Glenwood Art Fest was this weekend, and I could not make it there until today. On Friday and Saturday, the rain randomly stopped and started, and when it started, it would pour! I got completely wet at least six times during these days!
But today, the rain finally stopped, so I took my mom and went there. Yesterday, when I was exporting, one of my fellow escorts told me that there will be “The Twelve Night” performed at 2-30. so I planned to be at the fest before that, and the timing was perfect.
OMG, they are so good!!! That’s how you should do Shakespeare – on the market, with no mics, with very simple props and costumes. Loudly. Over-expressive. Almost vulgar, but not. To the lough and joy of the audience.
Also, I really liked how they decorated the underpass under the CTA tracks!
My friend who lives on the West Side was planning to visit me the upcoming Saturday. We planned this day several months in advance: my schedule is busy, and it’s a long way to her. She uses paratransit, so she needed to arrange a ride. On Monday she texted me: sorry, I won’t be able to come. When we talked the next day I asked her what happened. She said: I know we planned this visit several months ago, and I know that it might mean I won’t see you for several more months, but the there will be protests because of the DNC.
I told her: wait, the DNC does not start until Monday. She though for a moment, and then said: I know for the fact, that there will be protests over the weekend. She continued: you know how they sometimes go wild, and if the car happen to be in the middle of it, they might encircle the car, and then the passengers will be in trouble, and I do not want to end up in jail. I paused for a moment to process and said: you are right. I have nothing to say.
I managed to find an alternative time for her visit, so we will see each other before fall, but it looks like the prevailing mood in Chicago for the next week is worry about what is going to happen. It’s sad, but not unjustified.
On Wednesday morning, I finally did what I wanted to do since Boris’ departure: I went to the beach between working out in the morning and going to work. I just got the sunrise, and the water was warm, and there was absolutely nobody on the beach!
It felt so good and gave me a great start to the day!
Then, I took a short break from work in the afternoon and walked to the Tiny Cafe on the Riverwalk. This summer, they finally opened their coffee corner, and they have ice cream again (and great espresso!). I took an ice cream cone and espresso and sat on a stone step, looking at the Chicago River.
And one more time, I was not running anywhere, if just for five minutes!
About a week ago, Vanille Chicago announced a new line of cookies, and when I saw them, I placed an order immediately. My friend Lena whom I was going to visit and her husband just became US citizens, and the upcoming elections will be the first one for them.
The reason I ordered a couple of Trump cookies and macaroons is that I wanted to have an opportunity to bite his head off!
Lena lives in a Democratic neighborhood, but Michigan is a swing state (which was news for Lena and her husband). They know that their voices are essential, and I hope that there are enough people in Michigan to defeat Trump.
Once again, I didn’t update my Goodreads progress for two months or so, and now I have a long list of books I read without marking them as “currently reading.”
Learning to Love Midlife I know why I picked this book: there was a WBEZ episode with Chip Conley, and it sounded interesting. But the book was disappointing. I know that the older I get, the more I love my life, and I don’t understand why it should be otherwise. In the first half of this book, the author explains why midlife is hard, and then he explains why it should not be. I do not need either of this 🙂
Yoga Life by Brett Larkin – surprisingly good and agreeable with how I perceive yoga (yes, confirmation bias :))
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I am ashamed I only read it now, not twenty years ago when it was first published. Now, it’s a Chicago classic, and it is possible I wouldn’t have enjoyed it that much twenty years ago as I can enjoy and appreciate it now!
Murder by Lamplight. I am not as much of a mystery reader now as I used to be, and this book was a pleasant surprise. I am not sure I will continue reading mysteries, and even less sure I will continue these series, but who knows!
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. OMG!!! That was something! So good! This is the book for our Book Club at work. Same as with mysteries (and probably more), I completely lost my previous interest in Sci-Fi. When this book was voted to be the next book in our Book Club, I was extremely disappointed and didn’t even sign up to receive a free copy. But then I decided to give it a try, and I couldn’t take a break from listening to it! One of the best things I read recently!
That was something incredible! A Japanese female film director, Naomi Kawase, is almost unknown in the USA despite the impressive body of work she produced and multiple international awards, and that was the first exposure to her work for most of the audience.
For me, the plot of the film was very emotionally resonating: the famous photographer gradually losing his vision, hanging to whatever vision he has left, trying to be independent. Masatoshi Nagase, who plays the main male character, displays all the typical gestures and movements of visually impaired people (the way they check their phones, work on large screens, walk around) with frightening accuracy. I can’t describe how I felt. Also, the typical reactions of others around… One person in the audience mentioned during the after-screening discussion that she worked with visually impaired people and how she was grateful for this movie… It’s amazing. The trailer does not do the movie a justice.
