Month: April 2024

Saturday In Chicago

Anna and her Family visited me this weekend. They arrived on Friday night. On Saturday morning, we had a little kids’ concert, then we went to the Art Institute and Millennium Park and had dinner at my house.

I think it was one of the best Chicago weekends we had so far. This time, Kira actually sat and listened to the concert and was engaged all the time. Also, it was almost the first time when she wanted to see the exhibits before rushing to Ryan’s center. The projects that they had at Ryan’s center this time were probably the best we ever made: creating your own miniature rooms.

Anna said right away that she wanted to make her own project, too, not just helping the girls, so I ended up helping everyone:). It was a very fun project, indeed. Anna told Nadia that adults rarely do crafts, and Nadia asked why. We had to admit that there are no good reasons not to do them (and, in fact, some adults do quite a bit!).

Here is the music room Anna crafted (with a little bit of my help :))

Some other people’s crafts:

A Timely Message

That was the right message at the right time (office lunch last Wednesday)

*** (the last one)

I said this twice on Friday: I never do what I “have to,” I always do what I want to do. The first time I said it was when Anna was planning to take the train to Chicago, and I realized I would need to go home first and then back to the Loop. A couple hours later, I repeated the same thing to my mom when she said that I was very busy and that I should skip some things, including coming to see her so often. That one was funny because when it happens that I do not stop by her for three days in a row, she says that she hasn’t seen me for such a long time! I told her the same thing: when I can’t, I don’t, but if I stop by, it means I can and I want.

Interestingly, that’s true. I keep repeating it, and I am surprised myself to realize how true it is. And just to prove my point, when on Friday I felt that I was really tired and could not work productively, I packed and left at 3 PM:)

*** (another one)

On Thursday, I visited the conference venue and talked to the event manager about the conference details. When I returned to the office, I sent a Telegram message to K., who is our Chair of the Talks Selection Committee and my good friend. She is seven time zones ahead of me, but I knew that she was waiting to hear the results of my meeting so that she could finalize the schedule. I asked her whether she could talk so that I could fill her in.

She replied that she was out with her husband for their anniversary dinner and that she didn’t think he would take it well. I apologized and put all of the details into an email, but I thought: my husband would take it well! I even asked Boris the next day :). He said that he would probably make fun of me, but he would definitely understand and wouldn’t hold it against me.

I know that that’s against all psychology, all work-life balance basics, and contrary to how happy families should function. But that’s how it works for us:)

***

A couple of days ago, I finally met with my former colleague – iI can’t say that we lost touch, but it had been a while since we met in person. We made plans multiple times, but it took a while for these plans to materialize. We finally met this week, and we had a lot to talk about, both professionally and personally. While we shared what had happened to both of us during the past several years, he said: I always admired how you can be passionate about several things at once. I can be passionate about my job; I know how good it feels, but the moment I start to be passionate about something else, a political cause or a personal project, my job becomes “just a job.” I do not know how you can do what you do – care about multiple things at the same time.

It was an interesting observation – I never thought about it, or rather it never occurred to me that this is an exceptional quality, but I started to think about it, and I had to agree – many people I know have only one big passion in their lives. And then, they can’t understand why I am not 100% focused on a project that I am doing together with them, because they can’t imagine that for me, it’s one of many things I am doing.

I am not saying that I am right, and doing multiple things instead of focusing on one cause and supporting it with all resources might not be the best idea. It just reflects who I am. I have a difficult time saying “no” to new potential experiences and opportunities to make the world a better place. And I do not want to sound pathetic 🙂

TIME: A Low-Spending-Month

I have some friends who do not believe that you can make a budget by carefully planning your expenses and not wasting money. They believe that the only way to improve your situation is to find a higher-paying job. Another group of my friends is the opposite: they know how to budget wisely and know that revising your expenses is the most important part of improving your financial situation. The way they are able to save amazes me!

Of course, not enough money is not enough money, and to what extent you can improve your situation is a relative thing. There are plenty of people around me who just don’t have enough. The question remains whether you are making the most with the money you have.

When I had already purchased my new place and hadn’t sold my old place yet, and also had to invest a lot into fixing my new home, I did exactly what this article suggests: I had a low-spending couple of months. Without drastically reducing my quality of life, I was able to cut my expenses by 40%. So I believe there is a lot of truth in what they are saying here.

Continue reading “TIME: A Low-Spending-Month” →

TIME: Is Walking Enough?

I do not have a strong opinion on whether walking is enough exercise. On the one hand, before people invented exercises, we all just walked and did something around and outside the house. On the other hand, the said people in the past performed way more physical activities than walking. Overall, I do believe that walking is important; it’s a big part of using your body how it is intended to be used. I feel better when I have enough walking throughout the day, and I walk very fast. Not because I think about it< as an article says, “as an exercise”, but because I love walking fast. Also, I will always remember that there were times when I could not walk without pain, so I will never take the ability to walk for granted!

TIME magazine article

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When Nothing Happens

I can’t write about work most of the time, and, in general, most of my professional dramas do not make it to this blog. Yesterday I thought that I had a couple of extremely emotionally loaded days, but “there is nothing to write about.” I still want to find a way to share my emotional experiences, but for now, I can’t think of anything better than this picture of a fortune cookie that I got yesterday as a part of my lunch in the office (we had an external vendor):

Aida At Lyric

That was one of the most anticipated operas of the season for me, and I didn’t like it. My neighbor with whom we share this subscription just returned from a two-week trip to Egypt, and even before we went, she told me that she read “horrible reviews” about this production.

I do not mind the modernization of the classic (I enjoyed Penelopiad at Goodman!), but in this production, everything except for the music and voices, was indeed horrible.

I copied several images from the Lyric website to illustrate. I do not understand why they had to invent their own hieroglyphs instead of Egyptian, and why they had to cover the whole stage set with these images. I do not understand why they had to dress the male cast in these turn-of-the-previous-century uniforms.

The voices were beautiful. The music was great. But by the middle of it I chose to enjoy it with my eyes closed 🙂 .

Easter

I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday in Milwaukee with my girls. The weather was as almost as bad as it could be, so we didn’t bike together as we originally planned, but we spent a lot of time together, which was very satisfying, especially after the last week as it was.

I packed several egg coloring sets and three boxes of cookies I baked last Sunday and decorated on Thursday.

After my escorting shift, I picked up more pastries from Vanille before heading to Union Station and boarding the Hiawatha train to Milwaukee. The first four days of the week felt like one gigantic workday, and I was more than tired, both physically and emotionally. I literally felt my legs heavy and difficult to move. On Thursday night, I sat on the floor in front of the opened suitcase unable to pack my stuff.

I feel tons better ow, although the to-do list didn’t become shorter. We had a great time in Milwaukee, decorating more cookies, coloring eggs, reading books, and talking. It’s amazing how much you can rechange just by being together with your loved ones.

Nadia had a group violin lesson, so we all went to the conservatory, and this time, I had time to explore this beautiful building.

Continue reading “Easter” →