Category: everyday life

People’s Connections

The last several days were filled with visits and conversations, making me feel very good. Yesterday, Anna and her family visited me, and the highlight of the day was going skating at Millennium Park. I told Nadia a long time ago that I would teach her to skate, and we pretty much did it yesterday! She was able to glide for a bit, and she got the feeling of skating rather than walking on ice. I am sure that next time she is on the skating rink, she will skate on her own.
We also had a short visit to the Art Institue and saw the Neapolitan Creche, and then we came back to my house, and Anna made dinner for everybody. Initially, we didn’t plan to eat at home, but we ended up having lunch and dinner at my house. Lunch was a takeout, and then Anna made an awesome paste dinner. I rarely make pasta for myself because it is challenging to make pasta for one :). So it was all good.

I received two presents with my Saturday mail: one from my very dear friend in Chicago and one from my friends in Ireland.

We haven’t seen each other in person for a while now, and my friend made a collage of several photos of us together
One more ornament – love it!
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New Christmas Ornament

My Christmas ornaments come from all over the world, and I have a story about each ornament on my tree. Lena’s mother is an artist in Saint-Petersburg. She makes jewelry and stunning Christmas ornaments; I have several ornaments that she painted – Lena gifts one for me almost each Christmas. Now, I follower both her and her mother on Instagram, and I saw this ornament with the squirrel and commented that I love it most.

Well, I got it :). Others on this Instagram post are the ones from previous years.

A Weekend Filled With Holiday Activities

Last weekend, when Lena visited me, we went to the Christkindle Market. Lena didn’t have an opportunity to visit it for many years! It turned out that she didn’t even know that Chicago’s official Christmas tree was moved to Millennium Park!

By then, I visited the marked four of five times, and there was no problem getting in, but there was a huge line to enter that time! The line circled Daley Center twice, and although it was moving pretty fast, it took us 35 minutes to get inside.

Inside, the market was packed! However, it turned out that people didn’t really look around – there were food stands with no lines at all, so we were able to get our drinks (I brought the mug which I got during one of my previous visits, and Lena got a new one), and then food – this time, I chose a “kilometer” sausage.

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The Cookies Travel The World

I do not understand anything about the international mail this year! Although Boris suggested some ideas which might be legit. He says that the international mail is most likely sorted in the local post office right away. Then if there is not that much mail to a specific destination, they might wait longer (to fill a container?) before sending it to the distribution center. It makes sense, and it explains a lot. But now, all of my eight international parcels mailed on the same day are at different stages of their travel.

The parcel to the UK was delivered on Monday. The parcel to Germany arrived on Tuesday, but it was not delivered since a person was not at home. The parcel to Ireland just left ORD yesterday. The parcel to New Zealand was sent to New York (?!), and today it was in Japan (?!). Others either didn’t leave the US yet, or their movements were not reported.

Waiting for the updates:)

And More Cookies!

Usually, I take a lot of pictures when Lena and I are baking and decorating cookies, but this time, we were way too busy. Last year, before the vaccine, I baked all the cookies by myself, and it was great that this year was different!

If not for Lena. I won’t have gingerbread cookies

We baked 910 cookies total! As of now, I shipped 14 boxes and gifted six, and I still have plenty of cookies 🙂

My Christmas Tree

Life was so compressed in the past several days that I completely disappeared from social media except for sporadic Instagram posts.

On Thursday, my amazing neighbors who helped me with the garden texted me that they could take me to get a Christmas tree, and I said – yes, I am coming! It was awesome because otherwise, I would have to ask Lena on Saturday, and that would take more time from our cookie-making.

My tree on my neighbor’s truck

Due to all the circumstances: the supply chain crisis of this year, the fact that I am in the city, and the fact that I needed a bigger tree this year, it ended up being the most expensive tree I ever had, but it was so worth it!

My neighbors helped me lift it to my apartment, and Boris and I set it up in the tree stand. That was the moment I had dreamed about since I first saw this apartment at the end of March!
Still, I didn’t have time to decorate until Lena’s arrival, and I didn’t write all the cards I planned to write by that time. So I still had a challenging weekend ahead.

New Job And Holiday Season

Today is one week since I started with EDB. People are still reacting to my LinkedIn posts and a job update, and the number of views of the job post is already over 4,000. I am shadowing another consultant working with a client. I see that my skills are needed, and at the same time, I am learning new tools and techniques.

And at the same time, I am still downloading and installing missing software, attending training, and learning how things are done.

The help desk is indeed helpful, but in many cases, it isn’t easy to find out what I should install, who can give me access, whether there is any documentation, etc. Most customer engagements are very short, and we need to work really intensely to deliver results in five business days.

Boris is teaching at night again:). I am putting the final touches on the house Christmas decorations – some decorations have found their places, and some will be donated or discarded. And I told Boris I wouldn’t have time to cook as I did last time, but I actually do :).
And also, it is bitterly cold outside but cozy at home.

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Too Many Things :)

Just a couple of paragraphs about the craziness of my life in the past several days.
I was hoping to pack all the international parcels and write all the international cards by the end of Sunday. And I was not ready. I had all the cookie boxes packed, but I didn’t write all the cards to go along with the boxes, and I was not done with other international cards.
Monday was my first real working day in EDB, and also Boris was coming in the evening, and I had to finish all the parcel packing and custom forms creating. There was no way it could fit!
The thing that made me really nervous was that I could not print the labels for the parcels that went to Russia. I have no idea what’s the problem, but the USPS site allowed me to print all labels except for the Russian ones.

After some digging, I realized that I could print the customs forms, and the only thing I could not do was pay for the shipment. The slight problem was that I had exactly zero extra time and that the Rogers Park post office is about 2 miles away from my home with no direct public transportation. The trip would take about a half-hour one way regardless of whether you walk or take CTA. Biking would be the fastest, but the weather turned sharply cold overnight. Besides, being on the bike with three boxes is very challenging.

So I had to excuse myself from work in the middle of the day and do CTA +walking. There was no line in the post office, which was quite unexpected :), and I had all my boxes shipped. Still no idea why I was not allowed to leave them with the rest of the pickup.

At the same time, I had to do work meetings, install some software, participate in discussions, and talk to Boris and finish the remaining international cards. And then mom called and said that after her WIndows upgrade, she can’t do anything on her computer because everything “looks different.”

It looks like I am done with all crises, but… oh, well.

:)

Two reasons Boris could not come here for Thanksgiving were two Ph.D. defenses. One was in Saint Petersburg, and it’s already done, and the other one will be in Finland (not in Helsinki, but I forgot what’s the name of the city close by).

Today, he called me at 5 AM my time to show off in a tuxedo which they lent to him for the event. I do not think he ever wore a tuxedo in his life :).

Looked nice 🙂

Family Thanksgiving

I can’t finish this post for five days:), so it might give an impression that our Thanksgiving was canceled this year one more time. But we had a Thanksgiving after all, and it was a beautiful one! Until almost the very last moment, we were not sure whether we would get together because Kira didn’t feel well. Fortunately, she felt better Thursday morning, and the COVID test was negative so that the whole family could come.

Boris could not make it this year because several work things piled up, and Vlad almost never can make it. We ended up having a family zoom, but a big part of the family was at one place, unlike last year. It was also an opportunity to test the setup with my large movable screen – we moved it to the dining room for “giving thanks.”

Nadia had a great time playing with my friend’s 7-year-old daughter. They barricaded themselves in the sunroom and didn’t let adults in :). The adults enjoyed the conversation, and I was so glad that we had this gathering!

This giant Watermelon radish came in one of the CSA deliveries
And it is pink inside!
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