Month: November 2023

In Milwaukee

Today, I am a more human being than I was yesterday and probably for the past several weeks. Yesterday, although I “didn’t do anything,” I was a complete zombie by 9 PM, and today I could function and even do some work, talk to my co-workers, and catch up on some of my personal things. Also, we finally started to make plans for “after.” Many of these plans depend on whether any of my conference submissions will be accepted and which of them. Also, although I am going to be away from work for more than two weeks in December, I still feel that I need some vacation after that :).

Now, being not as sleepy as I was yesterday, I want to repeat that I was very impressed by the level of technology, and with the detailed information we were given. Also, I am looking and the machines Anna is using at home, and I find it incredible that nowadays, they have all kinds of machines you can use at home, and you do not even need to be in the doctor’s office for that.

There is a machine that ices the leg, then another machine that massages the calves, making sure there are no blood clots, and yet another machine to straighten the leg that was operated.

Still, there are a lot of things, big and small, which I can help with, and I am glad I could come.

The Surgery And Technology Advancements

Anna had her knee surgery today, and everything went great, “to the best possible scenario,” but the recovery will still be long.
I was very tired because the whole day was going back and forth, waiting, and there were a lot of uncertainties. What impressed me, however, were all the recent advancements in technology.
From the very start, Anna gave the hospital staff the phone numbers of people whom she wanted to keep in the loop, and they were sending text messages about the progress of the operation and also notified us when we should be ready for the surgeon to talk with us after the operation, and when we could go in to see Anna.
The surgeon walked us through all the stages of the surgery, showing pictures and explaining what was done (perhaps more details than I needed!)
Anna has multiple devices attached to her leg (some of them are for both legs), all preventing different complications. All together, it looks like a kiborg! The buttons flash, and the sounds are heard.
I will stay here for four more days, and I hope that the recovery will be smooth.

Family

After the Thanksgiving dinner, my mom told Anna that she was “the only person in that family who had a normal family.” Later, Boris commented that I’d pretended that this statement was not related to us. To be honest, I heard so many things from my mom that nothing can surprise me, so although I realize that my mom meant Vlad’s family, my own family, and Igor’s absence of the family, I can happily ignore what she says.

Last week, however, I was really surprised by what she said. Actually, it was not the first time she said the same thing, but I was surprised she brought it up again. She said that she was sorry that life was so unfair to me that I didn’t have any special romantic relationships. This statement was so off the charts that it took me a lot of self-reflection not to say anything (when I told Boris about that, the look of surprise on his face was something I do not see that often:)).

My mom refers to one of her life stories when there was a person with whom she met once or twice a month for a couple of years, and they would go to the theater performance or to one of many suburban palace parks around Saint Petersburg. He also recorded lengthy messages on tape for her (she saved them, and I digitized them several years ago.) When she talks about these relationships, she proudly says that “there was no sex or anything like this” and that “nowadays, people can’t even imagine that it is possible.” I do not understand why having sexless relationships is something to be proud of and something I should regret not having. Sometimes, I really want to ask her whether she ever had a satisfying sexual life – ever. Also, I find it very difficult to understand why having six years of marriage to my father, and then having a couple of these sexless stories, and then having over ten years of secret relationships with a married man in Moscow – why this is more “normal” and better than my family life.

Family life and life in general is not about romantic escapades. It’s about building a life together, understanding each other, and supporting each other in all possible ways. I understand that when you are seventeen, you might think that love is about demonstrating your feelings, but I am long past that; even though Boris says that we are not the most rational people in the world and we do crazy things often, it’s a different kind of craziness 🙂

Actually, the thing I am most thankful for this year is how our relationships reached a new level and how we learned to appreciate each other – even more than before.

Long Weekend

This Thanksgiving was not ideal, to put it mildly, so I am not going to talk about it. I am just hoping that next year, it will be better.

However, despite that fact, the long weekend was pretty productive. Boris came on Wednesday afternoon, and I told him right away that I would need lots of help around the house in general and to help me get ready for a very busy December in particular. He was indeed exceptionally helpful, and I felt supported in all possible ways.

Friday was our day in the Loop. We went to the Art Institute because there were three exhibits I wanted to see, and having how my schedule looks for the next month, I won’t have that many options. In fact, the Remedios Varo exhibit closes tomorrow, and I kept “not having time” for it. The Picasso drawings exhibit just opened, the same as Canova’s “Sketches in Clay.”

