Category: everyday life

I Have a Christmas Tree!

On Friday, I finally got my Christmas tree. Since I got my new car (it is not new anymore, but anyway), I can’t bring a tree home without external help. And this year, I was hesitant to ask anybody. Actually, I asked Vlad a long time ago, and he said he would come to help, but then it turned out he mixed up the days. I already planned to take a day off, and I also knew that there will be rain in the afternoon and for the whole day on Saturday.
Long story short, my co-worker who lives close to me told me that he could help.
I went to the place where I go every year; there is a family farm in Wisconsin, they come every year, and I am getting trees from them for over twenty years.
Guess what happened this year! By the time I came, then ran out of Fraiser fir! I still can’t believe it!
I got a Canaan fir, a cross between Balsamic and Fraiser, and I didn’t have much choice – there were just four or five left! I guess I should feel lucky 🙂
My co-worker helped me to install the tree, and then I spend a couple of hours decorating. This year, I made sure that all my special ornaments are on the tree, and I left many others in the box. And I nearly forgot to hang the chocolate ornaments, but now everything is in place.

I feel way more content when the tree is up and decorated, and the whole house in decorated, too!

Each ornament has a story!

Listening to “A Promised Land”

I started doing audiobooks instead of real books first because it became difficult for me to read and because I could listen on the go. After all the eye surgeries of this year, I can read the regular books again. However, I already got hooked on the convenience of listening, so more often, I listen. 

As for this particular book, Obama’s “Promised Land,” there is an extra incentive for listening: Barack himself narrates the book. 

Thirty hours of listening to the voice we do not hear that often anymore! Small suppressed laughs here and there. And the ability to travel back in time and relive all these amazing years again! 

I remember it so well – exactly how he describes it in the book! I remember this feeling: now it’s the time! I remember how everybody was saying: it’s too soon, and at the same time the feeling was mounting: now IS the time!

I remember everybody in the City of Chicago building where I was doing my consulting work saying: he is our future president. Before anything happened, before Springfield. I remember Anna happily telling the story of her encounter with Barak on Melissa Bean’s campaign trail: you are still above us, but we appreciate the gesture! She was so happy that she made Barak laugh.

And I remember this cold February night, the night before the announcement. I remember her calling her coach: can I be excused from practice tomorrow? There is somebody who can drive me to Springfield! And I remember the silver bells in her voice: Thank you, coach! 

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A Week From Hell

That was quite a week! Tuesday and Wednesday, I was trying to participate in the conference held in the GMT timezone. For Thursday morning, I was invited to participate in the Roundtable for Women Influencers of Chicago (yea, apparently, I am an influencer – who would have known!) It was a virtual business breakfast, so my personal time in the morning was gone for one more day.

Work was all meetings, which meant that I had to spend at least two more hours after work to do some work :). Next is a virtual pile of professional – not work-related messages, which I have to respond to because when people reach out to you, you have to reply with words of support and encouragement.

And only after that – any personal emails, trying to shop for Christmas gifts, trying to put up just one decoration…

And it was all good and important, I didn’t have any meetings, which were useless, it’s just – too much! I need another me!

I took a day off today to catch up with life and to clear a weekend. I hope I can still write a couple of pages for the book because I am behind the way I do not want to be…

The First Part of the Christmas Baking

Baking alone can be considered a success because I ended up baking enough to send all of my long-distance shipments, and there is still plenty left. I will bake more next weekend, and I should have enough for all my giveaways plus something extra. At least, I hope so. There are so many people to whom I want to give cookies! 

I brought this apple-cinnamon filling form Finland
Last year, after baking kolacki for ten years, I finally figured out how to prepare the apricot filling the right way!
Continue reading “The First Part of the Christmas Baking” →

Technical Difficulties :)

Hettie D.'s avatarThe World of Data

If you are still wondering why the presentations for PostgresBuild202 had to be recorded, let me tell you: this morning, my connection to the platform was so spotty, I could not get more than two minutes online straight. So much for getting up at 3-30 AM Chicago time and putting on some makeup for the first time in a while!

