Category: everyday life

Working Style

I have a new colleague who was transferred to Chicago from our Montreal office. She is on a different team, but I helped her with some projects in the past, and she was ecstatic to see me in the cafeteria on her second day on the job.

Since this first day, she has asked me all things about Chicago, including where to move from her temporary housing, what to see, where to be, and so on. I told her she could come to our beach sometime, and since the forecast for the weekend was hopelessly cold and rainy, I suggested she follow me after work on Thursday. She did, and she loved Loyola Beach (she said it’s her favorite in Chicago so far, which I agree with (and she is also surprised that beaches are free).

She shares many observations with me about our office and how people work there. One thing she mentioned was about people being “too focused on work”, eating lunch at their desks, and in general being “heads down.” She mentioned that at the Montreal office, she would catch up with everyone first thing in the morning before diving into work.

I told her that I do not think it’s normal, and I do not approve of this eating lunch at your desk thing. Later, I thought it wasn’t normal in the US either, and I remember chatting with co-workers at all my jobs, except during my short tenure in trading, and that even in consulting we didn’t count eight hours as “eight hours head down.” And to be honest, I do not think it’s humanly possible to produce a quality outcome with more than seven hours “netto” working time, except in some extreme circumstances. What is true is that, as I mentioned multiple times, the work is very intense, more than anywhere I worked before, and eight hours of work drains me entirely.

I told my new colleague that she can always check with me and come down to my floor for lunch if everyone else eats at their desks 🙂

Mom

On Wednesday, my mom had an appointment at the hearing aid lab. She started to complain that she was hearing worse a couple of weeks ago. Since I suspected that the problem was most likely with the hearing aid, not with her hearing, I started by calling the lab and asking them whether it made sense to see them first before sending her to the audiologist one more time. They agreed that the problem was most likely with the hearing aid, so I scheduled an appointment at the time when her caretaker usually comes. She started to insist that I need to go with her, but I told her I would go if/when we need to go to the doctor. The next day, she told me that the appointment is too early, and she won’t be able to get up and leave the house at that time, or she will faint on the way. I replied that that was her regular time of leaving the house, and that if it were later, she would miss her lunch and faint from hunger. I also scheduled an Uber so that they could leave the house thirty minutes later.

It was indeed a dirty filter, and it is probably on me that I never learned how to change them and left this knowledge with Igor, who used to go to these appointments with her. Now, I googled it! And I ordered replacement filters. I might have thrown the old ones away last time.

The next day, my mom emailed me at 3 PM that she was devastated because she lost one of her hearing aids when she took the garbage out, and he already traced her steps, and the device is nowhere, and all other horrors. I told her to check her clothes or wherever it might fall. In 30 minutes, she emailed me that she swept the floor, didn’t find anything, but then she saw the hearing aid on her bed 🤷🏻‍♀️. Do not ask. Another thing I can’t understand is that, after she had already found it, she said she was so nervous she couldn’t eat or do anything. And this disaster continued into today, because when I came, she yelled at me, saying I didn’t understand how stressful the event was. Once again – 🤷🏻‍♀️

Life Moments

I felt very bad about never attending Customer Appreciation events at my wealth management company, so when they announced an event at the venue within a ten-minute walk from my office, I felt compelled to RSVP yes.

Except for a couple of amazing shots of Chicago at sunset, it was 100% wasted time, even though I spoke with my portfolio manager and some people in his network.

***

Thursday escort was a complete crisis again. I was a team lead for the early morning shift, and there were just three of us (and one texted that she was running late). That’s already a challenge when there are six antis out, because the moment the second car with a patient stops, you do not have enough bodies to protect patients.

Having nurses being dropped off with the accompaniment of “stop murdering babies,” and wondering why they have to cross the front line every morning…

And then getting a message in the middle of the workday about a new nasty group of antis. And domestic violence. And “horrible people.” And guns. And cops. And “if you can come, come”. Putting the vest back on in the elevator. Running down, and running two blocks south. Cops. Crying woman. Leaving forty minutes later since it looked like they all left, only to receive a message five minutes later that they were still around…

***

My new coworker, whom I texted yesterday with a suggestion to go to the beach after work, responded while I was in the middle of the aforementioned crisis, so I didn’t even see her messages among the others. She accepted my crazy idea, even though she was working from home, and we decided on the meeting time. She came to Jarvis; we stopped at my house so that I could change, and we could grab the beach chairs, and then we walked to Loyola Beach.

