I don’t know what to say. There are so many people affected by this new executive order, especially all those who have just graduated. I talked to several people this morning, trying to tell them to stay calm and wait. Because I hope that this decision will be either reverted or a million exceptions will be added. Otherwise, it could be an economic collapse.
Month: September 2025
The Only True Emergency
For the past year or two, I have always written my schedule for mom on the whiteboard in her kitchen, listing when I will visit her, when I call her, and when I just email her because I would return home too late to call. Since she does not understand that “life happens,” and sometimes things can be delayed, I always add some extra time, and most times, I schedule emails instead of sending them when I am actually on my way home.
On Thursday, I was at Joffrey Ballet, and was immensely enjoying every moment of the performance when I saw a call from my mom coming up on my watch. Everything was on silent, of course, so I just clicked the hang-up button, but a minute later the call repeated. I pressed the red button again, and five minutes later, I saw a text message coming from my mom’s caregiver. You might imagine how I felt; however, I waited for the second intermission, and then got out into the foyer and looked at the text message. Since the message was simply I need to talk to you,” I dialed back, and it turned out that it was nothing related to my mom (and she didn’t know I was at the show). I answered her questions, and scheduled the email to my mom for the time I will be out of the theater: “Hi, all good, I am on my way home. I saw that you called. Perhaps you forgot I am watching a ballet tonight, but I hope you figured it out by now. Talk to you tomorrow!”
When I was already on the Red line. (and my scheduled email went out), I saw my mom calling me! She never calls me after nine, and it was 10:40, so to say I was surprised would be an understatement. I picked up the call and heard her shouting: I already took my dentures out, and my hearing aid out, but I saw your message and I wanted to let you know that my internet is down!”
Yes, that’s the only thing she considers an emergency, and that’s the only time she calls me …well, any time!
I emailed her a reminder about how to turn her modem off and back on. On Friday morning, she called me at work to report that this didn’t help, and she wouldn’t listen to my explanation that I really can’t talk at work. In the evening, since things were still not working, I asked Igor to stop by her, and it turned out that she accidentally put her computer into flight mode! I would never guess!
Nature In The City
I went for a bird-watching session for the first time in my life! The only reason I could do it was that I was leaving for Finland today and therefore didn’t have my usual gigantic list of Saturday activities. And also, it was just a five-minute walk from my house.
I actually learned something! I was able to spot a bird at least four times! Obviously, it would take me forever to memorize the local birds, and I will never be able to identify dozens of species at first glance as our guide Scott can, but still – I got it! I actually got a feeling of how to follow a bird and to direct your binoculars right there!
The birds I was able to spot (all pictures are from the internet, of course!)
I am sure I won’t be able to identify them by myself, except possibly the yellow warbler and the starling – it was able to spot them several times, but as I said, it was a new experience, and I enjoyed it!
RIFENSTAHL
I just exited the Siskel Center after watching “RIFENSTAHL.” I missed the first screening (with director-in-person) last week, because I hosted the Prairie Postgres User Group at the same time. Today was my only chance to see it, because I am leaving tomorrow and the last screening will be on September 26, before I return. Well, there will be more screenings later, but I will be travelling again, and also – I didn’t want to wait!
I just saw the movie. For the past several months, I was reading my friend’s blog about Riefenstahl’s memoirs, and I wanted to know more, so I queued a couple of books about her in my future reading list. But let me tell you that: it’s one thing to read what she says about herself, and a different thing to hear it, in her own words, with her facial expressions, with her intonations. To see the immense pleasure on her face when she watched the “Triumph of the Will,” conducting the screen music.
Starting with her cynical phrase: The movie was commissioned by Hitler. If Roosevelt were to commission a movie, I would also try my best. If Stalin were to ask me to make a movie for him, I would do my best as well. And all her screams: no, it’s a lie! What people disappear?! There were no such people around me! We didn’t know! No, I didn’t see! And: I would never make a movie about cripples! And isn’t it in all cultures that we admire beautiful bodies?
Oh, and there is footage of how she was making these pictures of Nuba! How she treated them like animals. I will never buy her albums.
Evil, evil, evil. No shades. No “buts”.
About ICE Raids
I have a little bit of breathing room today, after working non-stop and resolving different conference-related issues, and I want to go back to what happened a week ago.
To be honest, I am shocked by the lack of public attention to this incident. I wouldn’t expect a lot of international attention, but domestic silence alarms me. For those who haven’t heard what has happened: ICE officer stopped a car driven by a person they wanted to arrest. This person was in the US illegally (i.e., without a proper visa). He didn’t have any criminal charges on him, but he had several speeding tickets (as far as we can tell). When he was stopped and realized that he was going to be arrested, he tried to flee the scene. It’s hard to tell what exactly happened because the body cam recording was not released (and I am not sure whether it is available).
DHS claims that this person, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, “dragged an officer a significant distance with his car.” There is no way to prove or object to this statement, but what we know for sure is that this ICE officer shot Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez dead. He shot an unarmed person with no criminal record.
If anybody wonders how the DHS reported on this incident, the link is here. I don’t know what else to add. I don’t know how we can have no respect for a person’s life. I don’t understand how anybody would dare to say “but he was here illegally…’
Carmen At Joffrey
I do not think there was any week when I wouldn’t say “the week was crazy,” but the past two weeks were something! Not the worst days at work, but combined with an avalanche of conference-related issues I had to address, it was a perfect storm. At the same time, so many positive things happened that I can’t complain.
