didn’t trust the science behind just wearing the new glasses and getting used to them. The problem is that I can’t really do that right now when I’m on a cross-country road trip and am very active on a daily basis.

If this had happened while I was still in Las Vegas, it would’ve probably been doable, but the fact that I’m not at home, coupled with the fact that my op­tom­e­trist put me straight to my proper-strength prescription, about 6 steps higher than my current glasses (as opposed to incrementing me up lit­tle by lit­tle), made it so having new glasses right now is not really too viable.

I returned my new glasses and got a full refund (minus the cost of the eye exam, which is fine, because I still got a prescription signed by an optometrist, and he also inspected my eyes and informed me that they were otherwise healthy).

As for my old glasses, I went back to the repair shop and got the full bridge replacement done. The rest of my glasses were obviously still tattered, but the bridge looks as good as new. It is sturdy and securely holds both halves of my glasses together. I can continue wearing these for now, and later on, I can either go to a different optometrist when I get back home and ask them to prescribe me something that isn’t such a jarring difference, or I can just get la­ser eye surgery.

… The story still doesn’t end here.

I mean, what’s the fun in life if, after your glasses snap in half and you get them fixed, they don’t snap in half again at a different location.

I reattached the right leg of my glasses using super glue. I obviously can’t fold it in anymore, but at least it’s nice and sturdy now.

When I purchased the super glue, I intentionally purchased a two-pack. I’m saving the other tube for when the left leg of my glasses also inevitably snaps off.

I have no regrets with any of the major choices I’ve made in my life. I am eternally grateful for my current job and would never quit unless the company goes bankrupt or gets sold to a different company that chooses to change its identity at its core. I have almost no insecurities and am often praised for my explosive (and sometimes excessive) confidence. I am completely financially stable and am satisfied with the volume of my various income sources.

 
With all that being said, I do think that my youth is running out. Due to the work-from-anywhere nature of my current job and the freedom I have from not having a wife, children, or pets, I am able to do quite literally whatever I want. But, once I start settling down in a few years, I’ll have new re­spon­si­bil­i­ties that limit my range of activities.

I think it’s reasonable to want to capitalize on this youth without it being considered a quarter-life crisis. There was a good transitional phase in my hous­ing situation that just came up, so I decided to pass on extending or signing a new lease. I am going to put all my belongings in a storage facility in Las Vegas and spend at least the next half year being a nomad.

I’ll be splitting my time primarily among three places:

1. In a spare bedroom at Tempo’s company headquarters in Long Beach, California;
2. At my parents’ house in the Chicagoland suburbs, where I grew up; and
3. At various Marriott-branded hotels across the country with extended-stay discounts, such as Residence Inn and Courtyard.

My current plan is to head over to Southern California for a few weeks, then set off on a 1½-month-long road trip to Illinois, stopping by various major cities in all the states along the way. I would spend about a week or so in each city and drive no more than about 3-4 hours on each weekend day to make it to the next city. This will ensure I don’t get driving fatigue while traveling alone, allow me sufficient time to work my normal working hours, and give me an opportunity to explore the best parts of each city during my free time.

Once I make it to Illinois, I’ll spend about a month and a half living with my parents, whom I have not seen in-person since December 2019 prior to the pan­dem­ic.

By this point, it will be the beginning of September, upon which I will make a determination depending on how my road tripping has been so far—either continue East to extend my journey, or make the 1½-month-long trip back to Southern California, this time taking a more southern route as to avoid potential inclement weather in the Rocky Mountains.

And from there, I’m unsure what will be next. I may continue spending more time with friends and family and traveling around, or I may want to return home to Las Vegas and sign a new lease to settle back down and return to normal life. The entire point of this experiment is to be flexible with whatever might come up, so I’m leaving the possibilities open.

 
So… I guess I’m a travel blogger now.

