Month: July 2020

Reopening

Being able to come to the city and do stuff in the city is a very important part of my feeling of being “myself.” And now, some cultural attractions started to reopen. I want to mention that I have no desire to do things just because “they are allowed,” if I won’t be doing them under normal circumstances.

When the Chicago History Museum opened, I didn’t rush there because I didn’t go there for four years :). I checked all the walking tours of CAC and didn’t find any which I would be interested so again, I didn’t go. Although I think that is was a great idea to resume walking tours in small groups.
Aquarium opened on July 3, first for Members only, and now for everybody, but with advanced reservations (and will 1/4 of capacity). I love Aquarium, but I am used to going there with somebody, to whom I could show stuff for the first time. I tried to book the members’ hours for one of the future dates, but it turned out that they won’t give me an extra quest ticket in these circumstances at Aquarium. And I didn’t feel like going alone.

The Field Museum is reopening this weekend; actually, it reopened on Friday. The first five days were for Members only, but once again, I could not find the time, which would work for me, and I didn’t want to bring mom to the city during the excessive heat. So I decided – some time next time.
And today, the Art Institute announced that they are opening on July 30! And they are doing it the best way! Like all other museums, they will be closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They have flexible hours, so there are still days when they are open late, and each day (with no reservations required), the first hour is members- only. Can’t wait 🙂

Also, the Chicago Symphony finally sent a message about the next season. Lyric Opera and some of the theaters have already canceled the first part of the season. But the CSO said that they are going to try having some smaller concerts, and some broadcasts. They laid out all the limitations (50 people per sitting area, entrance-exit rules, etc.) I hope that this will happen

Settling Down in the Office

In the office, all our workstations were rearranged to make sure we were six feet away from each other. I was told that I am by the window facing the City Hall, which made me delighted. However, when I came in, I saw that although I was indeed by the window, the City Hall was behind me 🙂 and I was facing west. I do nor even know why, but that made me extremely uncomfortable, even though there was nobody else in the office. 

Next time my director was in the office, he moved me – I am not by the window anymore, but I am facing East. For a reason not known to me, I feel much better that way. I finally placed all my keepsakes where they should be. I have this set of memorable things that travel with me from one workplace to another and never live in my home. 

They came from different people, at different times and under different circumstances, but now, they all mean something for me. 

The bear – to be strong and resilient, the blue hippo – to laugh and to relax, the old plaster cobra – the keeper of my love, Buddha – to stay calm no matter what. And friends and chocolate – there is nothing I can add to what it says:)

Also, on Thursday, I finally found my office coffee mug! I could not find it and kept thinking that I took it home, then I could not find it at home, and looked everywhere in the office… It turned out it was in the washing machine! And then I remembered that it was me who started the washing machine “last time,” when we were leaving the office before what we thought then was just a two-week thing. And when our HR was making the office ready for reopening, she didn’t check the washing machine! And there were still glasses in, and it was still showing “running.” 

Now everything is finally in the right places! Where it should be 🙂

Chicago. Summer. Happiness.

Today, the whole Riverwalk was open, I didn’t have to get up and down, and was able to walk all the way from Michigan Avenue to LaSalle

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The Clock Is Ticking

On Monday, the clock started ticking – we are official “in” for our book. I feel very nervous. We drafted quite a bit before the official start, but now it seems like we won’t have that extra time for the subsequent chapters. Also, since we started to draft something more than a month earlier, I expect that we would have more written. 

The huge part is a training database which is still not finished. First, I assumed that Boris would do it since we are using a public database that he helped create several years ago as our starting point. It turned out that he is not as familiar with the generation scripts as I thought he would. I started to dig into the generation myself. Then at some point, when I found several chunks of raw data missing, Boris told me that I could hand it out to him; he will finish. And now it is stalled. 

Now I have this weird feeling that I  can’t do, I am not allowed to do anything entertaining, while I do not have at least one chapter drafted, preferably two. And I might end up living with that feeling about each next chapter until we will be done at the end of the year.

Nope, I do not need anybody feeling sorry for me; after all, I wanted it, and I got it all started. Just bear in mind that I might be in that anxious mood more often than usual. 

How Is It Being In the Office

So far, went I come to the office, I am either alone, or there is one more person there. People are asking me “how is the office,” and I am saying I like being back. It’s not like I less productive at home, but when I am coming to the office, it helps me to separate work and non-work, so that it won’t be one endless workday.

Also, when I am in the city, I can meet Igor for lunch, and I can walk the streets of Chicago, which I missed a lot during these months!

There is no food in the kitchen
And the nespresso machine stopped working, so I bought another percolator for work
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Deer Grove at It’s Best

This weekend, I spent a lot of time in Deer Grove Forest Preserve.On Saturday morning, I went out for a workday with Friends of Deer Grove. We were cutting the heads of reed canary grass, which is an invasive plant.

On Sunday, I took mom for a walk, and since it was not as hot as for the previous two weeks, she was able to walk for the longer time. I was looking for the black raspberry, hoping that I could pick some, but it is still just starting to ripe, so I need to wait for at least another week. When me and mom stepped a little bit away from the path to see the water lilies closer, we saw a deer! I come across them almost every time I bike in the morning, but it is unusual to see one at the bright daylight. And Mom saw a deer in the wild for the first time!

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About the Rape Culture

My post in which I mentioned an attempt of rape, which happened during my travel to Poland, generated several offline conversations, and I thought I should write more on how such situations were viewed at that time. 

The more I think about it, and the more I try to recall how such situations were perceived by society, the more I wonder why I considered it reasonable. When I wrote about the classes in psychology, I mentioned that somehow women thought about themselves as equal but, on the other hand, knew that they need to prove themselves ten times more worth than the smartest men to be considered for a job. And it’s not only that the male bosses thought this way, but us, professional women, shared the same views.