I was thinking about this paradox when I was walking towards the Lyric Opera building today: the ICE raids and everything that ICE is doing and Trump is saying are constant reasons to worry. Users at work are “creative” beyond imagination. Big and small things awaiting my intervention are piling up. I feel tired like I am ready to drop down and fall asleep on the spot.
And still – how full my life is! How thankful I am for a myriad of things!
Today, I did something I do not do very often: I worked from home for the only reason: to be able to take a break at the beach (because I am traveling next week, and any beach day can be the last for that season). And BTW, I am not packed for my trip. And what a gift! The air was 75F, the water was 72F, the sun was kissing, not burning, and there was no wind. And the same as on Sunday, I almost forgot to go back to work on time 🙂
But the best thing was in the evening – the Joffrey Ballet opening night! Carmen! A very long show, but good to the last drop! To the last note! It was great from the beginning, and was getting better and better every minute!
They took Bizet music, and told the whole unabridged story with all details, using the language of choreography, with humor, and tender, and passion, as only Joffrey ballet can do. My favorite ballet company ever :).
I hope they will post some videos later, but no promotional trailer would be able to show all the small details that made it so perfect, all facial expressions which I could clearly see from my row E 🙂
About Politics And Violence
I didn’t want to write anything about Charlie Kirk, but several people asked for my opinion, and I thought I should write a blog post.
On Friday morning, during my escorting shift, other escorts seemed to be overjoyed and almost celebrated the assassination. I would never do that. Yes, there is a cruel irony in the fact that Charlie Kirk mentioned at least in one of his speeches that the right to bear arms can’t be taken away from the American people, even if that means some lives will be lost. It happened to be his life, but honestly, I do not want to build anything on that.
I still maintain that nobody has a right to take other person’s life away. I was always against the death penalty, and I always will be (this does not include the time of war).
Another theme which was circulating during the first couple of days after the assassination was a conspiracy theory (like Trump had organized it all). I understand why people want to believe in this conspiracy, but I find no ground in it’s support. I do not think it’s right that the Minnesota political assassinations went pretty much unnoticed and uncommented by the White House, and at the same time, the flags ran half-staff for the Kirk’s assassination. I do not think it’s right that the killing of Villegas-Gonzalez didn’t make headlines except for the Chicago local news.
And I hope that these events won’t become an excuse for any political opression. We’ll keep watching.
A Very Long Sunday
I intend to use every summer-y day that is left to the fullest. On Sunday, I went for a long bike ride, then I had breakfast on my balcony, went to the Glenwood Market to buy flowers, and then went to the beach. It was so lovely there that I lost track of time, and forgot for a moment that I had several things which I had to do (and as a result, I have a long list of what I was supposed to do but I didn’t).
And then, there was something new and special. I went to the concert at the new venue – they just opened on Saturday!
The venue is called The Checkout (so, if you forgot the website name, it’s close to impossible to Google it!) It is located in the old 7-Eleven building which was rehubed by Access Contemporary Music (and you can read all about their initiatives on their website).
The venue is naturally very small, and no wonder the event was sold out:
I didn’t know anything about Arvo Part, but Boris told me that he was super-avantguard, and the Soviet Estonia officials left him alone, because nobody could understand his music. I confess that I was very close to that “non-sophisticated listener,” and although the musiciants explained quite a bit about his music, I think I should do what they suggested: go to his website and see the graphical representation of his works :).
The future programming is very diverse in all senses of this work, and they do not publish a lot of details about what to expect, but I am definitely open to experiments! I like that this venue is close to my home (less than 40 minutes door-to-door, with all waits). I like that they have no amplifiers at all, and the audience is exposed to the live sound of the instruments and vocal.
On the way back, I saw one of the vocalists on the Red Line platform, and I thanked him for the music (he was the best!) and we talked about life and music all the way until I got off.
Chicago Is Staying Strong!
It’s old news now, but I still want to celebrate Chicago’s victory last week. I know it sounds surreal that the city had to defend itself against the president, but that’s not the first and not the last surreal thing happening these days. However, it proves that it is possible to resist this administration, even without lengthy court battles (although the governor clearly indicated that he was ready to go to court), and also proves that when the city and the elected official are united to achieve their goals, they win.
On a more sober note, the Friday killing of Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez by an ICE officer. Still, I do not think this tragedy annuls what Chicago did last week.
One More Museum Day
This summer, I had more museum days than ever, and I loved it! We had very limited time when I could take M. around, and I was glad that the conference folks did half of my job and organized several groups to do activities which I considered a must in Chicago.
A half-day at the beach was non-negotiable, but we also had a half-day on Saturday, and it was hard to choose. When M. learned that there is an Aquarium in Chicago , she immediately prioritized and, and I was happy to oblige, because I love Aquarium, and not everyone would prioritize it. There were some adventures in tha morning (a heavy thunderstorm, plus I mixed up her hotel, waisted even more time, and we ended up taking Uber, even though I taught her to ride CTA a day before and she was very enthusiastic to utilize her newly aquired skill).
At the end, everything worked out, and we were in the first group of people entering Aquarium. I am unsure who enjoyed it more: M. exploring the exhibits or me, watching hee excitement.
We saw the most interesting exhibits, and since I left all the options open, and she decided to relocate to the Field Museum, where we ate lunch, and I left her with the 3D movie ticket and the member ticket to all exhibits.
When already have a long list of places to visit and things to see when M. will be in Chicago next time!
Hettie's Reflections 