You can find a lot of helpful information about the COVID-19 vaccine online, but people often want to hear anecdotes directly from others to see what their own experience might be like. As of not too long ago, I received the second dose of my COVID-19 vaccination, and in a couple weeks, I’ll officially be able to call myself “fully vaccinated” after my immune system becomes fully able to recognize and fight off the virus.

To begin, I want to point out that there is a possibility that I had anti­bod­ies, but I’m not entirely sure. I recall getting pretty ill right after I trav­eled to PAX East in Boston, which was right around the beginning of when COVID-19 was getting widespread in the United States and people were slowly starting to get cautious. I ultimately never got my blood tested for antibodies, and now that I’m vaccinated, I guess I’ll never know.

For the first few months, I was fairly cautious and didn’t really leave my home… though I generally don’t leave my home too often anyway, so that’s not saying much. I did not wear a mask for the first few months of the pandemic, and only started after Nevada imposed a state-wide mask mandate. A lot of my travel was canceled at the beginning of the lock­down period, but shortly after, I resumed normal travel.

After going to Boston for PAX East, I also went to Los Angeles, California on multiple occasions; New York City, New York; Dallas, Texas; Orlando, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota (but only for a layover); Seattle, Wash­ing­ton; Portland, Oregon; the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area; the state lines of West Virginia and Maryland; Detroit, Michigan (only for a layover); and as I mentioned before, multiple trips to the Southern California area spread out throughout all these trips.

So yes, I did indeed travel a lot during the pandemic. As far as I’m aware, I did not catch COVID-19 throughout any of my travels unless I had it and was entirely asymptomatic. In fact, I felt healthier traveling during the pandemic; I occasionally have a very mild illness after coming back from extended travel, but I did not feel sick at all whatsoever throughout the entire past year.

 
In mid-March, I was eligible to get the first dose of my vaccination. I went on the State of Nevada government’s COVID-19 vaccine hub and scheduled my first dose on the earliest date available, which was two days from the date on which I scheduled the appointment. I opted to get my vaccination from the Southern Nevada Health District at the Cashman Center at 850 Las Vegas Blvd N.

On the day of the vaccination, I arrived at the Cashman Center to a packed parking lot and a massive line. The line started outdoors and snaked its way multiple times before reaching the entrance of the building, then snaked again many more multiple times indoors. In total, it took about an hour and a half after arriving on-site before I was done waiting in line, received my vaccination, and sat for 15 minutes to check for any unexpected allergic re­ac­tions.

The ac­tu­al process of receiving the vaccination went smoothly. At the check-in desk, I presented my appointment confirmation QR code, government-issued identification, insurance card, and credential that qualified me to get an earlier vaccination. The check-in representative looked through every­thing and waved me onto the next part of the line. When it was my turn to get vaccinated, I was sent to a line with a nurse in medical attire. She seemed skilled and experienced administering vaccinations, as the needle insertion was fairly painless.

I was scheduled to make a trip to California at this time, but just in case I would experience side effects, I postponed my travel for a few days. Later in the evening on the date of the vaccination, as well as the following day, my arm felt mild soreness at the site of the injection. As the nurse recommended, I kept my arm active through light exercise (like arm circles, hand grippers, etc.) but avoided harder exercise (like weightlifting). The soreness went away after the second day after the vaccination.

Three days after my vaccination, I traveled to Southern California and felt no side effects or other changes in my health.

The second vaccination dosage was far more eventful. When I arrived back at the Cashman Center, the parking lot had far more open spots, but the actual line was noticeably longer (I imagine people were just parking at a different lot on the other side of the building). In total, it took about two hours this time (an increase of 30 mi­nutes) after arriving on-site before I was done waiting in line, had received my vaccination, and finished sitting for 15 mi­nutes.

The actual vaccination process itself was comparable to the first dosage in terms of process and logistics.

