Category: everyday life

And Things Being Done

Slowly and surely (knock on wood), things are moving forward. At least at that moment, I am not paralyzed with fear that I am behind on all my promises – just about one-third of them 🙂

Work:  pushing a couple of big projects forward and finalizing documentation (the hardest part).

Conference: moving. I wish I would know how much longer it will take until all formalities are finalized and how much longer it will be until the website is up, but at least things are not stalled.

PUG: had the last meetup of 2024, and the emergency speaker replacement worked great

NFP: problems are getting resolved at a speed that makes me nervous: when everything goes so smoothly, I am afraid that “I didn’t notice something”

I am catching up with all of the Christmas planning: cookies/supplies/addresses/cookie boxes/cards/ordered a tree delivery and a tree removal/about half of the presents is purchased.

The Thanksgiving food is all purchased (unless I forgot something, as usual!)

Multi-Threading Again

After I returned from my October trip, it took me a while to catch up with life, mainly because I didn’t have much weekend time. I had a complete meltdown on Friday because I was so tired of putting things together and catching up on things that one trivial problem felt like a world crisis.

Since then, things have improved. 🙂 I was able to reschedule my January trip, write some documentation for my work project, resolve all major issues with the conference, and, as an extra bonus, receive the IRS tax-exempt letter for a new NFP I am setting up. There are still a couple of things with this NFP that are waiting for a resolution, so I do not want to talk much about them right now, but things are looking positive.

The Secret Garden in Theo

On Sunday, I went to see The Secret Garden at Theo Ubique. I love their Sunday scheduling – they start at 6 PM, so it’s not a matinerr which completely breaks your day, but also not too late (for me, all days of the week are the same in term of bedtime, so I always prefer the earlier start).

My friend with whom I went told me earlier that that was the only show she wanted to attend this season. I liked others as well, but I understand why she said so – it’s a lovely music and a beautiful story. And the production is perfect! As usual, I hope that they will post some videos from the show later, and I will be happy to share them!

A Night At The Museum

For Nadia’s seventh birthday, I gave her a Dozing with Dinos—a sleepover in the Field Museum. As anyone can imagine, I was equally excited to spend a night at the Field and wonder around all the exhibits as long as I wanted to.

It turned out that there was not that much time for free-roaming because the whole night was full of activities: we met with the scientists, saw the animals skinning in the lab, identified different smells and sounds, saw a 3-D movie about the T-Rex and did a scary storytime.

Our sleeping area was in the Great Dinosaur Hall, and I think it was the best place, although Nadia said that sleeping by the Sue T-Rex would be better (when I was ordering this package, there were no places by Sue available, but maybe next time!)

We packed our things in the morning, left them in the locker, and went for breakfast. The only thing that could have been done better was the food provided as a part of the package or rather some inaccurate information about it.
They said there would be a late-night snack, but they had different bags of chips, tea, and hot chocolate. They also said there would be a continental breakfast, but it was just an apple, a banana, and one mini muffin (plus juice/milk/tea/coffee). Thankfully, the museum bistro was open at 7-30 AM, so we didn’t go hungry!
By 9 AM, Anna and Kira came to the museum. I thought we would stick around for an hour or two at a maximum, but we stayed there for more than four more hours! It’s the longest time I ever spent in any museum!

In the evening, when we all set for dinner, Nadia said that the best thing about that day was the whole day, and the worst thing was that it came to the end 🙂

Oh, and one fun fact: according to my Health app, I climbed 25 flights of started on Friday, and 25 on Saturday!

***

I am not going to vent about Tuesday. First, venting does not help, and second, as sad as it is, I can’t say it was unexpected. The mood in the office yesterday was gloomy, and the Finnish chocolate I brought came in handy. Yesterday was the day of our women’s circle meeting, and all of us came in like “meh,” but we decided to talk about positive things, and at the end, we all agreed that we would keep doing good and survive another four years.

As much as I always blame myself for all the bad things happening in the world, I do not blame myself that much for not doing canvassing. If there was anything I could do better, it was voicing my opinions, participating in meaningful discussions, and sharing information in all other possible ways. I am not even angry, not like in 2016, just focused on what I can do and what my priorities should be.

I think that the way Kamala Harris accepted her defeat and pledged to a peaceful transfer of power was the best thing she could do strengthen democracy and give an example of civilized behavior. Her speach was great, and I am so glad that she is not going to disappear from political stage.

Back to work. Back to life.

Sunday – Hello Michigan, I Missed You!

The boats are gone until next season

Staring At The Map

I had to work from home today because of the mom’s social worker visit in the middle of the day. Now, at half past seven, I am trying to work on ten things that are so overdue that I am afraid to think about them. I have a live election results map on my external screen, and I try not to look at it all the time. I still want it to be visible, even though the prevailing red is frustrating.

I remember that we survived one term of Trump, even though it was extremely challenging, and I believe that even with the worst possible outcome, the world won’t end tomorrow. However, I can’t work on certain things “until it is over.” It does not make sense because I will still need to work on these things regardless, but …

Forgetting Things!

I checked the closets in our hotel room in Athens three times, and each time, I found something I had forgotten! First, it was one of the DRW t-shirts, then my Kamala Harris t-shirt, and then – one of the Postgres t-shirts I purchased at the conference.

Only when we were back in Helsinki did I realize that I had forgotten a DRW reversible umbrella! It was my favorite one, and I had been waiting forever for it to appear in our gear store, and now I had forgotten it! And I didn’t even need it in Athens; I just left it in the luggage, took it out, and forgot!

Also, I forgot my DRW light hoody in Boris’ apartment, but at least this one is not lost forever, and will come to me in three weeks!

I Don’t Know How People Do This!

I mean, those people who post on social media while being at the conference. I can hardly post anything because I am talking to people and writing follow-up emails and messages. And I can’t even finish one post about our trip to Delphi, which was back on Monday!

Till later!

Fall

I left yesterday; it was the first day that I saw enough yellow leaves to notice the change of color 🙂

And in Helsinki, the fall is in its all glory, and the leaves smell like fall 🙂