A similar thing can be said about being a sexual object. We wanted to be considered seriously at work. We wanted our ideas to be heard. But at the same time, we wanted to be admired sexually. Flirting at work was not just OK, but expected. I remember once when I already lived in the US, the mother of my friend visiting from Saint Petersburg asked me: do they flirt with you at work? And when I answered: of course, not! her reaction was to the effect of “what’s wrong with you?” Married or single, with children or not, you were supposed, expected to flirt at work. Even better if you are married, because it means you are not trying to catch a husband. 

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June 1995. Our Trip to Poland. Part 3

Waldek dropped us off at Krynica Morska in their small house and left. 

There were several small rooms, I do not remember exactly, how many, a kitchen and a bathroom. Waldek showed us where the local grocery store was and how to get to the beach and to the pier. And then he left.

I had to start living in our temporary home by going to the grocery store and buying literally everything I needed and cook our first dinner. By that time, younger people already didn’t learn Russian at school, and almost nobody spoke English. Not at the grocery store. My Polish was marginal. I struggled with every other word: I remember that it took me three days to figure out that smetana and smetanka are two different dairy products, and I needed the former.   

Well, cooking was not a big deal, and the store had everything I needed. But I was planning for a beach vacation, and that was not going to happen! It was cold and rainy. For the first two days, the rain was pouring non-stop. The kids had almost no toys, we had only one book with us, and after I figured out how to turn on the TV, it appeared not much use, since everything was in Polish. Also, the roof started to leak, and I was frantically searching the house for a bucket. 

I remember me sitting in this house, pouring rain outside, the water from the ceiling dripping into a bucket, Polish cartoons on the TV… and thinking: why in the world did I decide to bring my kids on this trip?!

On the third day, the rain stopped, and we walked to the beach. The white sand beach was empty, the kids wore jeans and sweatshirts (the only ones we had with us, I didn’t plan for cold weather).

Krynica Morska beach nowadays (By rysnal, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56541574)

On the pier, vendors were selling all that regular touristy-resort stuff, like beach towels, inflatables, beach balls, and toys. Vlad and Anna took turns in throwing tantrums because they wanted this or that.

Another day passed, and it started to warm up. But then Anna started coughing and having her usual thing, and I did not let her go into the water. In the end, we had several nice days, and everything was almost picture-perfect. 

From the house to the beach, it was a thirty minutes walk. I was making sure we didn’t forget anything we needed for a half-day away on the beach. I remember that once we forgot something. I can’t remember now what exactly, but apparently something important. I realized that we forgot that something half-way to the beach, and I had to give Igor the key to run back to the house and get whatever we were missing. Sounds crazy now, especially in the world with no cell phones. 

I was also looking for some cultural activities, and found that we could take a boat to the Copernicus Museum, which we did one of the days – one more post to follow.

My historical posts are being published in random order. Please refer to the page Hettie’s timeline to find where exactly each post belongs and what was before and after.

More Optimistic Eyes Update

On Wednesday, I went to the two-weeks checkup after my retina surgery. My left eye is now better than before the surgery and is some aspects even better than the right one. However, the horizontal lines are still wavy, and there are some blank spots in the middle. I told the surgeon that I do not want to do the right eye, because I won’t be able to last with my left eye only for a week. He agreed to wait till October to decide whether I will do the second one. I am most likely not going to come back because I have lots of issues with that office.

Since my eye doctor is still not open, I decided to go to the LensCrafters in the city, who made my last glasses. Their location works perfectly for me, and I had an excellent impression of their office in general when they replaced a lense in my glasses.

I scheduled an appointment with them for Thursday, which is now my in-office day. I spent there two and a half hours and I felt extremely guilty missing time at work, but the results are very promising. The doctor fitted me with bifocal glasses, and also I tried bifocal lenses for the first time. He gave me a week to get to adjust to them. That’s a new experience, and I am excited to be almost a normal person. I could not see so well for a long time; I can’t even recall since when.

Hopefully, this all will work out!

Maybe, It Does Not Sound Funny, But It Was Funny!

You know, how one thing leads to another… after I picked up an additional external monitor from the office so that I could have two external monitors to work from home, I realized that my first monitor is not of great quality. And when you mostly work from home, it matters.

I discussed it with Boris, and we agreed that I would purchase the same model as I have upstairs for online classes. The only thing that scared me a little bit was the fact that this monitor was sitting not on the stand but the adjustable desk mount. I asked Boris whether he is sure I can affix it myself. He said: definitely, it’s just four screws, and that’s it. And I believed him!

That was another project for the holiday weekend. The monitor was delivered, and I told Boris that he would need to guide me through the process using Facetime.

Now, it’s not that much space on my desk. This desk used to be spacious fifteen years ago or so, but since then, the standards have changed. And the monitor sizes, as well.

I was able to unscrew the old monitor from the mount. But after that, the mount, free of the monitor weight, went up, and would not come down. And I had to hold it to screw on the new monitor without being able to see what I am doing.

That was a challenge! First, I didn’t realize that the new monitor has it’s own four screws in and wondered why I couldn’t find the holes! Then, it was almost impossible to keep the whole construction down. Boris kept telling me that I should turn the mount ninety degrees so that it would be easier to attach a new device, but again, without the weight, the mount won’t cooperate. At some point, it jumped up and hurt my upper lip and the bottom of the nouse. I screamed; that’s how bad it was!

Boris suggested finding a box that will support the monitor on the height of the mount’s natural position, which I did, and then I was able to screw it in, and everything was great. But looking back at that situation, even though my nouse still hurts, I can’t keep from laughing! Who else would complete such a project remotely?!