I read more books than that, but unfortunately, a large percentage of the ones I read didn’t give me anything, and I regretted spending time on them. The most disappointing part was that I didn’t like any of the books from our book club at work. However, I am happy to report that I learned to drop the books I didn’t like without any guilt. Here are the last several books I read at the end of the year:
The Tipping Point. The full title of this book is The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Published 25 years ago, it’s considered a classic, and I think it’s a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how ideas are spread in society, and what can be done to promote progressive ideas or desired behavior. I didn’t read this book before, but I saw an advertisement about the next book, Revenge of the Tipping Point, and figured I needed to read the original one first.
Revenge is even more interesting; it explores social engineering, its faults, and offers a new perspective on the COVID pandemic and opioid crisis, among many other topics.
What we can know – A dystopia, the most interesting part of which is, in my opinion, how much the digital trace of our lives will reveal about the true us to our distant descendants.
Careless People – an explosive book, which I am glad I read. I am not disagreeing with those who say that the book is extremely subjective, and I can see the point of those who say that the author was not as naive as she presents herself, but still, I believe it. And somehow, it does not surprise me.
Spending the first day of the year sitting at home and crossing off overdue tasks from my list was not the most exciting thing, though it did bring some satisfaction. But I had lots of hopes for January 2. It was the first workday of the year, and the weather was supposed to be great (and it was). I went to the office not because I had to, but because I had ambitious plans.
My plan was to go skating after lunch, then, after work, to go to the Chicago Architectural Center to finally see two already-not-so-new exhibits, and then go to the Siskel Center to see Mistress Disspeller. All of the above activities belonged to the category “I want to do this, but I chronically have no time for it.”
Skating became problematic since last season, when Millennium Park cut the skating season short. Instead of having the skating rink operating until mid-March, they close it on February 9, and this year, the last day will be February 1. Since I will be out of the country from January 16 to 29th, I have only two weeks left! And you can’t go skating when it’s raining or when it’s really cold, which limits the options even further. All of the above was a long explanation of why I headed to the skating rink on Friday. I knew it could be a mistake, because it would still be a winter break day, which would mean a big crowd, but the reality surpassed my wildest expectations.
When I arrived four minutes before the start of the session, expecting to show my pass on my phone and put on the skates, I saw a line circling half the rink, and I was told it was for those who had already purchased tickets online! I wanted to turn around and go back to the office, but the sun was shining, the weather was perfect, and I had already paid for a session, so I decided to stay. It took me ten minutes to check in, and when I finally put the skates on, there was barely any space left on the rink. I think there were actually these hypothetical one hundred people there! And at least a third of them couldn’t or almost couldn’t skate.
I made an effort :). I navigated around the people who were moving rather erratically, but after twenty minutes, I gave up.
While this portion of my plan could be considered at least a partial success, the other two failed completely.
I checked the CAC schedule on their website the day before, and the schedule said they are open until 7 PM both Friday and Saturday. I thought that finally, I would go there not to purchase a gift, but to see exhibits. When I arrived at five minutes to five, I saw several people standing puzzled by the CAC door, and when I came closed, I saw a sign, which said that there are “winter hours” in effect, and the Center will be only open until 4 PM on the days it will be open (and it will be closed Tue-Wed, but that was not important at the moment). I felt crushed and decided that I could comfort myself by having dinner at Lea’s Cafe instead of eating a vegan sandwich from work, which was in my backpack.
Lea’s Cafe didn’t fail me :). It was a perfect comfort food, and I even took half a baguette home, because it was a lot.
But after that, there was a huge disappointment at the Siskel Center. I read about this documentary, and it looked interesting, so I was looking forward to seeing it, but it was nothing like what I thought. I honestly could not figure out what the idea behind it was, and how people could act the way they did. It is possible that, at least in part, it was a language and cultural problem combined. The documentary was in Mandarin with English subtitles, and the melody of the language is very different from any other languages I know or know how they sound. I was reading the subtitles, and could not map the words to the emotions projected on the screen. It felt rushed; maybe Mandarin words are too short for translation, I don’t know. Or maybe, it was something wrong with me. At some point, I thought of leaving, but then decided to stay to the end and see whether something would change my mind.