The difference came later that day. My vaccination appointment was in the early afternoon. By the time night came around on vaccination day, I felt just tired enough that I wanted to take a nap. I took a one-hour nap and woke up feeling groggy and more tired. I watched a few YouTube videos, did some work, and tried to go to sleep. At this time, I felt like my body was having a little bit of difficulty regulating its tem­per­a­ture. At approximately 2 AM, I finally fell asleep.

The following morning, I woke up at about 9 AM. I stayed in bed and browsed through social media and replied to some emails and messages, and by 10 AM, I felt noticeably weak and unwell. I’m usually the type of person to power through illness, so I forced myself to get out of bed and take a shower. After a warm shower, I felt much, much worse. I dried off and got straight back into bed.

Throughout the entire day, I had very low energy and felt like I had a very severe common cold. My body had very severe issues controlling its temperature; I would feel burning hot when I put on a blanket, but freezing cold if I take it off. The air conditioning breeze would feel refreshingly a­maz­ing for the first few minutes, then it would feel like my face was getting frostbitten afterwards.

From 11 AM until 3:30 PM, I laid in bed watching videos and browsing social media on my phone. From 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM, I got up to get some food and catch up on some work that was piling up throughout the day, then went back to bed at 4:30 PM to watch more videos.

At 8 PM, I tried ordering some ice cream from Postmates. I had low appetite, but I didn’t want to be on a calorie deficit while I was feeling unwell, so I figured ice cream would address that problem. Well, with Postmates having the most unreliable delivery drivers I’ve ever seen in my life, the driver as­signed to my order marked my order as delivered, but it was nowhere to be seen. (Postmates officially had more lost orders than correct ones at this point, so I contacted customer service and asked them to delete my account.)

At about 10:30 PM, I got up again to make some instant ramen. I cooked and ate for half an hour, then went back to bed. At 12:30 AM, I fell asleep. I woke up at 4:30 AM because my roommate was still up and I could hear her talking on a call in her room. At this point, I had gotten enough rest that I didn’t feel as bad. About 45 minutes later, I fell back asleep and woke up at 9:15 AM.

When I woke up, I felt like I was at about 95% health compared to pre-vaccine. I still had very, very mild body aches, but my body temperature reg­u­la­tion was back to normal, and I was able to get up and move around without feeling like I was going to collapse. At this point, I was well enough that I forgot I had even been sick the previous day, and I carried on as usual.

 
Something to note here is that I seem to have an overpowered immune system. Even when I caught the common cold when I was younger, I was no­to­ri­ous for never being sick for longer than a day and a half. This might have something to do with my recovery time, and if you end up feeling un­well with side effects, you might not necessarily recover in just one day.

Speaking of side effects, I’m hearing that my pattern of side effects is commonplace among other people I know as well. For most people’s first dosage, they had little to no side effects, but they would get nearly knocked out after the second dosage.

I wish you the best of luck with your own vaccination experience, and hopefully, your side effects don’t completely cripple you. My word of advice is to leave a day or two free after each vaccination dose, just in case. If you’re concerned about the side effects, just keep in mind, a few days of “fake ill­ness” while your immune system accepts the vaccination is far, far better than getting the real COVID-19 and putting yourself in a life-threatening position.

I always say that the best part of traveling is coming back home. Throughout all my trips, I’m always looking forward to my return flight… being able to shower again in my own bathroom… getting a good night’s sleep on my own bed.

But what if the problem lies not in the travel itself, but the types of trips I take, and the places I go?

What if, sometimes, just maybe, the best part of traveling isn’t coming back home, but rather, the experiences you have and the memories you make?

Last week went by too fast.

…

If you really think about it, the scope of the world is a bit intimidating.

Think about how complex you are. Think about the relationships you have, the role you play in your community, and even just the fact that you are com­plex enough to think about this very concept.

There are nearly eight billion people on Earth. Nearly eight billion organisms that are just like you, have their own intricate set of thoughts, and have their own life stories.

