On Saturday, my friend with whom we didn’t meet for a very long time visited me, and I am so happy we reunited:). Many objective circumstances brought us apart, including her move pretty far away from Palatine, but also, we were not really trying to get together.
Sometimes, when you do not see a person for a long time, you meet, and you feel so grown apart from each other that you can’t even imagine that you were ever close. That was not the case. Somehow I felt that we were evolving in the same direction, and we share the same values, possibly even more than before.
She brought me a wonderful gift. She is growing wildflowers by her home, and she brought me a piece of prairie, the only thing I possibly miss after moving to Rogers Park.
It was huge, and at first I could not find a proper vase for it, so it sat in a watering canI had to cut the stems to fit it into the biggest vase I have
I hope that we won’t loose touch anymore, and will find the ways to see each other more often!
Mom has four more days left in Saint Petersburg. In the past week, most things were sorted out. My friends Olga and Irina help her every day with pretty much everything: calling the cab, calling the plumber to fix the leaking pipes, taking her to her COVID test, and to the cemeteries to visit her relatives’ graves, making sure her test results are loaded to the government website and accompanying her to the bank, and I can’t even enumerate all the ways they helped! Nothing will be possible without them!
The last thing which was fixed was the heating in mom’s apartment, so now it’s not 45 degrees inside, but closer to 70.
It does not look like she will meet with any of her friends, although originally, she said that it was her goal. That’s why she didn’t want to go in July – she said everybody would be at dachas. Instead, she goes over her stuff, which is not a bad thing. Irina takes to the dumpster bags and bags of things that nobody needs. It is possible that when mom is back, she will be telling me that she could not meet with her friends because I didn’t allow her to use public transportation. I will do my best not to argue with her about that :). Most importantly, she got her new credit card, and she filed all the paperwork so that she wouldn’t need to come back when there would be time for a new credit card.
There were several days when the overnight temperature fell below 60F, and finally, my apartment was cold enough for a heater to kick in. It happened during the night, and in the morning, I smelled a hint of burning oil, just a little bit. It felt like the house was surprised to receive a command from the Ecobee to turn the heat on:)
I really-really-REALLY love my condo! It feels so good to come back home. I love every little thing about it; yes, there are still a couple of minor things with light fixtures, which still have to be resolved, and the parts don’t come due to the worldwide production crisis. But they are so minor that I can live with them :).
It’s late, and I should go to bed right away, but I have to say something about today’s concert. The whole week was a week of openings of the season: first the Lyric last Friday, then the Music of Baroque on Monday, and today, it was Chicago Symphony – maestro Muti reunited with his orchestra.
It was the best thing in this season so far. Even the way they played a National Anthem at the beginning of the concert, my friend Geri and I agreed that it was incredibly moving. Maestro Muti talked to the audience in the beginning. He said he had to prepare a celebratory speech, but he couldn’t find the right words “because English was not his native language.” In reality, he was very emotional, and his hands trembled when he was holding a mike. He talked about the past pandemic and how musicians suffered because they could not talk to the world. He said that we all were there not just to listen to the music but also to interact with the orchestra. And also, he said that music is inclusive, there is a place for everybody, and “those how is saying all this garbage … it’s just garbage!” Everybody laughed: he said in before conducting a piece by Florence Price 🙂
The pictures below were taken before people started to come in, and later there was a full house. I think my friend has more; if that’s the case, I will share them.
As I already mentioned here, Baba Anya died on my father’s birthday. And one of the good things which come from my mom’s visit to Saint Petersburg is that she was able to visit her parent’s grave.
My friend went with her and helped her to get a cab, and to find a grave, and to clean up. And she also sent me a picture.
I think that Sunday was most likely the last beach day of this year, although nobody can tell for sure. And the Lake gave me two wonderful gifts: I had a chance to observe a sunrise from the very first second, and I had a chance to soak myself in the lake in the afternoon. I think that the last time I swam outdoors in September was in 1968, being on vacation near Sochi.
Several days ago, I saw a post on NextDoor: How Fortunate are we to live in Rogers Park! We are, indeed, and “the Lakefront is out backyard”
Almost all of my subscriptions start in September, and now I have a hard time fitting everything in :). When I subscribed, I hoped that at least something would work and wouldn’t get canceled, and now nothing is canceled, everything is happening, and it is so great and wonderful, but there are not enough hours in a day, and not enough days in life :).
When I chose to attend Macbeth in the Lyric Opera on September 17, I did not realize that it would be both the opening night for this opera and the first live performance after 19 months. And let me tell you, it was something!!!
I tried to dress nicely, but most patrons have dressed ten levels of elegancy above me! I really enjoyed looking at all these ball gowns, opened backs, laces, etc., men in tuxedos and bow ties.
Yesterday, we had the first hybrid meetup, the first not-completely-virtual event since February 2020. It was an experiment, and I had a lot of fears about how it will go. In the end, there were only two people in the room for the “live” part. I suspected it could be the case because in addition to the pandemic, we are now in a new building with tighter security, and people had to comply with lots of new rules. At some point, I thought – is there any good reason to try so hard to make it hybrid? Now I can tell that it really felt differently.
I am not sure why but being in the office while streaming made it feel like everybody was right there. Most speakers complain that it is difficult to get the audience’s feedback when on zoom and that you feel like talking into the dark…
To be honest, I do not want summer to run forever. I do not want to live in Florida or California. But I love that summer lasts through the whole month of September!
This week, I finally gave away my early morning biking, but I have been devouring these last biking mornings for the past two weeks. I had an amazing long ride on Labor Day, and I finished my early mornings seasons last Sunday, watching the sunset on my way back.
I’d just say – living by the lake in September is priceless 🙂
Among of gazillion subscriptions I purchased for the upcoming season was Music of the Baroque 50th season. I was a subscriber many years ago, but then I dropped this subscription because it felt like “too much” – I didn’t enjoy the concerts when I knew I had to come home very late several times a week.
This season, I am so hungry for music that I even asked Boris to stop me from purchasing too much:). I ended up purchasing four concerts. I also marked the calendar for a free concert in Millennium Park.
Two weeks ago, I received an email from Music of Baroque, which said that since I am a subscriber, I can get VIP seating for this concert for free. Of course, I RSVPed yes!
The concert was yesterday, and since the weather was perfect, I took mom to the concert. At some point, I was slightly hesitant to go because I had so many things to do for work and the Postgres community at large, and I am so glad I went!
I never sat on these VIP seats so close to the stage – and that’s an extraordinary experience. Dame Jane Glover was even more enthusiastic than ever to be reunited with her orchestra! In the course of about 75 minutes, Dame Jane gave a preview of the whole season, featuring Hendel, Bach, Mozart, and Purcell, including excerpts of classics, like Music for the Royals Fireworks and a brand new commission dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the orchestra – Spectacle of Light by Chicago-based composer Stacy Garrop. A young cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing was amazing!
I was waling out of the concert thinking: why there were times when I thought that I do not really need this subscription?! Why I thought it being “too much of the same stuff” and sometime boring?!
Hettie's Reflections 