I saw this video clip in my friend’s blog, and I agree with her that more people should see it. It has English subtitles, which I can confirm is accurate. I wish I could say it’s a fake, but it isn’t.
Month: January 2024
My Lake, My Love!
I didn’t take pictures of Lake Michigan last weekend, although the view was spectacular: The lake was so much warmer than the air that it was steaming like a giant cup of hot tea.
I saw it from the car window when we were heading to the Aquarium, and I couldn’t take a good picture then, and I couldn’t make myself get out of the house one extra time. Yesterday, it was already much warmer, so I went to say hello to the lake.
January 19
I didn’t feel birthday-ly on January 19, but not because I was upset or miserable or whatever. It was just that I met with the family on Sunday, and we talked about my past year, how I feel about it, and what I am looking forward to. And my actual birthday was just a date. There were two goals I had for January 19: to do some things that I love doing and to go to bed at 10:30. The latter one didn’t happen again, but I keep trying.
So the day was just Friday, the way I like it. I worked out in the gym
Went to work, had time to have breakfast in peace and quiet, and talked to Boris before work started.
Vlad’s Travels
Vlad was in Japan for a work trip, and we hardly heard from him. A couple of times, somebody would pass a link, or he would post on Instagram a clip from news coverage, a photo of the newspaper page, or an article link – all in Japanese! I sent some links to my friend in Japan (Anna asked suspiciously whether my friend actually speaks Japanese😂). I was unsure whether my friend would be interested, but I sent the link anyway. She reacted enthusiastically but without much detail. When I sent her one more Instagram post, and she reacted enthusiastically again, I finally asked her whether she could tell me what it was all about. She was happy to fill me in and said she sort of forgot I could not understand it!😀
Here is this post, and Vlad is on the fifth and on the last photo:
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We had several really cold days, and then several just cold days, and we will have several more. On Tuesday, when I called my mom in the evening, she told me that her thermometer in the kitchen showed 10C, which is about 50F. It could not be possible unless there was an actual heating problem, so I told her that if that was the case, she needed to find the heating device in her closet immediately. Otherwise, I will drop everything and come to her. Then I thought again that it was impossible, because the day before it was not hot, but pretty normal in her apartment. So I asked her where both of her thermometers were located, and it turned out that both were close to the window. I asked her to move them in the middle of the room and call me in 30 minutes. When she didn’t call me in 45, I called her again, and she said that she was just writing an email to me, and that when she placed thermometers at her computer desk and at her kitchen table, they both showed around 19.5C, which is about 67F, so quite livable.
Why she was talking about 10C, I am not sure, but I will leave it there. I am trying to remember what the doctor said: at this age, she can do whatever she wants!
Employee Spotlight
My company featured me internally at the Employee Spotlight and externally :). Those who know me can tell that this interview was extensively polished (not only from the grammar perspective) to the extent that I was ready to call it off. However, we finally agreed on the edits :).
The DRW Blog post is here
Family Weekend
This weekend was packed with events. For Christmas, I gave Anna and John the “Hamilton” tickets, and the show was on Saturday evening. Also, I gave a “Penguin Encounter” gift to Nadia, and that experience was on Sunday morning. I planned it in a way that we could fit it all in one trip. In addition, since my mom’s birthday was on January 10, and my birthday is coming next week, we also decided to celebrate both birthdays on Sunday.
Extreme weather (we have had negative temperatures for several days now) altered some details of our plans, but overall, things were great.
Anna and John were really happy with the performance, Kira was cooperative and didn’t throw a tantrum when it was time to go to bed, and we made a bubble bath and read stories. Sunday morning was a little bit hectic because the penguin thing was at 8-30 AM, and we had to be there no later than 8-15, and the weather didn’t call for public transportation.
When John learned what I was giving Nadia for Christmas, he asked whether he could go as well, si we were a party of three. We had to get into the Aquarium through the service entrance because it was before the museum opening, and then we were led to the waiting area. We had to leave all our belongings in the lockers and change into the high rubber boots.
Before we entered the area where we would meet the penguins, we had to step into a disinfection tray. The staff who ran the event told us that we could touch penguins only when the instructor tells us and only the way she shows.
One of many interesting facts we learned about penguins was that there is no easy way to determine whether it is a male or a female, and the only reliable way is to collect the shell of an egg after the chick hatched and perform a genetic test And if there is not enough material for a genetic test, they have to wait and see whether the penguin would lay an egg. I asked how the pegiguins themselves can figure this out, but apparently the scientists are not sure either.
We all had a great time, and after the experience, we went upstairs to see the exhibits.
The plan was for Anna and Kira to come later and join us at the museum after the show. Since I have a family membership, I didn’t anticipate any problems, the only thing I wanted to double-check was how I could get the extra two people in, when we were already in. And that’s were we found that we had a huge problem.
