Category: everyday life

Making Christmas Happen

The two “major distractions” of this holiday season (Anna’s surgery and my conference) forced me to do even more planning than usual. I honestly hope that’s the first and the last Chrismas season of that sort in my life.

Here is how I am dealing with this challenge so far.

  1. I had three kids from the Secret Santa for Chicago Public Schools. That’s the project I was involved with since almost since it’s very beginning. I went through multiple organizational changes with it, but by now, I learned to watch for the letters early and not to struggle with the choice of presents; I learned to read between the lines of the letters :). The only challenge this year was that the presents drop-off period was the after-Thanksgiving week, when I had no time in my schedule for that. I am happy that I figured out a time interval on Monday when I could take Uber both ways, with all the roads being empty and the ride prices low. And I am happy with my choice of presents
  2. Since I moved to Rogers Park, I lost the “Adopt a Family” program which was run by the Palatine Township, and I could not find anything similar around me. This year, I found out that the Night Ministry is doing a similar project for families and single individuals in the transition living program, and I even managed to find people who are running this project. The rules (and the amount of information I receive about the family) are very different from what I used to have, but I was able to pick up something for everyone, so I hope it will all work well. My next challenge is to find the time to drop off the presents because I will have just a few days between my return to Chicago and my departure to Prague, and after I come back there are again just a few days left before the presents are due. I am sure I will be able to find the time for a drop off, and I feel very good about this program – it’s like the missing piece is finally found.
  3. I also have very little time for Christmas cards, and for the past three days, I used all the time I was not “on duty” to draft Christmas messages to my friends. That is the process you can’t speed up because each season greeting is special and meant to be for that one person you are sending it, especially for people who live far away. I am done with all but two drafts of the cards that I need to send before leaving for Prague.
  4. Cookies are scheduled with military precision, and the new tins are ordered – not in the cheapest possible way, but just to be sure we have them on time! (I might run out later to get more if I find a non-existing time).
  5. I do not usually decorate the house right after Thanksgiving, but this season, I had no other options, so I compromised :). By the time I left for Milwaukee, everything except for the tree was up.
  6. My Christmas tree delivery is also scheduled, and I will have to be very efficient in order to decorate it before I leave, but it should also work out.

And why I am doing all this decorating right before I leave for a week? That’s because I want to return to the beautifully decorated Christmas house. I am always decoration for myself, not for the visitors, and that’s one of the things about Christmas I like the most:)

The TIME Magazine Must-Read Books 2023

This list was published a couple of weeks ago (see here), and out of these one hundred books, I read only two and heard about four more, which sounds like a miserable outcome. I am not sure there are that many people who would be able to read a hundred books in a year, and they do not have to be from the must-read list, but still. I feel like in the previous years, more titles sounded familiar.

I would be curious to know how many books from this list other people read.

Apple Watch Upgrade

This upgrade was pushed last week, and it was massive! Most times, you do not notice any difference, but this one was drastic!

All the buttons changed their functionality, and I didn’t know what to press to get to the screens I needed (for example, I didn’t know how to play sound on my phone when I was trying to locate it or how to start an activity. There are a couple of nice enhancements; for example, the workouts are passed back to the phone in real-time. Still, the inability to find things fast is a major problem – I will get used to in eventually, but it was not something I planned for the past week!

The Best Advent Calendar

The girls opened the first windows of their Advent calendars. As for me, I opened mine last week, when Boris was still here, because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to open it half of the time, and also, I wanted to share at least some of it with him.

My Advent calendar this year was a gift from my friend in Sweden. the one I already showed, and now I can tell that everything tastes even better than in looks!

In Milwaukee

Today, I am a more human being than I was yesterday and probably for the past several weeks. Yesterday, although I “didn’t do anything,” I was a complete zombie by 9 PM, and today I could function and even do some work, talk to my co-workers, and catch up on some of my personal things. Also, we finally started to make plans for “after.” Many of these plans depend on whether any of my conference submissions will be accepted and which of them. Also, although I am going to be away from work for more than two weeks in December, I still feel that I need some vacation after that :).

