A bike ride on Thursday morning, after the tornado had nearly passed Rogers Park
After The Storm
Category: everyday life
New CAC Exhibit: Flyway City
Wednesday was the opening day of this exhibit, and I had a member preview ticket. I figured the exhibit wouldn’t be that large, and I could probably go there around my lunchtime. That worked well!
The exhibit was very informative. I was shocked to learn how many birds die every year during migration because the collide with the building glass! The exhibit provides valuable suggestions on what each homeowner can do to make it safer to igratory birds – I will definitely try not to leave the lights on when it’s not necessary!
Wednesday
On Wednesdays, I come to work very early to dial for my online personal training session. My personal trainer lives in LA, and that way, I allow him an extra hour of sleep :). I usually clip my access card to my waist when I get off the L-train, so I do not have to look for it when I am by our building. This Wednesday, everything was as usual, except that when I was by our building and reached for the card, I saw that the part connecting the card to the clip was broken, and the card was missing. I walked back, trying to figure out where that could happen, but didn’t see the card. Then I thought that it was rather dumb to look for it – it could fall off at any moment, even after I just left the train.
I texted my trainer that there was a high chance we would have to cancel, and entered the building through the Starbucks door. Our security issued a day pass for me, but it was pretty useless, because I couldn’t even get into elevator with it – they had to bus me up. And then I couldn’t get to the floor, because it was too early and there was nobody to open a door and let me it.
At that very moment, I suddenly remembered (and do not ask me why I didn’t think about it eaelier!) that my access card had an AirTag, and I attached it specifically for situations like that! I think part of the reason why I forgot about it was my continuous sleep deprivation, and another part was that I didn’t realize right away that my access card fall off with the AirTag. I looked at my phone and saw that the last time the card was seen was very close to the office. I ran out to the street, but the tag already moved. I tried to follow it, but the location was impresize, and I found myself going in circles. Finally, I was on the back side of Planned Parenthood building, and then the AirTag stopped issueing signals.
Disappointed, I headed back to the office, cursing myself for not checking the FindMy right away. I thought that this was finally may payoff fo the luck of winning two raffles. I got back into the building; now there were more people inside (I chased the AirTag signal for almost an hour!), so someone opened a door on our floor for me. I went to get breakfast, and saw our receptionist just walking it. I told her that I will need a new access card (which is a big deal, and I would need to pay a fine), and that I will stop by when she is back from her breakfast. I headed back to my desk, and before diving into work, I decided to open my personal email. I saw an email from the WordPress “Contact” page, to which I paid no attention at first (most times, these are people trying to sell something to me), but then decided to open. The email read: Hi, I have your access card!
…yea, it’s good to have a long and unsual name! There was nothing except for the name on the card! So a person who found it, got into trouble of Googling me, not just throwing the card away! She left her number, so I texted her immediately, and she said she would be able to come out of work for a minute, and told me where to find her. When I saw a person in the purple scrubs on the well-known corner, I knew it right away! I asked her: do you work at Planned Parenthood? And she said; yes! And I told her that I am escorting a couple times a week!
When I returned back to the office, nobody could believe me that someone found my card and returned it. One of my co-workers said: you are so lucky! You should try playing the lottery! I laughted: I just did!
Sponsor Raffles
At the PG DATA conference, we held a “Sponsor Passport” raffle: attendees could stamp their “passports” at each sponsor table, and those passports were then used as raffle tickets.
In case someone doesn’t know, I am not a lottery person at all, and the only reason I placed my passport in the box was to set a good example for others. I was called to draw, and imagine my surprise when I handed Pat the first passport and he said: Hettie!
I thought it was a joke, but it was not: I won a $100 Amazon gift certificate! Even funnier, two other organizers won the prizes, and then one of our meetup members!
Yesterday, at PG Day Boston, they also had Sponsor Passports, and I participated again, joking about my PG DATA experience. A couple of people who attended both joked about the “staged wins.” You will never believe it, but I won a $100 Amazon gift card again! And again, my name was the first to be drawn.
I became somewhat nervous, thinking that this luck is for no good. How did it turn out? I will tell you tomorrow – too tired now!
