Not Again!

Even though the inspection a couple of months ago confirmed that there are no rodents in my house, I still had some doubts. Recently, I realized that somebody was cutting into the plastic bags with the bread and eating tiny pieces.

I vividly remember that on Wednesday morning, I thought: I need to call exterminators. And on Thursday, when I woke up and when to the bathroom, I heard these squeaking noises, and I saw that one of the mouse traps which an inspector left changed its position on the floor… Here we go!

I am capable of picking up and discarding mouse traps without looking, but since this one was not transparent, I was not sure whether the mouse was indeed there. And I was afraid to look. Then I remembered that the painter who will be working in my apartment next week was going to stop for his advance later in the day, and I decided to ask him.

When he came, I told him: I wanted to ask you for a favor. You know I am a strong woman, but there is one thing I am afraid of – I am afraid of mice! And he looked at me and said: I am afraid of mice, too!

Then he said: if it’s not a rat, but a mouse, I can look! I showed him a trap and told him that I could discard this mouse. He looked and then said – where is your broom? I handed him a broom and a shovel. He asked: are you ready with a garbage bag? Because I am not going to look! I said – yes, and with this collective effort, we successfully deposited the mouse into the garbage, and I took the garbage out:)

When Everything Goes Wrong

Today’s meetup was another epic disaster.

I ordered a new MacBook, and it arrived on Monday. By midday Tuesday, I had it restored from my old Mac Air and started to use it. There were a couple of minor hiccups, but overall, everything looked and felt like I was on the same computer.

Today, I was hosting a Chicago PUG meetup. First, when I scheduled it, I tried “integration of meetup and zoom,” which resulted in me having three zoom meetings :). It took me a while to figure out which one was the right one, but finally, I was there, and people started to join. Then, I was going to start my 5-minute intro, but it turned out that zoom didn’t have screen share permission! I quickly went to the settings to fix it, but then zoom had to restart. I have no idea what happened next, but for some reason, people could not get back in! Zoom was asking for the password, which technically speaking was in the URL provided.

Also, I could not edit the existing meeup and could not paste a new link! And all on top of the fact that my speaker requested an earlier start!!!

The good news was that, after all, the meetup happened. But boy, what a disaster!!!

The Lake At It’s Best

This year, the spring was cold, and it took a while for the lake to warm up. Today was the first time that I didn’t want to get out of the water. It was a perfect moment in the evening when the air was still warm and the sun was just about to start to come down, and the water was magical.

Thank you, my lake!

The State Of War – Again

In the past couple of days, my optimism about the development at the war front started to return partially because there was some good news, partially because I could see some panic in the ranks of pro-war bloggers.

At the same time, I was deeply saddened by some conversations I had with my Russian friends. All of them are against the war. All of them say that they feel endless shame and disgust with the actions of the Russian government and pain a sorrow for the sufferings of the people of Ukraine.

But that’s where the similarities end. The are two ways they think about “how this can end.” One – Russia will become a complete outcast in the world, a country completely isolated from civilization, and will stay like this for long, maybe forever. And another way – Russia will be destroyed and disappear from the earth’s surface, “and we deserve it.”

s I mentioned before, I firmly believe that only the defeat in this war might give Russia a chance to come back as a new country, a defeat as profound as Nazi Germany in WWII. But with my friends, such a defeat is either a tragedy or “it won’t be enough, it won’t change the people.

Both make me sad, and I do not know what to do with it…

Thoughts About Volunteering

These days, similar to when Donald Trump was elected, many new volunteer applications are coming in. I know it won’t last long, and we will struggle to fill the shifts again in several months.

Most people who want to volunteer their time to protect abortion rights are people who want to give and who do not expect to be showered with praise for doing it.

However, I still come across volunteers who … I struggle to describe what bothers me; I observed similar behavior before and can’t really put a right world on it. For example, after hearing me talking about MAC hosting, one lady started asking me “whether I ever had any negative experience with clients.” I wanted to tell her that, at the moment, there is a six-month waiting list for MAC volunteers, so she should not bother, but I decided against it.

I met a couple of other new escorts (I do not want to profile them, though I desperately want :)) who also behaved like their presence there is the best gift; and now it’s OK to sit in a folding chair for most of the shift and talk on the phone and do nothing just when our shifts are becoming more and more stressful. I blogged about similar encounters in the youth shelter before, so that’s no news. It stinks that you can’t filter out such people before they start volunteering. Time is spent training and onboarding them, and other people are waiting, and such volunteers are of no use.

I also remember how once, when I was blogging in my Russian blog about the youth shelter, some people reacted to my stories as “these youth are ungrateful, demanding, make you feel guilty” and other nonsense of the same kind.

To summarize: people are right when they say that volunteering is rewarding. But it is rewarding not because others say “thank you,” but because you are giving whatever you can to other people or a good cause. Volunteering is a privilege. And even though you try your best to give, nobody is obligated to accept. Giving is rewarding, not hearing “thank you” in return (although it’s always nice to hear :)).

Post Roe/Wade Landscape

Today’s escorting was tiresome. It’s not that there were more antis than usual, and not that they were especially aggressive, but they behaved the way that demonstrated their confidence. One of them (I have a history with him and hate him with a burning passion) gave me an evil smile: how many states are left where abortion is still allowed? They act as if they are masters of the land.
I, together with another escort, guarded the side entrance. There were two antis, but they left soon. Shortly before that, a van with contractors stopped by – they were looking for the manager of the next-door Japanese restaurant. They were shocked by the scene they saw and said that they thought it was some rally, and they didn’t want to believe me when I told them that we have it every Saturday!

Oh, and also these protesters announced that they “love Ukraine!” I am speechless!

There was a counter-protest against the March for Life, which was going to “celebrate” a Roe/Wade overturn. Our goal was to silence the speakers on the opposite side of the street. On the one hand, we dominated. I remember many marches with tons of antis and just a few of us. This time, there were more of us, way more! And we were indeed louder than them. But on the other hand, I almost cried all the time marching because we lost no matter how loud we were. We lost when Roe/Wade was overturned, and it will take years and years to fix it. Meanwhile, people need help right now.

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Annoyed

I am sure I blogged about it a couple of times, but one more time…

Why the second question to me should be, “where are you from?” It does not define me! It’s not the first, second, or third thing that defines me! Sometimes I am inclined to play a game that my friend Lena often plays when asked the same question. She moved around quite a bit, so she would say: I am local. And then people ask her: but where did you live previously? she would say: in Chicago. And before that? – In London. And before that? – in Albany… you got it.

Often, I do not have time for this game, and instead, I ask: you mean where my accent is from?

I understand a general curiosity, but really – you are in a professional environment, or you are volunteering together for a common cause, and the second question is, “what’s your ethnical background?!”

Trust me; there are more fun facts about me!

My Fair Lady

I went to see a new production of My Fair Lady on Thursday. This was an outing I planned to do with mom (with hopes that she still remembers the plot she knew!) It turned out that she only remembered the name, not the plot, but it was still good, because it is a beautiful show, and I wanted her to experience the atmosphere of a great classic musical. So at least that worked 🙂