I hope that this day of disappointment won’t represent the rest of 2026, and that my delights won’t be solely culinary!
On December 31, I was working. Even though I worked from home, it was a pretty intense workday. I was hoping to start early and finish early, and make a nice meal to bring to my mom to celebrate the New Year with her, but “early” didn’t happen.
Most times, Igor is around for this early celebration, and then he brings my mom to my place, but since he went to celebrate with Anna’s family (which is definitely more fun), I figured I can’t/don’t want to make a trip to my mom’s house twice, and decided to make it simple and bring all the food to her place.
I prepared myself to sit and nod to everything she would say, which is the only way to keep things calm these days, and that’s exactly how it went. The events and facts she does and does not remember anymore are pretty random. Somehow, many people believe that when older people forget things, they forget the most recent events and remember their past really well. I don’t know what to tell you about others, but that’s definitely not the case with my mom. If there is anything she remembers, it’s repetitive things that she does every day. As for the past, even when she thinks she remembers some events, in reality, she does not remember them clearly, and I can see a difference between how she described them ten years ago and now.
It’s really sad to see, and I can imagine who scared she should be feeling that the world around her is becoming an unknown and dangerous place.
I didn’t plan to go to the Chicago River for the fireworks; not because Igor was not here; I am perfectly fine to go anywhere on my own. It was relatively cold, and also, I had too many things I needed to do before next Monday. On my way back from Armenia, I was making plans for the upcoming week (till January 5), and I was debating with myself whether I should do some fun activities, like going to the Navy Pier, or whether I should focus on catching up with life. By the end of the day December 31, the answer was clear!
I went to bed before midnight, and missed all the Happy New Year texts 🙂
On January first, it was even colder that on December 31, and also cloudy, which made it a perfect weather to be inside and focus on different aspects of community work. Also, I went to my mom one more time, to change her bedding and take her laundry to wash, and since I also took her shower curtain to wash, I returned one more time to put it back :).
The highlights of the day were several conversations with people with whom i do not talk often, and finally catching up on emails with friends, so I guess, the day was not entirely hopeless, and also, I finished some of my ong-overdue-tasks. Still, I hope that January 1 didn’t define the rest of 2026 :).
Everyone knows I love the Find My app! In fact, I do not know how I would survive without it! Recently, I’ve added several more AirTags, and I feel quite protected.
When I was in Armenia, I told my hosts about this app and demonstrated how I have everything displayed there and how I can check the status of the items I left at home. When it was time for me to leave for the airport, they asked me whether I had checked my room for forgotten stuff. I told them I did, and that everything except for my phone and passport is not important.
I got into a cab, and about ten minutes after the ride started, I saw a message from the Find My app: the AirPods left behind! Yep, a white case on a white windowsill…I reached the driver: How far along are we?
It was great that, because of the severe weather conditions, my host insisted I leave an hour earlier than needed! I messaged them, they found the AirPods case and brought it down.
So, Trump said officially that he is going to “leave Chicago” (and the other three Democratic cities) “for now,” although he is threatening to “come back if…”
I want to put it in writing in my journal today, when we have no way to know how it will play out later. That being said, I might be wrong, but today I want to say: we resist and we can achieve something. Long live Federalism! 😀
So that I won’t leave a trail of stories-not-told, a quick recap of Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday morning, we went for breakfast to the Common Cup “to compare the breakfast sandwiches,” and the vote was that “both were good, but different.”
A coffee-cup decorated tree in the Common Cup
Shortly after, we left for Christkindl Market, planning to get there by its opening. The plan didn’t exactly work, since we had a couple of photo stops on the way (and a couple of fights), so we actually arrived at 11:20.
There was no wait, but the market was pretty crowded; besides, all three of us wanted food from three separate lines 😂, and it was really difficult to navigate. We got everything everyone wanted, and then we stood in a really long line for the best hot chocolate (Belgian, with a chocolate wrench on top).
