It has been four days since the conference. After a complete relaxation on Saturday, I started to return back to reality, which included going through three hundred non-work emails and dozens of work requests.
A huge portion of my non-work emails was Postgres-related, conferences-related, or otherwise not-really-personal. I am still not through all of them, although I hope that I didn’t miss anything really urgent. Here is what I’ve done so far:
Posted the questions for PG Day Chicago feedback
Discussed “lessons learned” from the conference day with other organizers
Collected feedback from room hosts
Emailed several people with whom I talked at the conference and promised to email
Scheduled May meetup
Published a blog about PG Day Chicago
Checked all bills that have accumulated during the past two weeks
Paid everything that was due 🙂
Emailed the dates when I can volunteer at the Night Ministry
Decided on the dates when I can do several shows I want to attend in May and June
Figured out most of my May-June schedule
Ordered a new dishwasher
The things I still didn’t do and need to do in the next couple of days:
Schedule the rest of the conversations I’ve promised to schedule
Record a sample video for an online conference where I will present in June
Prepare the actual presentation for this conference
Submit proposals to three conferences which will be happening this fall and which I want to attend
Write two professional blog posts
Write a LinkedIn recommendation I’ve promised
Find time to meet with three more people with whom I want to meet
Plus, lots of biking (the sunrise is finally early enough!), lots of shows to see, and the full Chicago summer ahead!
On Saturday, I allowed myself to have a day of complete relaxation. I know that the description that will follow won’t sound like a relaxation to many people, but it definitely was for me.
For the first time that week, I had breakfast at home with Boris, and we took time, and talked, and I was not running anywhere. Then I took a train to the look to meet one of my peers with whom I wanted to talk but didn’t have time before or during the conference. I gave her a mini-tour of the Loop while we were walking to the CAC building, where her actual tour was about to start.
Then I returned home, and we had lunch. Then, we did a couple of small house projects and headed to the CSO. It was the first time that I booked a pre-concert dinner at the Thomas Club on the 9th floor of the Chicago Symphony Building -and we both loved it! Everything: the view, the ambiance, the food and drinks, and the service was just perfect!
As for the concert, it was something I never heard before! Both the CSO and the Jazz in Lincoln Center Orchestra were on stage, and the performance they gave together was smashing!
Both Shostakovich and Prokofiev’s pieces are more than well-known to us: most of them were often on the radio in the Soviet Union, but their interpretation was so unusual that we could hardly recognize them. Two hours of pure joy 🙂
I planned to take my bike for maintenance when Boris was in town even before I got a flat tire last Sunday, and then I had to take care of both. On Saturday, I called the bike shop to check that they were open and started walking in their direction. It would take about 20 minutes because I couldn’t walk fast when I was walking my bike along, and I dreaded the situation. But just when I exited the alley and turned to Jarvis Square, I saw a Curbside Bicycles pop-up – it was so timely, I couldn’t believe I was so lucky!
The repair person said she could change the inner tube, but she kept looking down at my bike and asked: is it all you want to do? I admitted that I needed a full checkup, and I had concerns about the chain as it started to fall off too often. She measured it and said – yes, you need a chain replacement and probably a cassette replacement as well. It was 10-30, and I said that I needed to go somewhere at 3, so she said she would be done by then.
She texted me at 2-30, and I went down to pick up the bike. She gave me a complete description of what she noticed and what she had done, and that the brakes would still be noisy, but there was no technical concern there. She described the thorn she pulled out of my back wheel and how it almost looked like a nail!
The time saving and the level of service were not even close to what I would get otherwise, so I consider this business competition to be won by Curbside Bicycles!
I am absolutely sure that the work week has to be shorter than 40 hours. Whether that’s fewer hours in a day or fewer days in a week – I am not so sure. This TIME Magazine article says it’s not always as good as you may think…
Hettie's Reflections 