This season, more than ever, all I want is some additional time in my life, and nobody can give me it! There was a marathon of writing cards, packing and shipping, and finding the last missing gifts, and I didn’t go to bed earlier than midnight (and one day, it was 1 AM again!). So many things went wrong this season, that I can only hope it will never happen again.
To answer the question I was already asked: Hettie, why won’t you skip this season or just downsize – I can’t describe the joy of seeing parcels mounting on my dining room table, going into big bags, and then to the Post Office counter! It feels so good that I was not even tired the other night when I stayed awake until 1 AM. I just feel an adrenaline rush, and I am so glad I did it!
As I mentioned, I didn’t have time to post about anything because I hardly missed a session at the conference, and I was busy talking to people during the “hallway sessions,” and also, I was participating in the after-hours events every day. This is going to be probably the only non-conference-related post.
In the airport:
First time ever, I saw a separate exit line for business class travelers (which was very convenient)
The most unusual buffet in the business class lounge (photo below at (*))
Extremely unclear marking of the check-in desks (and wrong information sent in the check-in email)
First time for a very long time: very unfriendly, almost rude check-in desk personnel
A good surprise: duty-free shops open at 5 AM! I didn’t even plan on purchasing anything in the airport due to my super-early departure
In the hotel:
It is gigantic! Almost uncomfortably gigantic
Gigantic food court for breakfast. What was interesting is that they do not even check your room number and whether that is the first time that day you enter. And I do not think it is even possible to check
The fitness center is not inside the hotel but in the mall located in the same building, and thereby, it does not open until 7 AM, which was a problem for me (I didn’t have enough time before the sessions started). The fitness center is also gigantic and always busy! And they offer personal trainers, and I actually saw people training with somebody (I am not sure how useful it is to train with somebody who does not know you, but whatever)
These days huge problem for me: no makeup applying mirror in the bathroom, so applying makeup was “the best guess”.
In the city:
There is still the same insane number of tourists as I saw during my first visit, even very late at night.
There are plenty of public bathrooms (sigh).
Very few homeless people, if any.
Everything is at least twice cheaper than in Chicago.
Sometimes, I would run into a “socialist-style” service
Time will tell whether it was a good idea to try to accomplish the impossible. For the whole week, I would go to bed about midnight (except for Saturday, when it ended up being 1 AM Sunday)and wake up at my usual time, which is between 4-30 and 4-45 AM.
At work, having been in the office for only four days between two weeks of time off, I had endless meetings and then worked after hours trying to do some actual work. I was planning my presents, ordering things, writing the cards, etc. In addition, I had many problems with my conference website, sending tons of emails trying to correct them and meeting with the Talk Selection Committee. I had to prepare a million things for the upcoming PG Conf EU week and manage several 2024 conference submissions.
I took Friday off, and I decided not to go to the Corporate Christmas Party because otherwise, there was no way for me to bake my Christmas cookies. I want to be very clear here: this was not a sacrifice on my side; these are my priorities, and I would be way unhappier if I didn’t do cookies this year.
Lena also took Friday off and left work earlier on Thursday to drive to Chicago so that we could start baking early Friday morning.
I do not recall whether I mentioned it, but this year, due to all of the time constraints, I decided to utilize the Tree Santa company for my Christmas tree delivery because I knew I wouldn’t have time to go and choose it. Since Friday was literally the only day I was at home, I also scheduled the tree delivery for Friday.
It turned out the tree was too thick to fit into my tree stand, so they had to give me one of theirs, and it was not as nice as mine. As for the tree itself, it was fine, but the shape was not as I liked it (too thick in the middle), and the top was “tripled,” and Lena and I spent a lot of time trying to put the star on it.
At 5 PM, we called it a day and went to the Christkindle Market and then to Millennium Park to see the Chicago Christmas Tree and listen to the carolers.
Yesterday, I went together with John and the girls to get a Christmas Tree.
Unfortunately, most of the trees were too small, and all the bigger ones had some visible defects, but I think we picked the best we could find.
Today, we decorated the tree, and I really enjoyed the process. This one is way smaller than the one I usually have, so decorating is not a multi-hour thing. They have a lot of very interesting old ornaments that feel so good to touch and put on the tree, and the tree looks just adorable!
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.
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
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.
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.
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).
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.
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:)
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.
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 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!