Overall, we didn’t like either of the exhibits that much:). Picasso’s exhibit is hype, but I was never very fond of him anyway, and this particular exhibit is all about his “dark side” and the Minotaurus, and I looked at all these drawings in horror.

Continue reading “Long Weekend” →

The First Skating Of The Season

I tried to go on Monday and then on Tuesday, and both times, I didn’t have 1.5 hours straight when I didn’t have any meetings, but I finally went on Wednesday. As usual, I came just in time after resurfacing – just twenty minutes later, the ice was already messy. As it always happens at the beginning of the season, there are way too many people skating, and most of them were doing it for (almost) the first time. I know it will be much better starting from the second week of January, but it’s so much fun when everything around is decorated and the holiday music plays over a skating ring! Besides, I will hardly have any options until almost Christmas!

“Jenufa” At Lyric

Another opera I never heard about – Janacek’s “Jenufa.”

It’s not that common that you come to the opera and are captivated by the twists of the plot, trying to catch each and every single word said on stage, and that was the case with Jenufa. It’s anything but simplistic: no heroes and no villains, clashes of the characters, horrible decisions, and life-long regrets…

Continue reading ““Jenufa” At Lyric” →

CSO Concert

Last weekend, I ended up doing three different outings with my mom. I already wrote about two of them: the Aquarium Member’s Night and the visit to the Christkindle market. The third event – the CSO concert – was on Sunday.

I am glad that this season, there are some Sunday matinee orchestra concerts- last season, they only had piano concerts on Sundays (and that’s the only time I can take my mom to the concerts).

Philippe Jordan was a conductor. It was the first time I heard him, and now, that I read about him, I am wondering how this was even possible!

The program included the original score of Mussorgsky’s Saint John’s Night on the Bare Mountain, Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No 2, and Stravinski’s The Rite of Spring – all pieces very emotional and powerful.

After the concert, we attended the Subscriber’s appreciation coffee with musicians. That time, this event hosted the CSO librarian and one of the violas, and we learned quite a bit of interesting things! The librarian explained how they order notes for the whole orchestra for each new piece (it differed whether the music is in the public domain or is still copyrighted) and how they often need to make their own copies of the pages if there is no rest at the end of the page or at the beginning of the next page, and why the music publishers do not pay attention to that (saving paper). Somebody asked about using iPads and the pedal page turner, and both the librarian and the musician replied that it might be good for practicing but that the iPad is difficult to share on the music strand, and anyway, they will always perform in a traditional way.

Remembering the concert we attended in Helsinki in the Church in the Rock, where most of musicians were using iPads with pedal page turner, I am wondering how long will it take until it become a common practice 🙂

Other Christmas Things

Everything opened as it should, on the schedule, and I decided that if I wanted to do at least some of the Christmas things, the only time I could do them was last Saturday. I am still not sure whether it was a good idea because I also decided to take Mom with me (and we met with Igor in the Loop), and the crowds were ginormous! Also, the Magnificient Mile Light Festival was happening at the same time. I wisely decided not to go there, but even without it, there were lines everywhere, crowds so massive that it was difficult to walk, and we ended up spending more time in the lines than otherwise.

Continue reading “Other Christmas Things” →

Biking In Winter

It’s not winter yet, but for me, starting from the lower 40s, biking is challenging because my hands are getting unbearably cold. Same with my feet – that’s why I do not escort from November to March. Some time ago, I mentioned that to my one-level-up manager, and he suggested I try BarMitts – he said that that’s how he solved a similar problem.

I decided to give it a try, and it worked! I am not sure this would work when the temperature would drop to the 20s, and I still need gloves, but now i can bike when the temperature is in the 30s!

Open House in Shedd Aquarium

What they did this yea was the best. They didn’t have a sit-down dinner with fishes staring at you from all sides. They didn’t have speeches in the Oceanarium theater and they didn’t have performances. Instead, they just let people come and enjoy the museum without big crowds. It was amazing how close you could get to everything! I loved it!

Mom forgot that she had been to the Aquarium before, and she forgot what corals are, but she liked everything she saw, which was the most important thing.

I am inserting my Instagram posts just so that I won’t need to save videos one more time 🙂

I am really happy we made it, even though it was a very long Uber ride home (it was Friday night, and everybody was out, and both Columbus Drive and Lake Shore Drive were jammed)