I was joking that it’s “A Plot Against America,” but I do not think any participants experienced problems as I did. When I did a test run with the organizers the day before, everything worked perfectly, even though I had all my apps running simultaneously. Today, although I closedeverything, I was not able to listen to my own presentation and could not answer any questions. Even answering in the chat was challenging because the app could not find people by name.

I had so many hopes in networking…

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An Extremely Challenging Weekend

As I am trying to do a half of my Christmas cookies (without any help this year!), whatever is due with the book, house decoration, presents shopping and Christmas cards – and each of these activities is enough to take to whole weekend!

Since it’s me solo, I am doing smaller batches, so do not expect my usual cookie table 🙂

What’s Next?

Where did these past three days go? I do not even know! Three and a half days since I returned, and it is work and work, and lots of different online activities. And the book is not moving again. 

On Tuesday, I had two online events after work. One of them was a victory celebration with our Stand with Women group. We talked about the memorable moments of the past several months, which lead to our victory (I mentioned Anna canvassing with two small children!), and then we talked about “what’s next.’

Everybody started to talk about the Georgia Senate race, and phone banking, and all related things. And I said: my goal for the upcoming year is to help to bridge a Big Divide. I repeated all my thoughts from this post. 

I recalled the beginning of the Obama presidency and how people got upset so quickly. And about this half of the country, which voted for Trump. 

BTW, my direct report told me yesterday that he can’t understand how anybody could vote for Trump. 

I said that we need to talk to people, and some of the participants said that you could never convert a Republican, and arguing on Facebook is just a waste of time. I told him that the part of the crowd that is silently listening to the argument is the one we are influencing from my experience. And then I decided that it is not worth arguing 🙂

I stopped arguing, but I am planning to have it as my goal for the year, along with practical support.

My Talk At PostgresBuild2020

Hettie D.'s avatarThe World of Data

I’ve already advertised my talk at PostgresBuild2020, but now I have an official image, so I can advertise it one more time. Also, all the talks are recorded, so my talk is technically done:). I will be still there, listening to myself :), and there will be ten minutes of questions.

To be honest, if I would know in advance that I will need to record my session, most likely I won’t submit a proposal. But when I submitted and it got accepted – there was no way out :).

The conference is virtual, as everything these days, and it will be in the GMT timezone, which means that those of my friends and colleagues who can’ attend Chicago PUG due to the timezone difference, will get a chance to listen to the NORM talks.

The registration is free – click here!

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My Very Rare Family Time

I am on my way back to Chicago. It was a strange trip, for sure. After being on that overbooked UA flight, I regretted my decision to go and thought that Boris is right that we should not make too many moves during a pandemic.

In Helsinki, the situation was not the same as when I was there in October. They have way more cases than previously. Although it’s still way less than in Illinois, and the number of deaths, hospitalized patients, and patients in ICU is microscopic compared to our number, more restrictions are still instilled.

That meant that we didn’t go to any concerts, and in general did less outside home. Although this time we were biking together again.

Another factor that influenced how I felt was my panic about the speed with which our book is going and that we are behind all possible deadlines. And finally, the fact that I needed to record my presentation for the conference!

At some point, I asked Boris whether he thought it was the right idea for me to travel. He said that he hoped that I was able to relax. And the surprising thing is that it was true!

When I decided to go, I joked that it was the most expensive way to avoid holiday cooking and cleaning. But the fact is that for the whole week, I didn’t cook a single meal, didn’t wash a single plate, and didn’t do laundry. And I did only fun shopping if anything.

Although Boris had to teach a class this week and had some work meetings and some work in general, he allowed me to concentrate on writing 100%. And I am really thankful for that!
Also, I completely forgot that I wanted to print our logo on a t-shirt. And that Boris also wanted a t-shirt with this logo, and even bought a white t-shirt for that. We did it on Sunday – and that’s what I just posted:) (I wrote it yesterday but forgot to publish)

The Logo…

… which we created for our training course a year ago – now on my T-shirt 🙂