Ninety-five minutes of sitting still and holding my breath! This play, by and large, exceeded my expectations!
If you are wondering how much this play is related to the famous H.G. Wells book, the answer is – very little! Yes, it’s about the Marician invasion on Earth, but the action takes place in the US, and even more specifically in Illinois, at some fictional point in time. There are definite hints that the action takes place in the past, but at the same time, it’s a sharp satire on nowadays media, television, reporting, politicians, and what else. All the characters are unmistakably recognizable, so you can’t stop laughing (or crying)!
On Friday, Boris received his passport with the new visa. He received an email last Thursday, and mailed his passport to the embassy immediately, but a week with both US and Finnish holidays delayed the processing. By then, there were additional worries because he had to travel with the EU during the first week of June, and he couldn’t do it without his passport, which was in transit.
Yesterday, we talked for a very long time, and finally admitted that we both were trying to hide from each other the extent to which we were affected by this three-month-long ordeal. We both confessed to each other that at some point, we accepted that this could be a permanent situation, and we couldn’t worry about it anymore.
I guess it’s good that we talked it through. Boris’ optimistic estimation of recovery time is “one more week.” As for me, I am not so sure. He told me that he can see that I still haven’t recovered from my big fight, and it shows in how I function.
As always, I am optimistic, so I hope that things will get better.
I am ashamed to say that I didn’t know anything about the book “It Takes Chutzpah” until I saw the advertisement for the library event. And I should be even more ashamed that I didn’t know who Senator Wyden was.
The only reason I made a note about this event was the mention of Governor Pritzker being a part of this conversation. I checked out what this book was about, asserting the topic and the fact that the Governor thought it’s worth reading prompted me to get a book and mark my calendar.
I put aside the book I was listening to at that time, and started to listen to the Senator Wyden ‘s book. When I learned which initiatives and legistlations he championed, I became really ashamed, and thought that my knowledge of the Senators is tilted towards the Midwest :).
I came to the library about 30 minutes before the event start, and there was a line (these events are not ticketed).
When they let us in, I hurried up to get the good seat. What I should have done was to get a copy of that book in the hallway by the auditorium, but it didn’t occur to me that they could bo sold out – which happened to be the case! I didn’t need the paper book for myself, but since I already read it, I thought that I wanted Igor to have it, especially when I could get a signed copy.
The event was livestreamed, and if you have 40 minutes to spare, I think it’s totally worth it.
As for the books, a person right before me in the line, got the last copy! For me and everyone behind in in the line, they offered an option to sign an insert which they will paste into the book when it will arrive, so I hope to have one which I signed for Igor in a week or so.
Also, you know how I always ruin the photos having my eyes closed?! This time, when they took a photo of me with the Senator, I was OK, but his eyes were closed!!! No luck!