On Monday, I had a surprise visit with Anna and the girls. They stopped at my place on their way to John’s family summer house in MI, and I was overjoyed to hear that they were coming. I didn’t have any specific plans for that evening except for finishing several things I hadn’t finished over the weekend, but even if I did, I would rearrange them.
We had an amazing time, partially, I think, because of it being completely unplanned. When I told Boris about this surprise visit, he said that he was glad that Anna trains me in spontaneity. And that is something I want to keep enjoying.
At some point, I became too dependent on my plans and feeling unhappy when things are not going as planned. And while planning is a key to success, I always remember the day when I had my first ultrasound which revealed that I was having twins. To my gloomy: That’s a little bit unplanned, the technician replied: Sometimes unplanned economy can be very successful! She was alluding to the “socialist planned economy” v.s. “capitalist unplanned economy,” which made it especially funny. Yep, the most unplanned thing in my life was the best thing ever happened to me!
Saw it in Siskel Center today, and I didn’t like it. One thing is that I didn’t expect that much of the diversion of the historic image of Sisi. Another thing is that the whole story didn’t look convincing. And the third thing is that, once again, I thought about “people who have nothing to do with their lives and thereby focus on love affairs.” Recently, I have felt like this way too often; maybe it’s a part of getting older, or maybe it just plainly means that I am too old for any romance…
I figured out that until the season is over, I should try to incorporate the early morning swimming into my schedule at least twice a week, and Monday was a very convenient day to try. I was out of the house as planned. It was cloudy, but there shouldn’t have been any problem with that. However, Just a couple of minutes after I started walking, I heard the thunder. There was not a drop of rain, but I thought it still didn’t sound like a good idea and returned home.
I took a shower, got dressed, and thought if wearing shorts to the office was a good idea (and decided against it). At the very last moment, I decided to take an umbrella with me, just in case.
When I was in the courtyard, some drops of rain fell, and five minutes later, it started raining for real. In two more minutes, it was a legit Chicago rain, and it made absolutely no difference whether I had an umbrella or not! I didn’t take my sandals off right away, and in a minute, it made no difference either – I walked in the water to my ankle level. By the time I reached the train station, the only dry piece of clothing I had was my underwater. When I got on a train, I didn’t even think I should sit down. A passenger in front of me was making space, and I told him: I am all wet! He said it was not a problem, so I sat down, trying to maintain the distance.
I pulled my reading glasses out of a wet backpack pocket, only to realize there was not a single piece of dry clothes on me or in my backpack to clean them. And then, I heard the sounds of raindrops on the car window, and it sounded like they were made of iron (and no, it was not hail!).
When I came to the office, I realized I had made a mistake not trying to dry myself up at the train station bathroom: we do not have dryers! Fortunately, I had a change of gym clothes in my drawer, so throughout the day, I changed different pieces of my clothes to activewear pieces and hung the wet pieces on my chair to dry them up. I also put some paper inside my sandals and changed them often before finally letting them air dry.
I thought that I still had time at least to dip myself into the lake after work (although I had a number of other things to do!) But when I came to the beach, there were high waves, and the red flag was up, and the lifeguards were on duty!
I still sat there on the beach, and I even walked into the water to meet the waves by the shore, and got myself as wet as it was possible! I am proud of myself that I didn’t get upset about things not turning us as planned:)
I worked from home on Friday, and it was surprisingly good. Most times, my attempts to work from home result in frustration: I spend time prepping my meals and doing something around the house, thereby spending less time on work activities and thereby not being able to step away for a bike ride or for a beach break. Since I started working at my current company, each time I tried to work at home during Boris’ visits, I would regret it and resent not doing work and not doing non-work.
But last Friday was different, and now I want to build on this positive experience. I think that the perfect start of the day was the decisive factor: I did strength training first thing in the morning, then Boris and I went swimming, and when we were done, I ordered a takeout breakfast at Charmers. It’s a little bit over a ten-minute walk from the beach, so our order was ready just in time. We ate breakfast at home, and I started my workday right after that. It was a little bit later start time than my usual, but that was fine with everyone, and then I could work without interruptions. It was a very busy day, I had to service three internal customers simultaneously, and I was up to the challenge.
We had lunch together, and I was able to finish my workday at 4:30, so we had time to bike afterward and do a couple of other things. As I said, I hope to reproduce this success in the future.
***
The weekend was doing nothing in the best possible way – a long bike ride, more lake, and me cooking our favorite dishes. Boris hinted that in Finland, they eat salmon soup even when it’s hot outside, so I made some.
I also made tiramisu, and we ate it all 🙂
It was too hot for outdoor activities at midday (at least for Boris), so we spent a lot of time just sitting inside and talking. It was great since I constantly feel that we do not have enough time for that, and I do not want to put my life on hold until retirement!
Hettie's Reflections 