She loved it! She said that was the best beach in Chicago she had visited so far! She loved how calm things are here (and you know I love it as well!). We spent an hour and a half at the beach; I never stay at the beach that long on workdays. And then I walked her to the bus stop and made sure she got on, and she said that when her family will be visiting, she will bring them that beach, for sure!

“Not A Tornado” Pictures

Officially, we didn’t have a tornado in our neighborhood (there was a tornado that touched down more to the south), but while I was in the office on Monday, I could feel the building slightly swinging. And many trees in Rogers Park were uprooted. My neighbor walked around and took several pictures.

This one is mine – just by our house.

There were two storms on Monday, one around 1 PM and another around 5 PM, and both times, it became pitch black, as if the night had suddenly fallen. My mom got very scared, and when I came to see her later on Monday, she kept asking what it was. But honestly, it was scary for anyone who had seen it!

Lena In Chicago

A summer weekend when Lena comes to Chicago is always special. We have some favorite activities that we do each time, and we always try something new. Here is a short summary of all our activities.

Lena arrived on Friday evening. It was not super late, and we tentatively planned to go to Jarvis Beach and even went there, but the wind was cold, and we didn’t feel like getting into the water (and even more so – getting out), so we just sat there and talked, and then went home.

On Saturday, I went for an early bike ride by myself, and Lena just walked to the lake.

Continue reading “Lena In Chicago” →

Grant Park Music Festival: A Space Odyssey

Yesterday’s concert was another of my favorites: Grant Park Orchestra accompanied Troupe Vertigo. As I have already said multiple times, I shamelessly love circus, even the aspects which are usually considered vulgar, but Vertigo performances are always beautiful, elegant, and breathtaking! This season’s concert theme was Space:

Now that you have an idea about the music, I will just post the photos of the artists. I didn’t take a lot of photos because I didn’t want to take my gaze off the stage, but I think you can still get an impression of how amazing it was!

Continue reading “Grant Park Music Festival: A Space Odyssey” →

Stormy Lake

On Saturday, after Anna’s family left, I went to the beach: the air quality was decent, and as we found out, this season, it’s not quaranteed, so even a warm summy day might be not a beach day.

Saturday definitely was, and also, it was the first day this season that I could jump in the waves 🙂

Biking With Anna And Other Saturday Activities

Anna sacrificed two extra hours of sleep to go on a Saturday morning bike ride with me. The air quality was significantly better than on Thursday and Friday, although the horizon was covered with clouds, so we couldn’t see a sunrise over the lake. Still, it was a beautiful sunrise.

Anna took a picture of me biking

When we came back, we tried to wake the rest of the family up, which took significantly longer than we expected, so we had to adjust the plans for the rest of the day. Still, the girls wanted to go to the Field Museum even if for a short time, so we did.

Now we are trying to figure out whether they will be able to come one more time before the end of summer.

Prairie Postgres Meetup

Prairie Postgres July Meetup: Proudly Sourced at Midwest!

Drama Camp

For the whole week of Drama Camp in the Lifeline Theater, the campers were creating a Time Voyage play. They came up with the script and all the dialogues, they built the set, made the props and costumes, and they rehearsed and finally presented the play to families and friends. Their teachers did an extraordinary job of guiding them through the process, supporting their creativity and making sure the show holds together 🙂

The Time Machine was made of a refrigerator box 🙂

Nadia rated this camp 10.99 out of 10 😀, and adults were definitely less stressed than last year. Kira said that she still liked the Field Museum camp better, but we think that’s just because she likes the Field Museum so much. Anyway, we have several options for next summer, and we’ll see what happens!

Oh, and I asked my mom’s caregiver to walk her to the theater for the play. She said that she was happy to see the girls, although she didn’t understand anything, and that even though she was tired, she was glad she went.