Category: everyday life

My Daughter Got a New Job

Two months ago, it would sound differently! It would still be happy news to share, but nowadays it’s more than happy news.

She started to look for new opportunities during “the normal times,” and I was encouraging her to move forward – she was with the same company since she graduated from college. But at the time, when people are laid off en mass, especially the most recent hires, at the time when a new baby is coming in two months, and when they are about to move to another town – even my adventurism won’t play.

To say that I am immensely proud of her won’t be enough. Under all of the circumstances mentioned above, she got a new job; she negotiated her salary and stock options, she negotiated a higher title, and on top of all of that, she will get sixteen weeks of fully paid maternity leave.

The next two months are going to be very exciting, and the complete uncertainty about everything adds to that excitement (Not like the months after will be less exciting!)

I do not have much to add; I wish her good luck in everything she has to accomplish in the upcoming months and years:)

Masks

When ten days ago, the Illinois residents were asked by the governor to wear masks when in public, my first thought was to revive the skills we were taught in grade school at the lessons of Civic Defense.

However, when I shared this idea with Anna, she was quick to react that they do not seem to bee good for the current purpose. I think that their design goes back to the days of chemical weapons being the biggest scare.

Anna told me that her friend, who in the times of peace is a theatrical costume maker, is making masks to order. That sounded great – will there be any other occasion when I could order something from a real costume designer?! I ordered two for each of the boys, and two for myself, and two – just in case. They arrived on Monday, and when I demonstrated them in the office slack channel, everybody got jealous!

Film Center from Your Sofa: Mephisto

To be precise, it didn’t need to be a Siskel Center member to watch this movie online. But one of the reasons I love Siskel center is that they make me aware of the great movies I might never hear about otherwise. 

I believe the Mephisto was the first film directed by Istvan Szabo I ever saw, and I can’t even describe how much it impressed me! Often, when you watch the movies made in the 60s-70s-80s, you can’t but notice some “old” ways. Not the case here. The film feels so up to date! 

Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Szabó’s most celebrated film features a mesmerizing turn by Klaus Maria Brandauer that Roger Ebert called “one of the greatest movie performances I have ever seen.” Brandauer plays Hendrik Hoefgen, a German provincial actor who starts out in the 1920s with high ambitions and fashionably leftist ideals. His signature role is Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust, but he proves to be more temptee than tempter when the Nazis take over and cultivate him as an all-too-willing tool of the regime. MEPHISTO is more than just a showcase for Brandauer, as Szabó crafts a rich and vivid picture of both the Nazi and theatrical worlds, whose shared reliance on sham and spectacle exposes the slippery slope between artistic self-absorption and moral/political corruption. 

Gene Siskel Film Center

When I was watching the film it felt like I heard it just yesterday: I am not interested in politics! I am an artist (scientist, writer)! I am doing things which are more important to mankind than politics. And I need to be here, to preserve theater, science, art for future generations! And by the way, <put the name of a political figure here> is way better than others! He is smart, and he cares about art-science-theater, you name it…. Great movie…

And yes, I am planning to watch the other two!

Operation “Easter”

Friday night, I made my meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Saturday, I colored eggs and made a plum pie. And I baked some cookies a week before. And then Saturday afternoon, I was packing :).
I packed a bag for Igor, and I also included some food items which are either hard to find where he lives, or they are just more expensive (like buckwheat). I also packed a bag for Vlad.
Several days before that, I mailed to Igor my April monthly pass, the one which I never used and which I wanted to keep for future generations :).

That’s how our “Operation Easter” went. Igor called me when he arrived at Palatine. There are barely any people on the train these days, let along on the weekends. I put the bag in my car’s trunk and drove to the station. Igor got out when I stopped at the passengers’ drop-off location, opened the trunk, and took the bags. And then he went back to the city and stopped by Vlad ti deliver a package for him.

It was all as safe as we could make it, and I feel very good knowing that the boys got their emoji eggs, and kinder surprises, and cookies, and that I was able to send them a piece of home.

This morning, I drove to my Mom to take her to celebrate Easter with me. I tried to get all the food she enjoys, and I also asked Igor and Anna to call in, which they did. It was bitter-sweet; Anna, John, and Nadia said Christos Voskres (traditional Russian Easter greeting) to Mom, and Mom told everybody that she wishes them to escape the virus.

We all are hopeful that next Easter, we all will be together!

Loved This One!

From friend’s Instagram

Financial Relief

I want to write about these things not because they made a big difference for me, but because they are good things.