CTA Message
Received it several days ago; that’s how it should be! I especially like the beach bus service 🙂
Happy Summer,
As the weather heats up and summer gets into full swing, we wanted to make sure you know about some improvements and changes that are coming to routes you tap onto regularly.
- #124 Navy Pier: Last trip is at 11:55 PM on weekdays and Sundays, and midnight on Saturdays from 5/23/26 (Memorial Day weekend) through Labor Day, 9/7/2026.
- #130 Museum Campus: No need to hassle with parking. Enjoy cultural and park activities by taking the #130 to the Adler Planetarium, Northerly Island, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, and Soldier Field.
- June 7th through mid-August, daily beach service will operate directly to the lakefront and Chicago’s beaches on the following bus routes: [Weekend/holiday service will continue until Labor Day]
For detailed schedules and routing information, as well as the latest on all bus and rail service, please visit transitchicago.com.
Wait Time
That’s not about the conference. Today, I took my mom to the doctor’s check-up. It’s difficult to find the time when I can take her to the doctor, because she has become very inflexible and does everything very slow, so I have to navigate to secure appointment at the time when she only minimally alters here schedule. Today, our appointment was at 2 PM, and we were there at 1:40, as they always ask, and the doctor saw her only at 3:10! And he didn’t even apologize!
My mom often critisizes doctors for no good reason, but this time, her critiques were completely justified. I was especially mad that he literally didn’t say sorry he was late! He should know what it takes for a 91- y.o. to sit and wait for 1.5 hours!
It’s not much I can do regarding the doctor change, since she is on Medicaid, but I never had anything like that before, no matter what’s the patient’s status, and I am really upset!
iPhone Adventures
As I mentioned, I broke my iPhone screen on Sunday, and I was so busy with everything that I didn’t have time to figure out how and when I could repair it. I was so sure that I did not have coverage (after all, I knew all along that these iPhones are unbreakable!), that I only did a quick search on repair places. There was none close enough to my office that I wouldn’t have to take two hours off work, so I decided “to think about it tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow” finally arrived on Friday, when I could theoretically get off work slightly earlier. I finally asked Google the right question: not “locations of iPhone repair shops” but “how I can replace the broken screen”. And the answer was: click on this link to check whether you have coverage. I checked, and it turned out I did! Moreover, the screen could be replaced while I wait. Apple immediately listed available appointments, and the first available at the Michigan Avenue location was on Sunday at 1:45 PM. The next available at North Avenue was on Saturday, between 5:30 PM and 7 PM. I decided that I do not need to go to the Loop on Sunday, and booked 6:30 PM at North Avenue.
Turned out that was a mistake. There was track repair going on on the Red Line. I “knew” about it, but since I didn’t plan to go anywhere far over the weekend, I didn’t store this information in my operational memory. Also, I knew that the Loop was reachable via elevated tracks, just a slower ride. So it was literally me walking into the Jarvis station and realizing the train wouldn’t stop where I needed it. Also, I quickly realized that I have no time to figure out an alternative route, and the only way for me to get there was Uber, which had two major disadvantages in addition to having to pay for it: 1) it was slower than the L-train, especially on Saturday evening 2) I could not do anything productive during the ride, so it was wasting both time and money at the same time.
Finally, I arrived at the Apple Store at my appointment time (6:40 PM) and waited for a technician until 7 PM (as expected). But then he told me that, because it’s too late in the day, they can’t repair it while I wait, and I need to either leave the phone with them or come one more time. He assured me that if I come any other day before 4 PM, all parts will be ready and they will fix the phone while I wait.
I had to pay for another Uber ride to get home, because I didn’t want to spend an extra 15 minutes walking to the Brown line, and an extra 15 minutes waiting, first for the Brown line and then for the Red.
I didn’t want to come back on Sunday because it would still mean taking an Uber, and I decided to work from home on Monday, especially since it would be the last day Boris and I would be alone (I will have people staying with me during the conference).
Based on what I was told on Saturday, I headed to the Apple Store right after lunch. When I arrived, I was told that the wait time for repair would be three hours, “because we are busy,” and I still don’t understand why this couldn’t be scheduled. I can’t go anywhere without my phone because even my Ventra card isn’t physical anymore. And in any case, it’s 30 min in one direction.
