Category: everyday life

Goodman Theater: Roe

Today, Igor, Mom, and I went to see a new play “Roe” in Goodman Theater, and it was so powerful! Everything: the play itself, the performance, staging, actors – everything was excellent, and the content is mind-blowing.

As you can guess from the title, the play is about Roe vs. Wade. To be more precise – it tells the actual story of the case, told separately by two women: attorney Sarah Weddington and plaintiff Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe). 

Turned out, I knew nothing about the story. Yes, I heard that “Jane Roe” ended up speaking against the Roe-v-Wade amendment, but I knew nothing about her as a person, about her story, her circumstances. To put it bluntly, she was misled by two young attorneys, who made her believe she will be able to have an abortion, which was not going to happen. She was designated to suffer “for the sake of future generations of women.” Which leaves the audience with an eternal question – can good cause justify all means? 

That’s exactly what I said after the show, at “Drinks and Discussion” after-show event. The even was full, and all the participants had chance to share their thoughts and to talk to the actors.

The play is incredibly deep and moving. It gives voices to the people from all sides, and it does not provide an out-of-the-box answer. I highly recommend it, o matter what your political affiliation is and what your believes are. It runs for three more weeks!

Why They Vote for Trump

One more article, which was sitting in my “to write about” list for a while, published in Washington Post at the end of December.

Along with the book “Heartland,” which I was listening to at the same time, this article helped me to understand some not-so-obvious things. Here is a family of farmers. They struggle financially. They are deeply ashamed of the fact that they have land, and they can’t earn a living working this land. They can’t come to terms with the fact that they have to apply for food stamps. Their situation is desperate, and it is a direct result of the trade wars with China, but they voted for Trump, and they will do it again.

I cited this article at Matt Flamm’s fundraiser on the New Year Day, when some of the guests were saying they could not understand what goes on in the minds of Trump supporters.I think this article provides at least some answers.

Continue reading “Why They Vote for Trump” →

New York Times: Going to Museum May Help You Live Longer

I had this article in my bookmarks for a while, hoping to write about it. The article talks about the effect of art on people’s longevity, and it states, that not even making art, but just art appreciation helps people to live longer. When I read this article, I thought that I was right dragging my mom to concerts, museums and such. And that I should continue doing it!

Here is a link to the article, and the full text is below.

Continue reading “New York Times: Going to Museum May Help You Live Longer” →

Just a Moment of Life

Today, I finally cut my Christmas tree into pieces, which I can now use as firewood. It took me only fifteen minutes, including cutting branches with needles and packing them into a separate paper bag.

I know how funny it sounds, but I am genuinely proud of that fact. Just a couple of years ago, I could not use a saw. They taught me how to use it at Deer Grove Forest preserve; I did not want to be among the group of volunteers who could not use a saw. I tried several times, but at some point, it would stick in the wood. Then finally, Mark showed me a magic trick, and since then, I am capable :). But fifteen minuted is an accomplishment!

I took a tree down four weeks ago, but I didn’t have time to cut it the same weekend (or I thought so). Then it was raining, then it was cold, then snowing, and then I left and was away for two weekends in a row. Today I was running around all morning and all afternoon and got to this tree business only at twenty to five. And I managed to finish before the sunset :).
I took all the wood inside so that it could become dry. And then I started the fire with the last year leftovers, and I also threw a couple of fir tree branches into the fireplace. They make such a loud crackling sound, and they smell good!


One more skill which I recently learned – I learned to start and keep the fire with the natural wood (not the long-running “logs”) so that the fire does not stop before all the wood is burned entirely. And I do not have to watch the fire all the time. I like the real wood better, and also – it does not take four hours.

A fireplace with live flames, a glass of wine, and a piece of cheese make a moment of tranquility. And now back to work:)

Dinner Conversations

At the dinner, we sat together with the local organizers. It became very cold while we were walking around the city, so when we reach the tavern, I announced that they made a Chicagoan getting froze in Cyprus! That was a good conversation starter, for sure :).
Then I started my usual prizing Chicago speech, and that everybody should visit. Along the lines, it came that Vlad is a director of a bar (I even remember the context: we talked about the PG Day). I told the local organizer that Vlad makes cocktails inspired by different cultures and that his Greek cocktail has mustika. The gentleman was impressed and told me that Vlad must know his stuff.

Since I knew that Vlad won’t be asleep yet, I texted him right away. For which Vlad replied: We also have tsiopouro in the same cocktail from Argo!

When I presented this text, the gentleman’s brows start to raise and the jar dropped. He was like: this is so local! How does he know?! Did he travel to Greece? I said – yes, and he loved it.

Then the gentleman looked at me and asked how old is my son, and how many children I have. And I proudly told: three children, one grandchild, and one more on the way! And showed a group picture on the phone. And I said that I am 57, and my birthday was on Sunday, And he was: never tell that! You do not look like it! And I was – that’s precisely why I tell that! And he looked at me again and said emphatically: your husband is so lucky!


At that point, I didn’t have other options except to turn to my left and poke Boris into his elbow :). If people do not know us, they can’t tell, because we have different last names and different countries on our badges:). So it was all quite amusing:)

Igor’s Article and Metra’s Reaction

Last week, Igor’s article about the measures which Metra is going to take to reduce the number of fare evasions, was published in Streetblog Chicago.

