Month: April 2026

Stress Release

I made a couple of the right decisions over the past several days that dramatically improved my quality of life. First, I decided not to go to the Nature Volunteering workday on Sunday. It was not obvious that this was the right decision, because the nature volunteering season had just started, and I already knew I wouldn’t be able to make most of the workdays due to scheduling conflicts. Still, I had several major tasks related to the conference that were already past due, and I knew that I was pushing them back, and I even knew why. It was important for me to have a mental space to finally start working on them, because otherwise, I could give myself an excuse that these tasks required more uninterrupted time than I had. I also knew that if I kept pushing them back, their weight would make me even more anxious.

Exactly at the moment I was about to leave the house for a workday, I started working on the conference lanyard design. It was a more difficult task than usual because we had a lanyard sponsor, so the design should have included their logo, and I couldn’t say that if I mess up, I will just order a new one. It took me an hour and a half, but in the end, I was happy with my design. Also, after several back-and-forths, I signed the contract for our speakers’ dinner, which was my second hanging task, and I suddenly realized that a big portion of my worries was gone!

Another thing that helped me a lot was the way I communicated with my mom. Firstly, I told her in advance that on Sunday, I would be in transition between activities, so instead of sitting with her in her apartment, I would take her for coffee at Common Cup. And then, I didn’t visit her on Monday and Tuesday, not because I had events to attend, but just because I don’t have to visit her every time I have a free evening. I hate to say it, but it was the best thing I’ve done for myself! I didn’t have to cope with stress during or after the conversation with her, and I was also surprised by how much extra time it provided. I felt like a human after several weeks of not feeling that way 🙂

New Year’s Resolutions Four Months Later

My trainer calls the people flocking to gyms at the beginning of the year “resolutionists” :). We both wait till this tide subsides between the end of January and the end of March. To be fair, some people stay, and good for them!

Having this “resolutionist” effect in mind, I was cautious about reporting my results and waited for an extra month. Now, at the end of April, I am happy to report that I was able to change my yoga practice habits the way I wanted. Now, I consistently have one private lesson a week, a group lesson when time permits, and an additional 1 – 1.5 hours of practicing yoga on my own.

For about a year, I felt I was losing flexibility, and that each time I took a break from practicing in general or from a specific pose, I was losing more. I made a resolution to practice consistently and set these specific measures, and it is definitely working.

As for my other two resolutions, I haven’t succeeded yet. One was getting six hours of sleep most days (at least five days a week). I am still not convinced that I need six, because when I sleep longer in Helsinki, after a couple of days, I just lie awake and wait for when I can get up :). But getting between 5.5 and 6 hours is definitely a goal.

Reading Kindle books at least for a part of my commute is not happening either, and I know that “I have other things to do” is not a great excuse. I need to find a way to develop this new habit, but it hasn’t happened yet.

About Career Change

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a virtual event called “Women & Visibility.” I believe the name is self-explanatory. A panel of successful female professionals shared their stories about the hurdles they had to overcome to be heard, not ignored, and recognized for their contributions.

Unfortunately, nothing new! We heard these stories many, many times! One of the side discussions, however, caught my attention. The panel host asked the participants whether each of them had a significant shift in their professional career, perhaps even a career switch, that launched their future success. And all the panelists agreed.

I started thinking about what was wrong with me :), because I am one of these incredibly dull people who do the same thing all the time. I have been doing databases and almost nothing except databases for more than 40 years, and that’s the field where I transitioned from “nobody” to “somebody.” And then I thought that, in some sense, I had a career switch, and more than once. For many years, I never thought about myself as “standing out.” I knew I was good at what I was doing; good enough to always have a job, even being a single mom with three small children. Still, I was in a realm of “I need a secure job with a stable paycheck.” Only much later, I transitioned to the mindset of “I want to take responsibility for my actions, I want to make my decisions, and be responsible for the consequences.” And much later, it became: “I want to help others, I want to build a community, I want to take part in making the world a better place.”

Maybe this still counts as a career change, even though I’ve been working with databases all my life?

Other Things I’ve Been Busy With Recently

Illinois Prairie PostgreSQL Meetup is moving!

A Cooking-Related Injury

For the past several times when I came to make a dinner at ODS, J. asked whether we can make tomato soup and grill cheese sandwiches. Both were not in my personal cook book, but both sounded like easy to make (and it was sort of a shame I never made them myself). We made plans, and she specifically asked to make grilled chees sandwiches on the sourdough bread. I told her to make sure to tell the staff who will be shopping for ingredients what they should purchase.

