The South East Asian

Ever been to Oneonta?  A Native American word, certainly.  And a quick check suggest it means “place of many hills.”  I have never considered the town or the hills.  Today, my wife and I drove two hours up and got our first Covid vaccine shot today, in the Suny Oneonta, Alumni Field House.  Pfizer shots for us. They have a vaccine center for Ulster County, less than a mile from here across the Wallkill River, but they booked out as is every other center between here and Canarsie. 

 

Driving up its cold.  I don’t know just what I did but my fingertips are numb and they aren’t warming up.  Sometimes my wife and I argue over the stupidest things.  She’s warm and wants the heat off.  I still can’t feel my furthest folds on my digits.  We got off I-87 at Saugerties and I filled the near empty tank with gas.  It seemed to take forever.  There were flakes of snow falling mocking the April second calendar date and when I got back in the car my fingers were worse.  And I, to my ears, politely stated that I’d now need to turn the heat up and would she please not complain about it.  She did.  And I did in return.  What  should have then been a lovely maiden drive up Route 23A passed the remarkable Kaaterskill Wild Forest Park, was oppressively silent. 

 

Oneonta was ready for us.  New signs in town concurred with the GPS and steered us around the town and up to the campus.  The facility was manned, in the main by Army reserve men and women.  There wasn’t much of a line.  We presented our licenses and our insurance cards once and thrice and thanked each of the people for their kind service.  The penultimate gent with whom we paused, before sitting down to take the shots explained that he and many of the service-people here were from NYC.  He was up from Washington Heights.  And he mentioned that on the way out we could go over to the South East Asian if we wanted. 

I nodded and thought to let it slide but could not.  “I’m sorry.  Could you repeat the last part of what you said?”  “Yeah, I mean, when you're done you’ll wanna sit for fifteen minutes just to make sure there are no adverse effects and then, you can go stand by the South East Asian if you want.”  I looked expectantly.  There was no one standing there in a Sukarno songkok.  “Ooooooooooone more time?”  “You see the sign?  The selfie-station.  Right.  Yes.  Anyone can see.  Indeed.  There is a selfie station should I need a selfie.

Good to remember these sorts of errors can happen in one’s mother tongue not just in a foreign language.  Try it yourself with a thicker-than-thou, uptown brogue. 

Friday, 04/02/21