The start of the theatrical season also means that I am walking around in the dark and taking pictures of our amazing city, probably for the hundredth time!
And I dismiss all my resentments regarding the Russian Tea Time restaurant!
Today is Igor’s birthday! My older son survived my first-time parenting, all the mistakes I made, all my backs and forths, and the turmoil of my personal life, and none of that prevented him from becoming the amazing person he is. I admire his honesty, dedication, and persistence in standing for the causes he believes in. Happy Birthday!
We celebrated today by going to Trattoria Gianni’s and the Steppenwolf Theater to see The Sanctuary City – a brilliant production totally worth seeing!
I have a lot of subscriptions this season; most of them are together with my neighbor, and this week is the first week when things really started.
After the Symphony ball last Saturday, there was the first of our regular subscription concerts, with Ricardo Muti conducting Stravinsky, Liadov, and Brams. There are several new young musicians in the orchestra, and my and my friend could not take our eyes away from a very young violinist who was visibly ecstatic being on the CSO stage and was eagerly following the maestro’s directions, beaming.
Since we both agreed that we prefer the close to the stage seating even if the view is a little bit obscured, we have no problem finding the tickets to our satisfaction. Today was our first Opera, Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. If was the first time that I discovered that the Opera House has the same pricing strategy, and the side seats close to the stage cost the same as the rear main floor. We sat unbelievably close like I never was that close to the stage at any opera. We could see the singers’ facial expressions (as clear as in the videos below), and we could read English captioning with no problem.
The 2 hours and 20 minutes opera ran without intermission, so I was a little bit unsure whether we would survive, but the music was so captivating, and the performers were so engaging that I didn’t even notice where the time went! I never heard this opera before, not even in the recording, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Since I promised one of my followers that I would tell all about the opera set and costumes, here is my report. The set was innovative but not extravagant (in fact, the video about the lighting provides good shots of the set). The way they represented both ships with one was very clever. The costumes were “historically neutral,” probably close to the end of the nineteenth century, so they were not distracting the audience from the music. We loved it!
Yesterday was my mom’s regular doctor’s visit. The day before, when I was at her place and submitted the request for the SSI application, she said that “she has a disability.” That was news to me because she never mentioned that she had anything that would classify her as a disabled person. She said, however, that she has a paper from her doctor in Russia about that.
I asked her to find this paper and to bring it with her to the doctor’s office. When we came to the office and sat down there waiting to be called, she showed me the papers. It was something incredibly weird, and now that I am thinking about it, I believe that she mentioned it a long while ago – I just didn’t pay attention. These papers didn’t contain any diagnosis; instead, the paper said that she has a “general illness,” which causes her “disability of the third degree” – the least one, that allowed a person to work. The form was hand-filled and had some official seals but no supporting documents. I told her that I had no idea what it meant and that nothing like this would be considered as a reason for disability benefits. Then she became very upset and started her usual spill in an elevated tone about how when my friend Irina was alive, she could ask her anything about her medical conditions, and Irina would reply, and now that Irina passed away there is nobody whom she can ask, and all the rest what she usually says in this case.
Further in the conversation, I learned that she had fallen down in the bathroom the other day, and her elbow was bleeding, and it took her a while to get out of it. When I brought up the topic of having some help, she told me she did not need any and could do everything at home by herself. The subsequent conversation with the doctor was somehow more optimistic. I think that’s because the doctor “saw it all,” and she reassured me that “everything is typical,” and it’s great that my mom started using her cane when she goes to the bathroom at night. After this conversation, I realized there was no way I could prevent all the accidents that could happen with my mom, and I just needed to accept it and not stress out either her or me. Another good thing is that although mom’s doctor is moving to another clinic, it’s not as far as I thought, and mom will still be able to see her.
it was, in some sense, a “getting my life back” weekend, although I guess one weekend is not enough at the moment. I had a chance to have breakfast outside, which didn’t happen much this summer.
I biked a lot, although since the sun is not out until 6-45AM, I could not do a really long bike ride.
I went to the CSO Symphony Ball for the first time in my life. It’s not like I do not go to fundraising events, but if I go, it’s for more socially-oriented events. I think there are enough well-off people who would be happy to fundraise for CSO and other cultural institutions.
This year, I received two free tickets to the Symphony Ball for participating in the CSO for Kids Ambassadors program. I didn’t expect it :), and I am not going to lie, it was nice! I took my mom there, and because of that, I skipped a pre-concert champagne toast: I knew that mom wouldn’t be comfortable there, and also, I also wanted to make sure she ate something before we went.
The concert was amazing, and also it was a spectacular view of women in evening gowns and men in tails and white ties.
Other than that, it was mostly finishing writing multiple things I had to write or promised to write and planning my cultural activities for the next two months. Also, I baked an experimental version of my favorite blueberry pie, using strained skyr on place of rahka, and this is much better than using ricotta)
Today, I went to the Budlong Woods branch of Chicago Public Library to listed to the talk about the history and mission of RefugeeOne – the charity which helps refugees to resettle.
A huge portion of this talk was about the definition of who are refugees and who are asylum seekers (and I have to admit, I didn’t know that these worlds have precise UN definitions).
I didn’t know how long people usually stay in the refugee camps until they are resettled – can you believe it’s seventeen years on average?! Also, I had no idea about how many displaced people are there in the world – the picture below provides 2021 numbers, before the war in Ukraine, and as of now, the estimates are over 100 million, including internal displacement.
Even when the refugees ae resettled, have an apartment to live in, and help to become independent and self-sufficient, it still takes a huge effort, and that’s what RefugeeOne is doing.
They are calling for volunteers who follow the newly arriving families for the first six months, “holding their hands.” That’s something I was already thinking about last year, and I have to say that, unfortunately, I can’t make that sort of commitment, at least for now. But I will keep it in mind for the future.
Tuesday: Work + hosting Chicago PostgreSQL User Group after work
Wednesday: Work + discussion on our book + recording a session for P99 conference + dinner with a co-worker visiting from Texas + three-and-a-half hours long show, not especially interesting, and a very cold venue, but it was a part of the subscription, and I was there with my neighbor, so no way out
Thursday: Work + volunteering in the youth shelter
Friday (projected): Work + dinner with the same co-worker.
And “work” this week is twice as intense as usual; not like I have it light any other week. But this week, we want to do as much as possible with my visiting co-worker, so we discuss things and work on documentation. Also, this week happens to be high on customer communications and explaining what I am doing :), and convincing them that I am not their enemy :). And our dinners are also full of work discussions because we do not have enough time at work to discuss everything we want to discuss.
…to take pictures at the Rogers Park Metra Station every morning, capturing an amazing group of beautiful people from all walks of life, ethnic origins, social backgrounds, and whatever other category you can name! Every morning is a celebration of diversity.
Hettie's Reflections 