Category: everyday life

In spite of my best efforts, I didn’t miss my train

My trip to an oil boom town in North Dakota started off on a pretty nerve-wrecking note.

I feel like, at this point, “in spite of my best efforts, I managed to make my Amtrak train” has become a running joke. For every time I made it onto the station with plenty of time to spare, there are two times when I caught it pretty close, either because I didn’t leave as early as I could, or there were transit issues, or some combinations of both. But even compared to all that, catching the Empire Builder today felt like miracle.

My plan was to do what I usually do when taking the Hiawatha train to visit my sister. Since I usually head down to Milwaukee on Friday, I take Red Line/Yellow Line/Pace Route 210 combination to the Glenview Amtrak station. It just feels silly to go down to Chicago Union Station only to go back up again on Amtrak when you live in Rogers Park. That’s not an option on the weekend, since none of the Pace bus routes serving Glenview run on weekends, so I just take the train down to Union Station and take Brown/Red line train combination up to Rogers Park.

Continue reading “In spite of my best efforts, I didn’t miss my train” →

How My Days Look Like

The things that I need to decide/figure out with the conference keep piling up on top of the work things, which are piling up on their own.

For the past two weeks, I get up at 4-30 and go to bed at 11-30 every day (plus/minus 15 minutes). I am genuinely happy that I am still able to produce something meaningful at work – I figured out a couple of non-trivial things in the course of the past two weeks, which makes me feel good in terms that I am not completely neglecting my work 🙂

I am going out way less than I usually do, but I still go out sometimes, and I am trying not to abandon my volunteering. Once again, it’s not easy, but I am doing my best.

One more time: meals at work are huge time savers. Since I also do not need to do dishes or brew my coffee, it’s at least 1.5 hours a day, and I know how to use them for more important things 🙂 I even stopped baking at home (the last time I baked something was for Easter), and I am planning to hold off baking until after the conference (help me God!)

No time to get into details, it’s just that life is very intense!

Spring Prairie In The City

On a more cheerful topic, on Saturday, after our visit to the Art Institute, we went to Millennium Park and took a detour to the Lurie Garden. I never checked it out in spring, and it turned out that the spring prairie was it full bloom! I was running from one flower patch to another and couldn’t get enough of it. I have nothing else to say, just pictures:)

My Russian Passport

Another Russia-related Kafkian story. I knew my Russian passport was to expire in 2024, but in January, June seemed far away, and then life happened. Three or four weeks ago (not like life stopped happening, but I suddenly remembered that I was about to create a huge problem) I realized that I needed to apply for a new passport immediately: if I did not have a new passport before the old one expires, I would have to go through the “citizenship verification process.” That could take several months, and only then could I apply for a passport.

I went to the Russian Consulate in New York website and filled in the application. Then I needed to make an in-person appointment (they are not accepting applications by mail.) I started to look for an available slot, and it turned out that the first available was in mid-August. I took it, but I knew this was two months after my passport expiration, so I also signed up for a queue to receive the offers for the spots that could be released and offered to people in the queue.

Now, check out what were the conditions to stay in this queue:

  • Each time they send you a slot, you have to accept or reject it within 24 hours, otherwise they kick you out of the queue
  • On the other hand, if you login to the portal more than twice a day, they disable your access because “you might be a bot” and require you to reset your password, and you have to wait for an hour before you will be allowed to reset it
  • After you reject, the next offer comes almost instantaneously, and if you reject it, you are out of the queue
  • And all of the appointments that were offered to me were after my August appointment!

Although I tried very hard, it was impossible for me to keep monitoring all of these conditions while doing my day job and the conference, so eventually, I was kicked out. Not knowing what to do, I emailed the Consulate, asking them what I could do and what would happen if I did not get an appointment before my passport expired.

To my surprise, they replied in a couple of hours with the following: Right now, there are several openings on the following days (days listed). Do not get into a queue; go to the portal and reserve your spot. I did as they said and booked an appointment for May 2. I hope that it will go well, although there is a whole bunch of things I need to prepare, including cash for the services (they are not allowed to use banking systems at the moment) and a stamped return envelope. But at least I have an appointment!

