Month: January 2026

The Beginning Of 2026

On December 31, I was working. Even though I worked from home, it was a pretty intense workday. I was hoping to start early and finish early, and make a nice meal to bring to my mom to celebrate the New Year with her, but “early” didn’t happen.

Most times, Igor is around for this early celebration, and then he brings my mom to my place, but since he went to celebrate with Anna’s family (which is definitely more fun), I figured I can’t/don’t want to make a trip to my mom’s house twice, and decided to make it simple and bring all the food to her place.

I prepared myself to sit and nod to everything she would say, which is the only way to keep things calm these days, and that’s exactly how it went. The events and facts she does and does not remember anymore are pretty random. Somehow, many people believe that when older people forget things, they forget the most recent events and remember their past really well. I don’t know what to tell you about others, but that’s definitely not the case with my mom. If there is anything she remembers, it’s repetitive things that she does every day. As for the past, even when she thinks she remembers some events, in reality, she does not remember them clearly, and I can see a difference between how she described them ten years ago and now.

It’s really sad to see, and I can imagine who scared she should be feeling that the world around her is becoming an unknown and dangerous place.

I didn’t plan to go to the Chicago River for the fireworks; not because Igor was not here; I am perfectly fine to go anywhere on my own. It was relatively cold, and also, I had too many things I needed to do before next Monday. On my way back from Armenia, I was making plans for the upcoming week (till January 5), and I was debating with myself whether I should do some fun activities, like going to the Navy Pier, or whether I should focus on catching up with life. By the end of the day December 31, the answer was clear!

I went to bed before midnight, and missed all the Happy New Year texts 🙂

On January first, it was even colder that on December 31, and also cloudy, which made it a perfect weather to be inside and focus on different aspects of community work. Also, I went to my mom one more time, to change her bedding and take her laundry to wash, and since I also took her shower curtain to wash, I returned one more time to put it back :).

The highlights of the day were several conversations with people with whom i do not talk often, and finally catching up on emails with friends, so I guess, the day was not entirely hopeless, and also, I finished some of my ong-overdue-tasks. Still, I hope that January 1 didn’t define the rest of 2026 :).

Find My

Everyone knows I love the Find My app! In fact, I do not know how I would survive without it! Recently, I’ve added several more AirTags, and I feel quite protected.

When I was in Armenia, I told my hosts about this app and demonstrated how I have everything displayed there and how I can check the status of the items I left at home. When it was time for me to leave for the airport, they asked me whether I had checked my room for forgotten stuff. I told them I did, and that everything except for my phone and passport is not important.

I got into a cab, and about ten minutes after the ride started, I saw a message from the Find My app: the AirPods left behind! Yep, a white case on a white windowsill…I reached the driver: How far along are we?

It was great that, because of the severe weather conditions, my host insisted I leave an hour earlier than needed! I messaged them, they found the AirPods case and brought it down.

I guess, thank you, Apple?

Political News

So, Trump said officially that he is going to “leave Chicago” (and the other three Democratic cities) “for now,” although he is threatening to “come back if…”

I want to put it in writing in my journal today, when we have no way to know how it will play out later. That being said, I might be wrong, but today I want to say: we resist and we can achieve something. Long live Federalism! 😀

On The Way Back

Finishing the post I started three days ago.

I didn’t upgrade my return flights because I didn’t need to sleep on the long flight back, and I figured I could purchase the lounge access separately. What surprised me at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport was that they had a 24/7 duty-free store and a 24/7 business lounge.

I bought some (a lot of) chocolate, chocolate-covered dried fruit (and the only reason I didn’t buy dried fruit without chocolate was that I had three bags from my host), some flavored coffee, a bottle of pomegranate wine, and a set of three miniature Armenian brandy bottles. I really wanted to buy a bottle of Akhtamar, the best local brandy, to give it to Vlad, but there were no medium-size bottles, and my purchase was already heavy and bulky enough, and I still had to squizz everything in my carry on (not like they won’t allow an extra duty free bag, but I didn’t want to have an extra bag heavier than my luggage :).

The business lounge in Zvartnots was … strange, and they were surprised I was willing to pay for it rather than claim my credit card holder benefits, but having that the flight was forty minutes delayed, and that, due to many flights departing in the early hours of the morning, the international terminal looked like a Soviet Union era railway station, I believe I made a right decision.

I also paid for lounge access in Frankfurt, and everything there was as expected. I charged all my devices for the long daytime flight, and spent the time productively answering tons of unanswered emails and documenting my trip.

I’ve already mentioned that the arrival process had become exceptionally easy after the new passports were introduced, but this time was a record, especially because I didn’t have checked luggage. Thirty-five minutes after the aircraft stopped taxing, I was already on the Blue Line train (that includes the airport transfer to another terminal), and two hours and fifteen minutes later, I was already at home (yes, I took the L again, and it is becoming more and more acceptable, especially without the heavy luggage)