We started with the soup because it was more work. Everything went great except for when we desided to puree the ready soup with the blender. It was “not required” but the recipe suggested that if we would do it, we should puree the soup in batches. Again, averything went great except for the last (the third) batch: I do not know what I did wrong, but when we were done, I couldn’t get the blender off the base of the blender, and somehow turned it the wrong way so that the top got detached, and a super hot soup pored down. I tried to catch at least some of it (my mistake), and a as a result, the half of my left hand got burned: it all turned red and was hurting really badly. And unfortunately, they didn’t have the anti-burn lotion in their first aid box.

Fortunately, there was an ice box on the counter, and I had en empty plastic bag in my backpack, so for the next hour-plus, I was holding a bag of ice over my left hand, changing the ice every 15 minutes. After an hour, I saw definite improvement, and knew that there was no permanent damage. Honesty, it was the first time in my life the burning made so little harm. My hand hurt after I had to throw away the last portion of melted ice when I was on the train, but it lasted for a very short time. By next morning, I didn’t feel anything, and I only a very small portion of my left tumb had some pink on it, the rest of the skin was fine.

Oh, and we made the sandwiches after the mess was cleaned, and they turned out amazing! I will definitely make them at home, and maybe I will even give another try for a tomato soup!

The Great Gatsby On Broadway

I love the book, love that period in history, and, I guess, that’s one of the reasons Chicago is my kind of town to the extent it is: the Roaring 20s was the most glorious period in its history. That show was just what I needed this week, when I needed to stop worrying about everything, and I left the theater in the most positive state of mind I had during the last month.

Lots of patrons were dressed in the Gilded Age style, including my neighbor, and I felt very inadequate, but still enjoying myself

Lyric Opera Season Preview

That was the event where I lost my phone for 20 minutes! As a subscriber, I had an invitation to the Lyric season preview, to which I planned to go with one of my friends, who canceled at the last minute. I thought I would still go, although I already knew what would be performed during the season, and I had already renewed my subscription. Still, I thought it would not be bad to attend; after all, the Lyric Opera House is just two blocks away from my office.

Then I looked at the email with the event details and saw that they would have a reception from six to seven, and decided to come earlier to get some fine bites.

I was glad I went, because everything looked very festive, and the snacks and desserts were delicious, and then I found that there was not only complimentary wine, but complimentary tea and coffee as well. And five minutes later, I realized that I didn’t have my phone on me, which meant that I had nothing literally!

During the next twenty minutes, I deeply regretted going, and was trying to figure out how I could restore my life (I have my State ID and my physical card in the phone case, and I wouldn’t be even able to get home!

Fortunately, the phone was found and returned to me twenty minutes later, but those were very miserable and scary 20 minutes!

Another Concert With Mom

I think I will stop taking my mom to the concerts :). On Sunday, I took her for another one, this one was at the CheckOut, a new venue relatively close to where I live. I’ve been there several times, both on my own and with my mom. She is always complaining that the sound is not good enough, and the venue allows her to be super-close to the performer, and see and hear everything.

To be quite honest, this concert was a disappointment for me. To put it politely, it looked like the performer used to be an excellent piano player many years ago, and now is rapidly losing it.

I know that this can happen even with the most outsatnding musicians. I will never forget how I went to listen to Van Clyborn concert at Ravinia many years ago, and he was not even that old, but it was a micerable experience.

My mom didn’t get what was going on, but she was saying that “the movements of his hands were not in sync with the sound,” which was totally her imagination and that “it was bum-bum-all the same over and over,” which was also not exactly the case.

I have another pair of tickets for both of us for the concert on May 3, but I looked at the program and at the performers and realized that it wil be another “what is his national origin,” situation, so most likely I will return these tickets. Actually, than was a replacement for the concert which I could not attend because of my travels, and I knew it won’t be an adequate one, so I do not have big regrets!

Sunday

I will be honest, there are multiple stress factors in my life these days, and I am not always in my usual calm mode, so I can’t always enjoy my weekend mornings. On Sunday, I knew that there was no way for me to finish everything I planned, or rather, I wished I could accomplish (since I knew there was not enough time, those were wishes, not plans).

Still, the early morning sun was there, and this morning light is so perfect – it blows my mind eash and single time! Blessed mornings!

A new sculptural composition in place of the previous bronze horseman
As much as I love my Charmers Cafe, since I learned how to make cappuccino at home, more often than not, I have Sunday breakfast at home (partially because they are not open on Sundays until 8 AM, and I can’t wait that long!)

Just 30 minutes ago…

I lost my phone, and, as Boris says, I entrusted everything to it. And I had horrible 20 minutes until it was found, and now I am trying to get back to enjoying the event where I lost it!

I am happy that it was found before the program started!!!!