I think one of the most dangerous things you can do in life is to focus too hard on your own world. When I was younger, my parents regularly told me a Korean proverb about a frog in a well. To the frog in the well, the sky is nothing close to a formidable opponent. But once the frog exits the well, it’s in for an astronomic surprise. Literally.

Once in a while, something comes up that keeps my perspective in check. Sometimes, it’s just a gentle nudge, while other times, it’s a blazing inferno.

Beginning tomorrow, and over the next several days, I’m going to try and put out a blazing inferno.

…

On a lighter note, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

…

This upcoming trip that I’m leaving for tomorrow is definitely going to be one of those trips where the best part of traveling is going to be coming back home.

I’ll see you next week, Las Vegas.

I heard that snake plants (Dracaena trifasciata, formerly Sansevieria) were excellent house plants. They have good air cleansing properties, they release a relatively high amount of oxygen, and they’re next to impossible to kill. All of these points are important to me, as I want a plant that’s going to improve my living situation and look out for my health, while also being able to occasionally survive on its own while I’m out on extended business travel.

Today, I decided to buy a snake plant. I searched Google Maps for the closest Home Depot and headed west towards the Garden Center of the Home Depot on the 800 block of South Rainbow Boulevard. I went inside, only to be massively overwhelmed by way too many plants.

After a few minutes of browsing, I discovered a small problem. All the plants out in the Garden Center were potted in flimsy plastic temporary pots, and I would have to move the plant into a better home by purchasing a separate ceramic pot and some dirt.

You may be asking, why is this a problem? Well, I didn’t want to buy a bag of dirt, only to use just a portion of it and have a leftover half-bag of dirt. This scenario wouldn’t matter much for most people, but remember that I live 400 feet up in the air in a high-rise condo. I don’t have a backyard where I can dump the remaining dirt, and I don’t have a garage where I can just store the leftover dirt for future use.

But, for this to even be a problem in the first place, I would have to find a snake plant that I want to bring home. I decided to save some time by asking the Garden Center attendant.

The attendant was obviously wearing a mask, which isn’t too confusing if you’re reading this blog post not too long after I published it, but in case you’re someone from the far future and aren’t aware, everyone needs to wear a mask right now because there is a COVID-19 pandemic. However, this attendant decided to wear her mask so it was covering her mouth… but left her nose hanging out over the top of the mask.

I approached her and stayed six feet away from her like a good social distancer, but she slowly crept closer and closer to me until she was within a foot from my face. From here ensued one of those comical scenarios where two people with different personal space requirements are in a conversation, and one person is functionally “chasing down” the other. I think we traveled literally from one side of the Garden Center to the other while she told me how there were no live snake plants I could buy, but there were some fake ones available, they had a great selection of different plants, and there were also some real snakes for sale if I wanted to go three miles west to the pet store.

I thanked her for her help and left Home Depot.

I don’t get discouraged that easily. I decided that my next stop would be the Garden Center at Lowe’s Home Improvement. I made it there to find that there was as equally of an aggressive selection of plants there as there was at Home Depot. However, I managed to actually find a snake plant. Now I had to go back to resolving my problem of not wanting to buy a bag of dirt.

I flagged down another Garden Center attendant and asked her if I could just pay someone at Lowe’s to move the snake plant from its plastic container to a ceramic pot. She was a bit confused as to why I needed someone to do that, and insisted that the process was very easy and that I could do it myself. I then had to go through an extended conversation where I explained that I live on the Las Vegas Strip and I don’t really have a place to do home gardening, let alone a place to use leftover dirt.

The relieving part about this conversation was that this attendant appeared to know how to wear a mask. … The unfortunate part was that she removed her mask every time she was talking, then placed it back on her face every time she was done talking.

She may or may not have ultimately proposed a valid solution to my problem during our conversation, but I was so confused at how a country could possibly be so incompetent at using personal protective equipment during a global pandemic that I don’t even remember what she said.

The only thing I recall is thanking her for her help and leaving the store without a snake plant.

…

So yeah, I still need to go buy a snake plant.