I liked the article (and hopefully you will like it, too) but what is more interesting – somebody else enjoyed it as well!

Igor and his editor received an email from the Metrarail representative, who said:

Igor’s article about our fare issues was the most accurate and thorough job of any reporter who wrote about this. We appreciate Streetsblog spending the time and devoting the space to putting everything in context and explaining the pros and cons.

Pretty cool, right?!

Eye Surgery Update

I mentioned back in the fall that I am going to have eye surgery, actually two of them, one for each eye:). Because of that, I’ve first had to switch to the soft contacts, and you might remember my horrible Thanksgiving story. Well, now that I returned from Cyprus, I was ready to switch to glasses. I have to wear them for two weeks before measurements will be taken, and then for one more week until the first surgery.

The problem is that I can’t wear glasses, because my prescription is so high. The whole world looks twisted, and I have constant headaches and nausea. 

But there was more to the story. I when to my eye doctor to get the final glass prescription on December 20. I could not do it earlier, because my vision was changing after I switched to soft contacts. It was stable for three weeks by then, and the doctor took the final measurements for glasses. 

I have three separate prescriptions. One is for my distant vision (those used to be contacts), the readers, and the glasses for driving and watching movies, presentations, etc. My glasses combine all of them in one. I told the doctor that most likely, I will need two separate glasses because, in my driving glasses, I can’t see the close-up objects. But then it turned out that each pair, even with the cheapest frame, will cost over $500, and I only need these glasses for three weeks. 

Since the glasses should have been ready by January 6, I decideded thet I will try them on and see whether I need a separate pair without prisms, or I can manage.

December 6 came, and my glasses didn’t show up. I called the doctor two days later. They told me that the glasses didn’t pass the quality test in the lab and were returned to be fixed. Long story short, it happened three times. I was scared because I was leaving on January 17, and upon my arrival, I had to start wearing glasses immediately. 

I was calling the doctor’s office every day; they were calling the lab every day, the lab was apologetic, but still didn’t produce my glasses. 

Finally, I had to ask my neighbor Renate to pick up my glasses when they come, which she did. When I returned Sunday night, I could start wearing my glasses, but I had no time to adjust. It felt horrible, as I described above. And it turned out that the only thing I can do comfortably in these glasses is driving :). Moving around the house, doing things, climbing stairs – all of the above is a struggle. And now I have no time to order the second pair – by the time it arrives, I won’t need it. 

Two days are done, twenty one more to go.

The Conference Overview and Day One.

The purpose of this trip was not tourism, although we took advantage of being in a new and exciting place. However, the day we arrived (Sunday) it was relatively cold, and also it started raining shortly after our arrival. 

I did not research “things to do” in advance, but I quickly found out that there are not that many tourist attractions in the Limassol itself. Sunrise and sunset are instantaneous, as it usually happens in the south. We entered a hotel in the daylight, and half an hour later, it was already completely dark. 

Monday was the first day of the conference, with a very interesting keynote, and my talk was also on Monday. 

I described everything related to my talk in my professional blog. At the moment I wish I won’t be talking on the first day! If I had an extra day, I would be able to attract more listeners. 

We ended up not leaving the hotel on Monday. There was a whole day of presentations and a welcome reception in the evening (and the weather was bad again!).

Opening session
First keynote – Erol Gelenbe

I had extremely interesting conversations during reception. Turned out, the next-day keynote speaker was listening to my preentation. I didn’t know at the moment who he was, but he was listening very attentively and asking tons of great questions. 

We continued during reception, and were joined by the first-day keynote and the forth-day keynote speakers :). You know how welcome receptions usually go: you mingle with people, not spending much time with one person, but rather trying to meet many. In that case, however, people were so interested in the conversation, that one of them asked me to wait till he will be back with refilled glass, because he didn’t want to miss anything from the story. I consider that to be the biggest possible complement 🙂

A few hotel pictures, so that the story won’t get boring 🙂

Continue reading “The Conference Overview and Day One.” →

Traveling to Cyprus

My birthday was on Saturday, and I spent most of it in transit. Started it with a birthday breakfast of hot-smoked salmon sandwich on rye bread at the Vantaa airport and then boarded a flight to Frankfurt. That flight and the subsequent flight to Limassol were extremely uneventful, being operated by Lufthansa :).

I didn’t know that we have to cross the border going to Cyprus. Cyprus is an EU member, but not a part of the Schengen agreement. However, they acknowledge Schengen visas, so it works at least one way :).

Upon arrival, we met our driver (we had a prearranged transportation to our hotel) and got into the car. Once again, I didn’t know that Cyprus had left-side traffic, so you have to be super careful. The highway from the airport was one-way, and the reverse route was not visible. Citing my surprise that nobody asked us at the border, how long we are going to stay, Boris joked that that’s because there is no way out anyway :).

This time of the year is off-season on Cyprus, so hotels are dirt-chip, and the first two days it was raining. We won’t do much sightseeing anyway, because it falls dark right after five. But here is the view from our room 🙂

I also managed to get an hour in the gym, hence I have my usual in-the-gym birthday picture:

Office Life

On Thursday, one day before his last day, my leaving DBA brought donuts to the office. It was very touching; I knew that the reason for his departure was entirely personal, and that he enjoyed working in our company. But these donuts were really a final touch to the fact that it was great having him, and he will be missed!