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!
Why have I never done it before?! Why did nobody tell me about paradise right here?! How many mornings were wasted!
Boris went to the beach early in the morning on Monday when I went to work, and he said going there “before breakfast” was great. I suggested we do the same on Friday (I decided to work from home on Friday), and that was amazingly good. Today, we did it again, and it was even better. It changes how your day goes! Walking into Lake Michigan toward the rising sun, feeling the first touches of the daylight on your face, immersing into the warm water (almost warmer than the air!) – priceless… I will try to do it as many times as possible as long as the weather stays like that…
(and in case you are wondering – I biked before that!)
August is officially a Ukraine Month in Chicago, and I only learned about it on August 1, and only because I went to the Daley Plaza Marked and saw the ceremony of the official proclamation of Ukraine Month:
Igor said he learned about this even at the last minute, but I didn’t know anything at all. It was very heart-warming to hear the words of solidarity and support for Ukraine, especially now when people’s attention is mostly focused on elections, and the war seems far away and irrelevant to way too many people…
It’s a very hot week! Boris tried to choose a week with less chance of a heat wave when we planned his coming, but it ended up being a week with several extremely hot and humid days.
I had three good-seat tickets for a “Broadway Rocks!” concert at Millennium Park, and Boris and I agreed we could go (the tickets were originally for my French friend and her daughter, who were going to visit me but had to cancel). Retrospectively, I should have returned these tickets and gone to the indoor Bruckner concert on Friday, but it was hard to tell in advance: even when you know the weather forecast, it’s hard to say how it will feel.
It was definitely too hot, and also the music was not what I was hoping for (and not Boris’ thing) so it was almost a disaster. My neighbor to whom I gave the third ticket said she enjoyed it, but maybe she was just polite. I felt like I ruined the evening for all of us, but I finally agreed with Boris that it was impossible to tell in advance.
For this visit, I tried to minimize the outings and just come home after work – partially because of the weather and partially because I felt like we were not doing it enough – just two of us being together, not on a mission.
On the other hand, we had one unexpectedly positive experience: going swimming in the evening. I never went to Fargo Beach to swim before (technically speaking, it is not allowed 🤷🏻♀️), but it is a three-minute walk from our building, and – well, it’s the same lake, and it’s getting deep pretty fast.
We (Boris, Anna, and I) have been talking about getting a tandem bike for Boris and I for a while. According to Anna, the major challenge with all regular tandems would be that they all are built with the presumption that the bigger person is sitting in the front seat.
We knew that if we were going to get a tandem, there war going to be a custom build, but we still wanted to try on some “regular” tandem, just to have an idea. One of Anna’s friends owns a tandem, and she arranged us to try it out.
It ended up being a total disaster. I was scared to death because I didn’t feel I could maintain the balance with a bigger weight behind me. Apparently it is different from when I have a shopping bag in the rear!
I tried several times, and I was unable to go for more than five feet. Anna said, she would try to be i n the front instead of me, and she managed to make a circle that way
Still, with this particular one, Boris could not pedal, because his knees were touching the handle bars.
I still want to try and to come up with some solution which would work for us, but looks like it has to be a totally crazy design.
During my mom’s last doctor’s visit (we switched to the new primary care doctor) I mentioned that she refuses to use her cane when walking, and as a result, she falls often. The doctor suggested trying Nordic sticks instead: “Canes are for old people,” he said, winking, – “for those who can’t walk. and we are going to exercise, like active people.” I purchased the sticks, and on Saturday, we had a “test drive”.
I was surprised with how fast my mom got it. I noticed that she is not operating with her left hand the same way as with her right (and I asked her whether she keeps doing her hand exercises and reminded her to keep doing them. Also, I will need to check on whether she is using the sticks on her morning walks. But still, I was ready for her “I can’t do it,” but she did.
Hettie's Reflections 