I had a couple of days when I was not 100% absorbed by work crises and mailing cookies, which gave me some chances to enjoy Christmas activities.
I went to Harold Washington Library to listen to a midday Brass Christmas Concert (the quality was rather low, but I wanted to support a community event.
I went to the Christkindle Market “with purpose” and had a hot cider in a souvenir mug, bought more roasted nuts, spiced teas, some small gifts, and some sweets just for myself (nobody except for Boris likes marzipans the way I do!)
I have a lot of new ornaments this season, mostly brought from different places I visited this year. To my embarrassment, now I have so many that I do not always remember where some of the ornaments are from!
This year’s Christkindle MarketHelsinkiA present from my friends from DublinFrom HelsinkiFrom Ann Arbor’s Artisan Market
First, my mom complained about mice (she said she saw a mouse running from her kitchen to the bedroom), and just after I brought two last mouse traps to her apartment and ordered new ones “just in case,” I saw mice droppings and ripped bags in my pantry!
I am surprised mice didn’t figure out my pantry for so long – before that, they were only in the kitchen. This whole thing happened right before Thanksgiving, and I could not find a day when I could stay home, so I didn’t call for an appointment. But as the cookie-baking process progressed, I couldn’t put it away any further, so finally, I called exterminators, and the first available appointment was on December 16, the day I took off to finish the cookie shipping (you see where it goes).
An exterminator came and sealed several potential points of entry and also put out the poison along the walls. It has been six days, and I see fewer signs of mice activity, although they are not completely gone. He said to give it about two weeks, and then he will come on January 17 for a checkup.
I breathed a sigh of relief, but then my mom said she saw a mouse at her place again. Today, I checked everywhere in her kitchen and indeed found droppings under the fridge. Going to call the same exterminator and ask to treat my mom’s unit because, apparently, nowadays, mice are too smart to be caught in simple traps.
A week earlier, we made Gingerbread houses, and it was a surprisingly delightful activity, as I mentioned in this post. On Thursday, I brought two boxes of plain cookies to decorate, and once again, it was a hit! One of the boxes contained gluten-free cookies, which was very much appreciated by one of the residents.
As it happens these days, there is a sigh: oh, you are leaving already? when I tried to leave around 8 PM. I stayed for a little bit longer, but I had a workday ahead and a relatively long way home, even when I took Uber (which I did).
Now, I need to figure out how I can appear at the ODS more consistently, even when I travel and have other conflicts. Overall, though, I am happy with how this year ends at ODS – way better than it looked three months ago.
It took almost four months, but my mom finally had all the services she could have. Setting up the homemaker service took five visits from different social workers and coordinators from different organizational levels, but finally, everything is in place, and the woman who comes to her is really nice! She has been there only once to do some cleaning, and it looks like I will need to tell her what she can do to help my mom because my mom can’t realize what she needs help with. I have a long list, however!
On Wednesday, a technician came, and her wearable device was set up, although she is complaining and does not want to wear it. Learning something new, including the simple thing of pushing a button and an overall concept of wearable, is challenging for her, so I am unsure how effective this device will be. I just hope for the best.
Another thing I was planning to do but am unsure about is setting up her paratransit. They need us to show up for an interview where they will determine whether my mom needs paratransit, and that’s a whole project on its own. However, since one of my friends uses paratransit, I know it entails long waits and possible delays, so I am not sure it will be worth using it instead of Uber. Still thinking about it.
Everyone who interacted with my mom through these months was either just nice or exceptionally nice, and I am surprised and happy to see so many dedicated people working in elderly care.
Although I managed to bake and decorate (with Igor’s help) enough cookies to send all my international packages and most domestic ones, I didn’t have enough time to pack them and print the labels. Knowing too well the speed with which they are (not) moving during the holiday season, I had no option other than to keep packing until done. Originally, I wanted to take Monday, December 9, off, but our remote manager was visiting Chicago that week, so I had to be in the office every day except for Friday (which I also took off). I ended up with several sleepless nights, but the mission was accomplished.
Unfortunately, none of the days which I took off to finish my Christmas stuff was spend on that – things kept piling up, and I kept doing everything except for Christmas (more on that to come).
After last year’s stolen packages disaster, I decided not to schedule a pickup anymore and brought all parcels to the post office in four separate trips, plus two Igor’s trips. The most frustrating part was (and still is) that most of the international packages didn’t leave Chicago yet, ten days after I deposited them at the post office. Overall, I did much better this year. I finally figured out how to create batches, and also, most of my recipients are in my USPS address book. So it not for the traffic jam at Chicago International Distribution Center, things would be perfect!
This year’s counts:
1101 cookies
29 parcels
14 gifted in-person boxes
Gigantic box for the office
Still something left!
Several domestic packages made it to their recepients, but none of the international. Also, I received a package from my friends from Ireland:
I love this ornament! It’s already on my Christmas tree, and I need to take pictures of all my new ornaments!
On Sunday, I took Nadia for her first Nutcracker, and the experience was exactly as I hoped it would be! Anna read the story to the girls, and they listened to the whole ballet while driving to Chicago, so Nadia was ready and excited. We had tickets in the second row and were exceptionally lucky because nobody was sitting in front of Nadia! It had to be a last-minute cancellation because the whole first row was taken when I purchased these tickets.
Everything was pure magic! Nadia was entirely mesmerized by the performance, and for a good reason! I can’t even describe how much I love Chicago’s Nutcracker, where the story unfolds in the barracks of the immigrant workers summoned to construct the World Columbia Exposition!
I saw this Nutcracker at least six times, probably more, and I can’t stop admiring it!
Still filling in the blanks for last week :). On Thursday, my neighbor and I went to the CSO. The program featured four pieces related to the sea: Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest, and Korngold’s Suite from The Sea Hawk. A real gift, each piece is a gem.
That was also the only time this season when we had tickets for a pre-concert Classic Encounter with Terry Hemmert.
As usual, it was a great discussion, this time with Clarinet John Yen, and they played the sciences from the Sea Hawk on the screen. A side note – as a part of the cost cuts, I guess, they stopped serving food and only served wine and cookies (and they gave you a drink token at the entrance). Just to know for the future to eat before going there 🙂
Vlad is in Chicago this week, and since it does not happen very often, everybody adjusted their plans. Anna, John, and the girls arrived on Saturday morning, and we all met with Vlad for brunch at Revival in Andersonville.
It was great to be together – it was at least a year since last time. Also, it was great to be in Andersonville. I realized that I have almost never been there since Vlad has not worked there for years, and I missed its vibe and being able to walk and stop at different shops and meet people.
Hettie's Reflections 