I didn’t pay attention to the Chicago Free Museum week (because I do not care, I have memberships in most of them), and I should have! It turned out that because of the Free Week, all tickets for Sunday were reserved, and no matter my membership, I couldn’t get more people in! John tried to call Annam but the calls didn’t go through, and we knew that they were already approaching and looking for parking. We decided that I will take Nadia to see more exhibits, and John will keep trying to reach Anna.
Nadia and I went to the Wild Reef, and once again, I forgot that there is no reception downstairs.
After a while, I decided to check on the situation, and then I realised that my messages are not coming through. Meanwhile, an unbelievable thing happened with Anna.
She didn’t know about the ticket situation, so she on crutches, and very cold Kira appeared at the admission, and apparently, the staff didn’t have a heart to send them away. Anna explained that the rest of the family was already in the museum, and that I am a member, and the staff checked with her supervisor and let them in! When Nadia and I emerged from the Wild Reef, we almost immediately ran into the rest of the family!
We spent another two hours in the Aquarium, to everybody’s delight.
In the afternoon, we celebrated my mom’s and my birthday at the Italian restaurant close to my home.
They serve pasta in cones, which was very convenient – we ordered six different kinds and shared. Mom was very pleased with the photo album which Anna and I put together, with a big collection of photos pf different generations.
We also gave her several books, and Nadia made a birthday card.
And since all of us had MLK Day off, we had a little bit more time together on Monday morning 🙂
Dissent Pins
Last week, I came across the Stand With Ukraine collection on Dissent Pins – I wish I had seen it a month earlier! But I still purchased a couple of things:
I should have purchased more of the Kyiv metro token pins, because apparently they are in high demand, but I hope there will be other opportunities (and I’ve got a Christmas ornament, which will have to wait till next Christmas 🙂 )
Young Pioneers
At the end of the third grade, “the most deserving” of us became “young pioneers.” Same as with Octobrists, everybody eventually would become young pioneers, but for this first group of “the most deserving,” it was a big deal. The earliest date for joining the Young Pioneers organization was April 22 – Lenin’s birthday. We had a classroom meeting a couple of weeks before that date, during which our room teacher would carefully guide a discussion about which students were “the best” and “deserve to be nominated to become Young Pioneers.” We would judge our classmates based on their academic records, whether they were “active” (actively participated in extracurricular initiatives), and whether they were “good comrades” for their classmates.
At the end of the discussion, everybody in the room raised their hand to vote for each of the candidates. The first “young pioneers” group was small – less than ten students. The ceremony was held in front of our school (fortunately, the day was sunny and not very cold. Our school’s “official supporter” was a leading ship-building plant. I am unsure what “supporter” means in this context. I wanted to translate it as a “sponsor,” but it was not about money. Although I believe that the plant would help the school financially in some cases, like paying for field trips, the true meaning was “ideological support” and demonstrating that “the school is connected with the working class.” To demonstrate that connection, the representatives from the plant (shock workers and the Komsomol leaders) took part in the ceremony of taking the Young Pioneer’s oath, and after we recited the words of the oath, the line of the plan representatives walked close to the line of newly minted young pioneers. Each of them tied the red tie on the neck of a student standing in front of them. From that day until we turned fourteen, we were supposed to wear a red tie and a young pioneer pin to school every day.
Subsequent groups of my classmates joined young pioneers during May Days, and the last group – in November, close to the Great October Revolution celebration day. I was not at school on the day of the last meeting (I believe I had a cold and stayed at home), but my friends told me that only Natasha Panasenkova was voted to be “not deserving” to become a young pioneer, but she cried, and the class decided to let her join.
By the beginning of the fourth grade, the class would become “a pioneer squad” divided into three “links.” The division was decided in the simplest possible way: based on each student’s desk location. Each link chose its link leader, and everybody voted for the “squad char person.”
We had regular meetings after school (hated by the “inactive majority”) and planned many activities; I will describe them in the next post.
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.
Nostalghia
The Siskel Film Center started the screening of the newly restored Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia, and I decided to go. I tried to watch Nostalgia twice before, and both times, I didn’t have enough patience, so I decided that watching it in the movie theater would pin me to my seat for these 2+ hours.
I love most of Tarkovsky’s movies, and I like the ones I do not love, so I thought that I was missing something with Nostalghia. Now I watched it to the end, and although I appreciate the artistic work, it’s probably the first of Tarkovsky’s movies I didn’t like. Most likely, it’s about me, not about Tarkovsky, but now I am thinking whether it’s time for me to watch again the ones I loved for many years.
I know one thing that changed in me: I am not interested in lengthy discussions about personal relationships, like who thought what and who did what because of what they thought. I am now realizing that it’s the bulk of classic literature and movies :), but I hope that there is still something out for me!
Hettie's Reflections 