P.S. If anybody wonders why on Earth I need a Russian passport, here is why. 1) Even if I choose to denounce my Russian citizenship, I have to have a current passport; otherwise, I can’t legally do this. 2) I do not want to pay the Russian government the fees that I have to pay for citizenship 3) If I don’t have a passport and don’t properly denounce the citizenship, I can’t get a visa to Russia either.

To be continued.

Mom’s Money

Mom’s bank blocked her again. It took us a lot of time and effort to unblock her account last time. Everything worked for a while, and I checked her balance occasionally. Then, one day (I wanted to change the card used to reload her Russian phone because the card used before had no money left), the bank blocked us.
I remembered what we did last time, so I came to her and had her call the bank using her Russian phone (I asked Boris to add money there). She called, and the operator asked her to verify her name, date of birth, passport number, and where and when it was issued. She gave them all the information. Then, the operator asked her what her secret word was, and she could not remember (of course!). Then the operator said that since she couldn’t remember, she couldn’t unlock her account, so she would text a link to reset the secret.
I can never understand what the point was because my mom had called from the correct number, and she had already verified the information, so what difference would it make to receive a text to the same number? But needless to say, the text never arrived. The account is still blocked, and I have no idea what to do next.
I imagine that they probably can’t believe that my mom is still alive at 89, but this does not mean they have to block her account every two months. I hate to spend time on this, especially when there is no resolution.

Hello Lake, Hello, Sunrises!

It looks like I am rolling into a season of morning biking. I hope that there will be no more freezing temperatures in the morning and I will be able to bike before work most days.

Full disclosure – these pictures and videos were taken on Sunday, a little bit later than I bike before work. I am not catching sunrises yet when I bike before 6 AM. Almost there, though.

When I was almost done, a lady started to walk towards me. She apologized for getting into my frame, but I told her that I was already done and that it was just her silhouette, which was very cinematic.

Saturday In Chicago

Anna and her Family visited me this weekend. They arrived on Friday night. On Saturday morning, we had a little kids’ concert, then we went to the Art Institute and Millennium Park and had dinner at my house.

I think it was one of the best Chicago weekends we had so far. This time, Kira actually sat and listened to the concert and was engaged all the time. Also, it was almost the first time when she wanted to see the exhibits before rushing to Ryan’s center. The projects that they had at Ryan’s center this time were probably the best we ever made: creating your own miniature rooms.

Anna said right away that she wanted to make her own project, too, not just helping the girls, so I ended up helping everyone:). It was a very fun project, indeed. Anna told Nadia that adults rarely do crafts, and Nadia asked why. We had to admit that there are no good reasons not to do them (and, in fact, some adults do quite a bit!).

Here is the music room Anna crafted (with a little bit of my help :))

Some other people’s crafts:

A Timely Message

That was the right message at the right time (office lunch last Wednesday)

*** (the last one)

I said this twice on Friday: I never do what I “have to,” I always do what I want to do. The first time I said it was when Anna was planning to take the train to Chicago, and I realized I would need to go home first and then back to the Loop. A couple hours later, I repeated the same thing to my mom when she said that I was very busy and that I should skip some things, including coming to see her so often. That one was funny because when it happens that I do not stop by her for three days in a row, she says that she hasn’t seen me for such a long time! I told her the same thing: when I can’t, I don’t, but if I stop by, it means I can and I want.

Interestingly, that’s true. I keep repeating it, and I am surprised myself to realize how true it is. And just to prove my point, when on Friday I felt that I was really tired and could not work productively, I packed and left at 3 PM:)

When Nothing Happens

I can’t write about work most of the time, and, in general, most of my professional dramas do not make it to this blog. Yesterday I thought that I had a couple of extremely emotionally loaded days, but “there is nothing to write about.” I still want to find a way to share my emotional experiences, but for now, I can’t think of anything better than this picture of a fortune cookie that I got yesterday as a part of my lunch in the office (we had an external vendor):