Now, being not as sleepy as I was yesterday, I want to repeat that I was very impressed by the level of technology, and with the detailed information we were given. Also, I am looking and the machines Anna is using at home, and I find it incredible that nowadays, they have all kinds of machines you can use at home, and you do not even need to be in the doctor’s office for that.

There is a machine that ices the leg, then another machine that massages the calves, making sure there are no blood clots, and yet another machine to straighten the leg that was operated.

Still, there are a lot of things, big and small, which I can help with, and I am glad I could come.

The Surgery And Technology Advancements

Anna had her knee surgery today, and everything went great, “to the best possible scenario,” but the recovery will still be long.
I was very tired because the whole day was going back and forth, waiting, and there were a lot of uncertainties. What impressed me, however, were all the recent advancements in technology.
From the very start, Anna gave the hospital staff the phone numbers of people whom she wanted to keep in the loop, and they were sending text messages about the progress of the operation and also notified us when we should be ready for the surgeon to talk with us after the operation, and when we could go in to see Anna.
The surgeon walked us through all the stages of the surgery, showing pictures and explaining what was done (perhaps more details than I needed!)
Anna has multiple devices attached to her leg (some of them are for both legs), all preventing different complications. All together, it looks like a kiborg! The buttons flash, and the sounds are heard.
I will stay here for four more days, and I hope that the recovery will be smooth.

Long Weekend

This Thanksgiving was not ideal, to put it mildly, so I am not going to talk about it. I am just hoping that next year, it will be better.

However, despite that fact, the long weekend was pretty productive. Boris came on Wednesday afternoon, and I told him right away that I would need lots of help around the house in general and to help me get ready for a very busy December in particular. He was indeed exceptionally helpful, and I felt supported in all possible ways.

Friday was our day in the Loop. We went to the Art Institute because there were three exhibits I wanted to see, and having how my schedule looks for the next month, I won’t have that many options. In fact, the Remedios Varo exhibit closes tomorrow, and I kept “not having time” for it. The Picasso drawings exhibit just opened, the same as Canova’s “Sketches in Clay.”

Overall, we didn’t like either of the exhibits that much:). Picasso’s exhibit is hype, but I was never very fond of him anyway, and this particular exhibit is all about his “dark side” and the Minotaurus, and I looked at all these drawings in horror.

Continue reading “Long Weekend” →

The First Skating Of The Season

I tried to go on Monday and then on Tuesday, and both times, I didn’t have 1.5 hours straight when I didn’t have any meetings, but I finally went on Wednesday. As usual, I came just in time after resurfacing – just twenty minutes later, the ice was already messy. As it always happens at the beginning of the season, there are way too many people skating, and most of them were doing it for (almost) the first time. I know it will be much better starting from the second week of January, but it’s so much fun when everything around is decorated and the holiday music plays over a skating ring! Besides, I will hardly have any options until almost Christmas!

Other Christmas Things

Everything opened as it should, on the schedule, and I decided that if I wanted to do at least some of the Christmas things, the only time I could do them was last Saturday. I am still not sure whether it was a good idea because I also decided to take Mom with me (and we met with Igor in the Loop), and the crowds were ginormous! Also, the Magnificient Mile Light Festival was happening at the same time. I wisely decided not to go there, but even without it, there were lines everywhere, crowds so massive that it was difficult to walk, and we ended up spending more time in the lines than otherwise.

Continue reading “Other Christmas Things” →

Biking In Winter

It’s not winter yet, but for me, starting from the lower 40s, biking is challenging because my hands are getting unbearably cold. Same with my feet – that’s why I do not escort from November to March. Some time ago, I mentioned that to my one-level-up manager, and he suggested I try BarMitts – he said that that’s how he solved a similar problem.

I decided to give it a try, and it worked! I am not sure this would work when the temperature would drop to the 20s, and I still need gloves, but now i can bike when the temperature is in the 30s!