Then, we went to the Sweet Castle store. As usual, there was a line to enter, but the girls were willing to stay in it. I told them they could get two small or one big thing each, and they ended up with gummy bears and hard candy (I hinted that there might be a lot of chocolate in the presents). By the time we got out of the Sweet Castle, the crowd had subsided a little bit. There were still a lot of people, but as Nadis put it, fewer intimidating, so we happily continued our journey exploring the market, and stayed in another line to get into the Christmas Ornaments store.
Next stop was a manicure appointment. We started walking toward the DePaul campus (where the nail salon is located), but there was a bookstore on our way, and we couldn’t pass it without going in and starting to read off the shelves :).
… and then since we were by Harold Washington Library, one can guess what happened next :).
On Tuesday morning, we were waiting for Anna and John to come and have a pre-Christmas celebration together. They ordered the food from Honeybear cafe, and picked it up on the way. Once again, Igor escorted my mom to my place, and we had brunch, and exchanged presents.
Igor and my mom left, the girls packed, and all five of us went to the Merry Merry Chicago Concert. For Nadia, it was for either the third or fourth time, and she was looking forward to it. Kira was restless, and at the end, she said it was boring, and she didn’t like it. I think it was indeed too long of a concert for her, because before that, she only attended half-hour children’s concerts.
I went how and started to get my life in order. Actually, this time, the girls did a very decent job of keeping things in order, so it was not like I had a lot to clean up. However, I also had to pack for a short trip, catch up with work and other responsibilities, visit my mom, and finally talk to Boris for longer than ten minutes at a time. This took pretty much all the time starting with after the concert till 6 PM on the Christmas Eve, when I left the house with my luggage.
Sunday was our Art Institute Christmas Day: as anyone should, we went to see Napolitan Creche and Miniature Rooms, and then headed to the Ryan Center to do the projects.
The theme of the projects was a newly opened Bruce Goff exhibit. We missed it on our way to the Ryan Center, but went to see it after lunch, and then returned to the Ryan Center one more time to make more art.
We all liked the Bruce Goff exhibit. I previously mentioned that I was disappointed with the Symbolism exhibit, and Nadia said she didn’t like it either. She said that the Bruce Goff “Material world” was also “Strange realities,” but the funny ones. I agree.
We finally left the Art Institute close to 3 PM, returned home, and then spent the evening decorating cookies. Last Christmas, Nadia did a great job with cookies, and I told her I could use your help, but this year, it was on a whole new level, and Kira helped as well. They decorated all of the remaining cookies and said they could do more 🙂
I was super impressed with this rocking horse – that’s one of the most difficult shapes to decorate.
Now, I am definitely employing their skills next year!
Igor picked up my mom, and they both came to have dinner with us, to socialize with the girls, and watch them decorating cookies.
My mom was really impressed with the work the girls did “on their own will,” and said that she understood how much work I had to do with the girls staying with me, and that she “sympathized with me.” When I told her that I do not see anything to be “sympathized” about and that I only do the things I enjoy doing, she got very upset and went on one of her regular rants about “my generation not being able to understand hers”, but I honestly have no idea how this all got connected in her mind!
I love making breakfast, and most people who stay with me love my quiche and breakfast casserole. But when it comes to Nadia and Kira, the only two parts of breakfast they love unconditionally are fruits and chocolate. For the longest time, Nadia loved my savory toasts (grenki), but the problem of Kira not eating anything except for fruits reamined. She would get hungry an hour after breakfast, just when we would be on the way to activities.
Last couple of times when the girls stayed with me, we went to Common Cup for breakfast (we also went to Charmers, but they didn’t like anything there except for the swings :). I thought that since they bioh love breakfast sandwiches, we should try to make them at home. I used to have a breakfast sandwich maker, but I didn’t take it from Palatine to Rogers Park in an attempt to reduce the clutter.
I browsed several models online, and the most simple (and cheap) one seemed to work the best.
The girst decided to make sandwiched just with eggs, with no extra ingedients. That was an easy recipe: beat an egg in the sandwich maker, microwave for one minute:
Warm up a brioche bun for 30 sec
Assemble and enojoy!
First time they tried it, both of them ate two sandwiches for breakfast, and one more for dinner (in addition to actual dinner:)). On the third day, they decided to go to the Common Cup “to compare,” and later made one more at home 🙂
Hettie's Reflections 