I have two gym memberships – one at Anytime Fitness, which is five minutes’ walk from my house, and the other at LifeStart, which is in our office building. I rarely use the latter one, but I found it’s a good idea to have it just in case. Naturally, both gyms are closed since mid-March. I didn’t expect any of them to stop charging membership fees, but they both stopped. In fact, LifeStart charged the April fees on April 1, but then they sent an email to the members saying that since they had to close all facilities, they will apply the April fees to May (and I am guessing, that if Illinois doesn’t open in May, they will transfer these fees to June or whatever).

And at the same time, they are streaming a lot of live classes for free! I believe they have six classes a day, and also nutrition seminars, and stress-relief techniques, and lots of other activities, and personalized workouts – you name it! I was delighted to see a yoga class held by my “second-favorite” instructor. I had him at LifeStart when I worked at Enova and was very sad that I lost him :). And now, since these online classes are available to all the LifeStart members, regardless of the specific location, I can attend his classes three times a week!

Back to the good things. My parking permit at the Palatine train station is automatically renewed every month. The other day, I saw an email with the words “Parking permit” in the header, which usually indicates that the fee for next month was charged. But when I opened that email, it read: we realize that most likely, you didn’t use the parking facilities in April, so we are applying your April fees for May.

And the last surprise came from the Federal Student Loans. I still pay the last of my Parent Plus loans (and Vlad is paying it back to me). I knew that the temporal suspension of the Student Loans repayment was a part of the relief package, but I thought that everybody would need to apply. Once again, to my surprise, I received an email that my scheduled payments won’t be auto-debited till the end of September. For me, it does not make a material difference to my budget, but I was happy for Igor and Vlad, that they both have that relief. And it’s great that no applications are required – it’s the Student Loans forbearance for everybody. I feel good that at least some thing are handled in a sensible way.

Ice-cream is Essential!

I didn’t walk in that direction for a while. The only reason for me to walk in that direction was going to the fitness center, and it is closed now. But the other day I did, and to my surprise, I found the local ice-cream shop opened! For carry-out only, of course, but still, I was pleasantly surprised. The next day, I walked with a purpose:).

Who would argue that ice-cream is essential?!

Online Activities

There have been a lot of online activities recently, so many that sometimes I have to choose which one to attend – almost like in the previous life. 

Yoga. After I started to take yoga classes with my old teacher, I found out that LifeStart – the fitness franchise we have in our office building – is streaming a lot of free classes including yoga with my second-favorite instructor, and they are all free. I signed up for the first one on Wednesday, and it was great. Now I signed for one more on Friday:). I will still keep the semi-private class with my old teacher on Mondays, and this way, my life will be yoga-complete!

Arts. WFMT Classical radio station always had a lot to offer, but now they started something new – Maestro’s Choice. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, WFMT and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have partnered to launch a new six-program broadcast series. Riccardo Muti, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, has curated the programs. It runs every Tuesday from 8 PM to 10 PM. Last Tuesday, the first piece performed was Shostakovich Second Cello Concerto, Ricardo Muti conducting, Yo-Yo-Ma – cello solo. It was amazing, and the sound is so good – you feel like you are at the Orchestra Hall! I was doing some work and listening to music – something I used to do in the past, but haven’t done for a very long time!

Also, the Siskel Center started to stream some of their programs. I bought tickets for two movies so far. They are good for several days, so I might end up watching them, no matter how busy I am at work. 

Volunteering. Our volunteer coordinator in the Open Door Shelter reached out to the volunteers asking whether we will be interested in doing some online activities with the kids. I answered – YES! We are still in the process of planning, but meanwhile, I listened to the press conference with the Night Ministry representatives about the work they are doing right now, how the services were modified, what the challenges are, and how we can help. 

Professional Development. Surprisingly, professional online activities were less interesting than others, but I finally figured out zoom, purchased a professional subscription, and scheduled the April meetup of Chicago PUG online. Good for me 🙂

Unhappy News

I have a couple of happy quarantine stories to share (and I was too busy to share them in the past couple of days), but today was a very sad day. And before I proceed with the happy stories, I need to get this weight off my shoulders.

My co-worker was robbed last night. He was careless to leave the door unlocked, and somebody got in his apartment at night and stole virtually everything, including the car key, and then the car itself. Although I told him that only the loss of life is irreversible, all the rest can be fixed, I am still deeply sad about what has happened.

Igor’s Photos

I am not coming to Chicago anymore, and it will be a while until I will be able to come. I never took Chicago for granted, and used to be overjoyed each and single time I step out of the train station into the city…

I know it is safer to live in the suburbs these days. And I know that these days a city is not what it used to be. Igor took some pictures of Chicago on quarantine, and I am going to paste some of them below (and I have no idea how to make them bigger!)

A view from Loyla 'L' station inbound platform
Edgewater in a fog
Continue reading “Igor’s Photos” →