Hettie’s Reflections – Blog Posts

TIME: A Low-Spending-Month

I have some friends who do not believe that you can make a budget by carefully planning your expenses and not wasting money. They believe that the only way to improve your situation is to find a higher-paying job. Another group of my friends is the opposite: they know how to budget wisely and know that revising your expenses is the most important part of improving your financial situation. The way they are able to save amazes me!

Of course, not enough money is not enough money, and to what extent you can improve your situation is a relative thing. There are plenty of people around me who just don’t have enough. The question remains whether you are making the most with the money you have.

When I had already purchased my new place and hadn’t sold my old place yet, and also had to invest a lot into fixing my new home, I did exactly what this article suggests: I had a low-spending couple of months. Without drastically reducing my quality of life, I was able to cut my expenses by 40%. So I believe there is a lot of truth in what they are saying here.

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TIME: Is Walking Enough?

I do not have a strong opinion on whether walking is enough exercise. On the one hand, before people invented exercises, we all just walked and did something around and outside the house. On the other hand, the said people in the past performed way more physical activities than walking. Overall, I do believe that walking is important; it’s a big part of using your body how it is intended to be used. I feel better when I have enough walking throughout the day, and I walk very fast. Not because I think about it< as an article says, “as an exercise”, but because I love walking fast. Also, I will always remember that there were times when I could not walk without pain, so I will never take the ability to walk for granted!

TIME magazine article

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When Nothing Happens

I can’t write about work most of the time, and, in general, most of my professional dramas do not make it to this blog. Yesterday I thought that I had a couple of extremely emotionally loaded days, but “there is nothing to write about.” I still want to find a way to share my emotional experiences, but for now, I can’t think of anything better than this picture of a fortune cookie that I got yesterday as a part of my lunch in the office (we had an external vendor):

Aida At Lyric

That was one of the most anticipated operas of the season for me, and I didn’t like it. My neighbor with whom we share this subscription just returned from a two-week trip to Egypt, and even before we went, she told me that she read “horrible reviews” about this production.

I do not mind the modernization of the classic (I enjoyed Penelopiad at Goodman!), but in this production, everything except for the music and voices, was indeed horrible.

I copied several images from the Lyric website to illustrate. I do not understand why they had to invent their own hieroglyphs instead of Egyptian, and why they had to cover the whole stage set with these images. I do not understand why they had to dress the male cast in these turn-of-the-previous-century uniforms.

The voices were beautiful. The music was great. But by the middle of it I chose to enjoy it with my eyes closed 🙂 .

Easter

I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday in Milwaukee with my girls. The weather was as almost as bad as it could be, so we didn’t bike together as we originally planned, but we spent a lot of time together, which was very satisfying, especially after the last week as it was.

I packed several egg coloring sets and three boxes of cookies I baked last Sunday and decorated on Thursday.

After my escorting shift, I picked up more pastries from Vanille before heading to Union Station and boarding the Hiawatha train to Milwaukee. The first four days of the week felt like one gigantic workday, and I was more than tired, both physically and emotionally. I literally felt my legs heavy and difficult to move. On Thursday night, I sat on the floor in front of the opened suitcase unable to pack my stuff.

I feel tons better ow, although the to-do list didn’t become shorter. We had a great time in Milwaukee, decorating more cookies, coloring eggs, reading books, and talking. It’s amazing how much you can rechange just by being together with your loved ones.

Nadia had a group violin lesson, so we all went to the conservatory, and this time, I had time to explore this beautiful building.

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Good Friday

We have Good Friday off (since we are a trading firm), so I went to Milwaukee and did an escorting shift before that. I rarely can do weekday shifts, so I am always happy when I can.

It was had to tell whether it would be quiet or crazy having it was a Good Friday. It ended up being quiet; however, one episode struck me.

There were two women, presumably mother and daughter, whom I escorted to a different entrance of the building. They had their luggage with them, and when I asked where they were from, they said: from Louisiana. I was speechless. I asked how long the had to drive, and the mother said: we were ready to drive, but fortunately, we got a grant and could fly. But we had to be up at 4 AM today. They were both tired and slightly disoriented, but visibly happy they made it.

… Just one question: why?! Why did they have to travel so far to get an abortion, and when will this craziness stop?!

Theatrical

Very briefly about my two cultural outings.

We saw Purpose At Steppenwolf with Igor a week ago. I didn’t like it that much. I was hoping I would like it a lot, but in the end, my impressions are inconclusive. The reason might sound ridiculous: I felt like “they talked too much.” But seriously, the play starts with a very long monologue of the main character, and there are multiple very long monologues closer to the end. And also, possibly because it was still a preview performance, many of them didn’t sound natural. All characters were perfectly recognizable, and I liked all the actors, but still, I didn’t get a feeling of play as one powerful piece, as I was hoping for.

Then, I went to see Peter Pan at Nederlander Theater on Thursday, and that was a pure joy! So well put together, the music, the set – everything, The flights are done so naturally, it’s so easy to believe :). Knowing a little bit about young actors and what it takes, I can only admire the work of the producers, especially having how big the roles are.

We went home with some magic dust 🙂

TIME: Why We Do Not Bring Lunch To Work Anymore

I never thought that it’s a trend; quite contrary, everybody is complaining that ther is not enough “food traffic” in the city centers, and in Chicago Loop in particuler. However, when I read this article, I realized I could relate. At least some of the reasons for “not to” resonate with me. I know very well, that getting to work when you were working from home for a while is time-consuming and “too exhastive,” and all the “extra planning” work, which makes me especially thankful for my firm providing meal as work.:)

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RIP

Simon Riggs is gone. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sam-holdstock-marshall-76365b45_it-is-with-a-heavy-heart-that-im-sharing-activity-7178702287740022784-X0FI/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

God takes the best, all I can say. I admired him for many years, not only as a professional but also as a person of great integrity. I was fortunate to know him. That’s the void that can’t be filled.

I just realized that I didn’t click publish when I wrote this first paragraph. Eulogies were coming for the rest of the day. Though I understand that everbody wanted to say something, after several hours of checking LinkedIn I felt very close to how I felt on the day when Melody Lord died. I could not bear listening on the radio and the top of each hour “Melody Lord died…”

I made a mistake of checking all updates which were posted on Postgres Telegram channel, so I first saw the BBC news about the crash and later, The Sun publication. That latter one had too many graphical details about the crash – as it turned out, one of the visitors of the Imperial War Museum was filming…

Time Management

I never felt as capable of doing all sorts of things as I am now, and at the same time, I never felt like “I do not have time” as now. My wants and needs as so much more than you can pack in a day, but I am still trying.

For the past several days, I wrote plans for each hour, both workdays, and weekend days, and that was the only way to keep me in some sort of control. At a minimum, I knew that no matter how hard I tried, I could only fit in about 60% of what I “needed” on any given day, so my disappointment was not so grave. And I was able to do everything that I marked as “urgent/important” and put in specific time slots.

Still, there are many things that are important/not urgent but will become urgent very soon, so I need to figure out a way to fit them in. Also, this way of living is completely not sustainable – you can’t schedule each and single hour of your life, at least not for long.

The purpose of this post is just to wave my hand and indicate that I am alive 🙂