Thursday, November 05, 2009

Back of the line

Just like the south, the north has it's little irritations that you just put up with. Just before I left the north I started letting those little things bug me just a little more then I would normally let myself get away with. I had caught the "grass is greener" syndrome, everything in the south was going to smell like roses. I usually reverse my outlook depending if I'm north or south. I flip flop like that, it's how I roll. Some people might call that flaky. Well since I'm down south for good this time I've reverted back to the north being all peaches and cream and remembering all the irritating things one has to deal with down south. One of them being waiting in line. And if you don't believe me, I'm telling the honest truth, you almost never wait in a line up north, maybe only on hot dog day once a year, who is going to pass up a free hot dog?

I've had the pleasure of waiting in sorts of lines since my return south. Of course there is waiting in line at Tim Horton's. A minor irritation at 8am when the line is busting itself out of the parking lot and into oncoming traffic. But it seems to move along at a reasonable pace.
Then there is the grocery store line when nameless huge chain only pay to have two cashiers on shift when their is clearly need for more. They tell you it's so they can bring you those Delisio's for the low low price of $5 (a mighty drop from the $16 I used to pay for them up north), but I know that since you're only paying your two cashiers pennies an hour to work anyways, you could probably shave a few bucks off of those dripping with fat CEO bonus cheques and get one more employee scanning out my pizzas. I'm entitled to my agression because I worked for said nameless grocery store for 6 years prior to my time up north. I know the deal. That or maybe you can use all that money your shamelessly charging for plastic bags in the name of the environment and then pocketing. I'm just saying.

Then the mother of all line ups, the one it took to get vaccinated for H1N1 in southern Ontario. Please, some of my northern friends pipe in and tell me how long it took you to wait in line to get vaccinated? Well it took me only an hour and half and that's because I got crafty and drove to another smaller city and got in line an hour before the clinic opened. The one I tried to get into (twice!) the night before was 2.5 - 4 hours long. I'm not going to get into the touchy subject of the vaccination itself, all I can say is that I'm sound with my choice of getting if for my pregnant self and 10 month old daughter. Happy I got it, and just in time too, lots of my friends are popping up with H1N1. Meanwhile back to the line up and how panic and lots of people mean waiting in sweaty, stinky school hallways. If Canada wants it's larger popluated areas to get vaccinated, making people who don't really want the vaccine wait in line for 4 hours isn't going to do the trick. Also who's idea was it to shove a bunch of pregnant ladies, kids and immune compromised individuals into tiny, cramped, low ventalated area with hundreds to thousands of other people. I almost turned into a germaphobe, I must have been purrelling every 10 seconds. Everytime someone caughed or sneezed, out came the purell. Then horror of all horrors, some random kid came over to Ezri, took one look at her and then proceed to lick her hand!! Where are we? Lets all share our germs and then get a vaccination, somehow that feels like it cancels it all out.
Here is Ezri being a trooper and waiting in line. At this point we are being told to make sure we have our Health cards ready, because it's soo important and omg where is your health card. I pull out our Nunavut Health cards, the lady doesn't even bother to check our names and tosses them back to us. "I can't scan these". Ontario your so high and mighty with your scan cards (notice how I'll say that until my Ontario health card comes in the mail). I could have been from Mars and still got the vaccination. Lets just hope that I never have to wait in one of these southern panic lines again. I've had about enough of waiting in line.

8 comments:

Matt, Kara, Hunter and Cavan said...

I am so glad we moved to Faro! No line ups here, same as Kugluktuk. I hate going into Whitehorse and the dreaded StupidStore trip.

We waited for a whopping 15 minutes to get our shots. Neener neener neener!

In Iqaluit said...

You didn't mention waiting in traffic. Any of that?

How long did I wait in line for the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines? Not at all. Zero minutes and zero seconds. That was only because I live in Iqaluit where they are doing the shots all week and I waited until day 3 thinking it might calm down and it did. The only wait was for the 15 minutes after the shot to make sure there are no adverse reactions.

I am from the north, I live in the north, I love the north. But oh my god the south often seems like the land of plenty and non-stop warm weather. I know what you mean about the grass is greener syndrome.

But I need to ask you: have you shopped at NorthMart in Iqaluit? There are ALWAYS long line ups. Always. And waiting for a cigarette-smelling cab takes a long while too. These are huge deals in the moment but right now my kids are long asleep and I am about to too. So none of that waiting matters. Right now.

How is Ezri enjoying southern living?

Tina said...

I didn't wait at all. Here in ILX we had a 2 day vaccination clinic. The mayor was on the radio telling everyone not to panic, there was more than enough vaccine to go around. The silly ones went first thing yesterday morning and waited over 2 hours in line. Me? I went this afternoon with the fam' and when we walked through the door we were greeted with "oh, thank GOD someone is here! We're so bored!" The longest we waited was the 15 minutes afterwards. So neener neener Kara, I didn't wait at all! Oh and Jennifer, you are overdue with Ezri pictures! We're going through withdrawl up here? How's baby #2?

Karyn said...

I took my son to be immunized today and we were 30 minutes from arriving to needle stick. I live in a city in between you and TO (I think) and the waits have been up to 6 hours long. But our public health is on Twitter, and they were posting approximate wait times, which I found really helpful.

Sorry you got caught up in the stupid lineups. I'm sure they could have figured out a better system somehow.

Cambridge Bay Bound Peoples said...

In Cambridge Bay I waited 5 minutes for my shots which included the time it took me to fill out the paperwork:)

Sarah said...

Glad you are back blogging!! sorry for your waiting in lines... I HATE them myself too..... LUV the effects you used for the photos!!! :)

keep on blogging!!

:) Sarah

dogsled_stacie said...

Neener neener Kara, took me about 8 mins at the Canada Games Centre yesterday - plus the 15 minute wait afterwards, and 10 mins chatting with the nurse, I was in and out in less than 35 mins!

And yeah, our Superstore is EXACTLY like you describe Jen - sooo annoying! Line ups suck, so do traffic jams - even if it's 15 cars in downtown whitehorse on a friday afternoon, still annoying!

Anonymous said...

I'm in Iqaluit and I arrived at the flu clinic at about 3:45. Worst timing ever. Apparently every parent in Iqaluit were trickling in with their kids in tow and they got to go ahead of a lot of people (which is GOOD; who wants to sit in line with dozens of kids running around?). Anyways, I waited for an hour, but I'm not complaining; I'm not even in any of the risk groups.