I totally agree with this. The only reason my elderly father with multiple health issues got his first vaccine is because I went through the (ridiculously complicated) process to get him an account, search for appointments, etc. Neither of my parents could figure it out on their own and almost all slots were gone by the time I was able to attempt it (which was about 10 minutes after the vaccine appointments were released). It really is too complicated in some areas.

Vaccines were distributed by population to each state, and the states decide how to distribute from there. Unfortunately, some states seem to be an absolute cluster. And even within individual states, the distribution can be wildly different in its efficiency. My county partners with a health system that takes care of 7 counties total. They have been insanely professional, organized and rolling out vaccines as soon as they get them. Their goal is to use all vaccine they receive each week, and they have been successful in doing so thus far. Anyone who wants a vaccine and is over 18 has had the opportunity at this point to wait in line to get it. Anyone in the higher tier who wanted theirs has gotten theirs. They are not delaying moving onto new tiers here- our entire population of the 7 counties is under 150k (adding to this that many rural areas received more vaccine than they are supposed to get population-wise because of our lack of access to adequate healthcare- the hospitals here (and many rural areas) aren't equipped for COVID patients with a severe case) . I just checked the stats and here, 35% of our entire 18+ population has been vaccinated with the first vaccine and 25% have already received their second dose. My mom lives in the same state but a large city and is a nurse in an office where they have frequent COVID contact and only now has been able to receive her first vaccine. Rollouts of vaccine for larger populations seems to be much slower from what I have seen.

Where I've heard it happening, it's more unorganized- there is no official way to sign up in most cases. You show up and wait at the very end of a clinic- be it a health department or CVS- and ask if they have leftovers. I have had many friends vaccinated doing it this way.

I think it is important not to make a snap judgement, because we don't really know their situation. My husband and I were able to get vaccinated even though we are young (33) and healthy in January, when the official tier for our state was only 75+. We live in a very rural area with a lot of vaccine hesitancy, and our county is moving quicker through the tiers than most of the rest of our state. They have large clinics that are first come-first served (where tiers don't come into play), and they have sign up events where they are strict about the tiers and go in order to fill all appointments in order of tiers (and usually get to the "everyone" tier for every clinic because most of the elderly/immunocompromised individuals that wanted to be vaccinated here already have). If they do not use their vaccine up every week, they do not get more the following week. They are being very careful to use (and not waste) any. Honestly, I've been so impressed how smoothly our town has done it- while a large city near us sat on thousands of doses of vaccine for TWO months because they "weren't sure" how to run a large scale clinic, our small and rural county healthcare system had everyone working (from the deputies to animal control to school nurses- until the national guard arrived) and delivered 45k doses in the same time that the nearby cities were trying to figure it out and had delivered NONE. People were actually crossing state lines to try to get their vaccine in our county, because the word spread so quickly. I know many people in other states that have waited and received waste vaccine (that would otherwise go in the trash) at the end of a busy clinic when it is shutting down. There are many ways to receive vaccine if it's not your tier yet, and it doesn't mean you're "stealing" vaccine from those more vulnerable.

DH and I (both in early 30s) received our first dose of Moderna in early Jan. Sore arm x 2 days, no other symptoms. My mother in her mid-60s received hers last week and didn't even have a sore arm. We are anxiously awaiting dose two, I've heard the side effects tend to be worse with the second dose, so we are planning it just before the weekend.

This is such an interesting topic! We love visiting the grounds of The Lost Colony, and look forward to seeing one of the shows once they start those back up. This book is my favorite on the subject- https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Colony-Hatteras-Island/dp/1467144339/ref=asc_df_1467144339/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459724879118&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3898138868016565098&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008492&hvtargid=pla-922831278215&psc=1 It discusses an archaeology team who have been quietly visiting the island from Europe every year for the last decade to discover the mystery, and as someone posted above- they found some very groundbreaking material!

Here in NE NC (about as NE as you can get before you hit VA!) and we are prepping a bit. Moving our porch swing to the garage, rocker on the porch and taking our cushions off of our screened porch furniture. Other than that, we aren't concerned. As far as getting to 4x4 area of the OBX, Currituck has not evacuated visitors but Dare county has. Corolla, Corova are both 4x4 areas and are both in Currituck.

My seven year old son LOVES reading- he is a voracious reader and will read anything he can get his hands on. His favorites have been Harry Potter (he is just finishing book two, and we will stop him after that for now as the books get darker in nature), The Chronicles of Narnia, and he also loves more twaddley books like Dog Man and Captain Underpants. He is learning cursive (so far, he hates it), is on 3a of Singapore Math. He does NOT love Math, but he is very good at it. He loves science, nature and the outdoors. As for cartoons, his favorites are Teen Titans and Gumball. He also loves Minecraft (though were severely limit his access to any electronics) and LEGO. He spends a lot of time riding his bike and hanging out with his dog. He also loves his PE class where he can hang out with all of his friends for a couple of hours.

This isn't new at all. I've been searching Facebook users using phone numbers for years 😂 it used to be standard that you could search anyone who had used their phone number to register, but now they can block it as a user from allowing others to see it.

We are an East Coast family and travelled for everything- but by car. A 13 hour trip several times a year was seen as no biggie, but we *NEVER* flew. Ever. My first flight was with my now-husband when we were teenagers and his family took me on a month-long trip to California with them! That was culture shock. We did vacations growing up, but we stayed with family typically and rarely had reason to stay in a hotel. That's probably why my husband is more okay with me going than I am! 😁

Her family- parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents that I was always close to growing up and still see occasionally. They are all a blast.

If we could drive to include my whole family, I would- but it's almost 3k miles away from home. I know I would have a blast with my mom, and my friend's family, who has always been a second family to me. But the cost makes me struggle. My husband will tell me to do it no matter the cost, but I am the numbers person in our house and the cost just makes me gasp.

oh YES! That is a huge part of it, too- getting to spend time with my mom. We moved away from our home town a couple years ago, and rarely get to spend time together now. I would love to tack on more days, but as it is, my husband will be taking 2 days off of work to be home for our children and can't afford to miss more because he will be getting ready to start a big trial. I wish we could add on more!

As of right now, the price just for my portion of the hotel and my airfare is 1200. Food, wedding gift, etc. will bring that up, which is why I'm struggling. Once I get over 1k, my brain starts spinning over the decision.

My husband's parents are typically that way- it makes it very easy to accept travel invitations! But my parents are poor, and it will be a stretch for my mom to be able to go, too. But their expenses are far lower than ours, they have no kids at home and both of them work, so she will make it work as long as I'm going.