It ended up being three and a half hours, and given where I am now with work, conference, and stuff, I am beyond mad. I had a couple of other maddening things today, all related to time wasted, so it’s very difficult for me to get into a calm mood.
A Long Bike Ride
On Sunday, Boris and I planned a long bike ride with a breakfast stop at Lea. For anyone else, Boris would be considered an Early Bird, but he still does not feel that a wake-up time of 4:30 AM is normal, so we compromise :).
We left the house at 5:40 AM with the goal of going as far south as we could, so we’d be back at Lea by 8 AM. There was a really strong wind from the south, so at some point, I regretted making these plans, but in the end, I was happy we went!
Below are some pictures from the Lake Front South; each time I go there, I do not want to go back north. I wish I could fly to Monroe Harbor each time I am going for a morning bike ride, and then bike south…
Memorial Day Weekend
I am in the final stretch of the conference prep, and there is not a 30-minute stretch when I wouldn’t need to do something conference-related, mostly answering never-ending emails and telegram messages. Boris arrived Friday evening and immediately jumped in to help me, for which I am immensely thankful. We spent Saturday on preparing the room host kits, ordering what else was left to order, and so on. In addition, I am not yet ready with my own presentation slides for the conference, and I realized I didn’t send the Prairie Postgres flyers to FedEx for printing.
Boris said that FedEx’s cutting of the badges (I printed a sample) was not good enough, and volunteered to print and cut them all. I believe it’s way more work, but I didn’t object.
The two non-conference related activities on Saturday included a med-length bike ride, and finally assembling the new coat rack:
Our plans for Sunday and Monday were the following: we had three tickets for Hillary Hahn matinee recital at the CSO (for Nadia, Anna and myself) and then we were all going to go to Milwaukee to visit (Boris haven’t been to Anna’s new house yet).
Nadia studies violin by Hilary Hahn’s books, and we tried to attend a recital last year, and it was cancelled; we finally made it this time.
This day was not without calamities: it was raining all morning, and I slipped on the Jarvis station steps. Twice. First time was OK, but the second time I 1) ripped my pants (I know it’s fashionable, but I do not like it!), 2) broke four nails, and 3) broke the iPhone screen, which I thought was unbreakable.
I called Boris from the train and asked him to put an extra pair of pants into my backpack, which he was going to bring to me after the concert, and I had to live with all the rest. (I went to do my nails yesterday, and I still need to find time to repair the screen!)
The concert was awesome, and dinner at Ryo Sushi was great as always, and we also went to Amorino, which probably was a mistake because the wait time ended up being 35 minutes.
Then we went to Union Station, boarded on time, but the departure was delayed due to technical issues, and we arrived in Milwaukee with a 1-hour-and-15-minute delay!
Still, the next day was great! Boris and I had chosen the bikes (Anna collected bikes from several friends so that we could choose the ones we were most comfortable with), and we set off for a 30-mile ride! My only regret is that I couldn’t take pictures along the way, and I hope to take them on my future visits.
I hope we will do it again!
Flying Back And What’s Next
I took a red-eye flight from Vancouver on Thursday night. It was not because I wanted to save one hotel night for my company, but because it was the only way to get home before Boris’ arrival on Friday afternoon.tio It’s not fun to depart at midnight, but even more so when I realized that there was no One World Lounge in that part of the airport. Same as in Montreal, they have domestic departures. international departures and US departures, which are none of the above :).
On top of that, the flight was delayed for over an hour, so by the time we finally departed, it was already 3 AM in Chicago, and we landed at about 7 AM local time, so I spent the whole day sleep walking, and still had to do some work at work, because I was out for four days
When I went to see my mom in the middle of the day, she didn’t have any pity for me, and just said “well sometimes, I can’t sleep at night”🤷🏻♀️. Somehow, I managed to do some work, ordered some food, went to Jewel Osco to buy the rest. unpacked, and even did a workout (because sitting in the airport for five hours doesn’t help the motion deprivation), and I also baked a creamcheese-rhubarb pie, and as always these days, sent a whole bunch of cconference- related ommunications, and all of this before Boris arrived.
And what’s next? Next is a final pre-conference stretch, which I will hopefully survive!
