On family history, parenting, education, social issues and more
One of the conference attendees (and my good friend) stayed at my house for the whole event and the weekend after, which was great for both of us, and we were each other’s moral support :). It was her second visit to Chicago, and this time, not only did I show her places in the city she hadn’t seen before, but also, I walked with her around Rogers Park and showed all the best local spots, because she and her family will stay with me in August.
I hope I will have more time to reflect on the actual days of action, but for now, I just want to say that there were no major issues, things went well, and all my efforts were well paid off.
I had to be at the venue at 7 AM, which meant I had to wake up my houseguests by five, and we had to be out of the house by 6 AM (so that I won’t subject them to running to the train station with my speed :)).
I had fewer people on the training day than signed up, but that’s because I was limited in how much I could advertise, and because it was new. Those who attended loved it and said it was a useful thing before the conference.
Also, it was great that we had to test everything before the main conference day (although some new technical issues came up later). My co-workers helped with stuffing the bags, otherwise we won’t make it 🙂
No pictures from the training itself, since I was running around all the time.
Anns came to help me; she was sick the week before, and ended up having an ear infection and bronchitis, which she found out when she finally went to a Minute Clinic in the evening. I do appreciate her sacrifices, and I can’t even say she shouldn’t have done it, because her help was more than essential.
After the training, I managed to fit in a very short meetup with Jay Miller:
I worked very hard to ensure that this event was held in collaboration with our Black Employees resource group, and that’s part of my commitment to supporting DEI, no matter what the rest of the world does.
And the day was not over yet – we had a speakers and volunteers dinner, which was set up in a great way, and I am very thankful for the catering company for making it just the way I wanted and on a budget!
Keeping going through the last week. I hosted two conference attendees, plus Anna for one of the nights. My first houseguest, B., was a conference speaker from Madagascar. She is an absolutely outstanding woman, and I want ot tell more about her in the near future. That was her first time coming to the US, and she had a 22-hour long journey with two connections. I told her I would meet her at ORD, because it is very difficult to navigate this airport even when you are an experienced traveler.
Her flight arrival time was 7:30 AM, and I took the L-train there, because everything runs relatively normally on a weekday morning, so it was a 4 AM wake-up, leaving the house at 5:30. The airport was as quiet as it could possibly be, and we saw each other right away. I took her to the office where we left her luggage, and then to the Architectural tour, because Wednesday was the only opportunity for her to see something!
One of the conference attendees took the same boat tour with us, and then we went to the Art Institute. I didn’t plan to be at work on that day, but one of the customers kept having issues, and I was the only person who could fix them. I asked Igor to take over my Chicago guide responsibilities, and rushed to the office to save the world. My second houseguest, L. was arriving at 4 PM, and we calculated that with the luggage and the passport control, she would be at my house by 6 PM, so I had plenty of time. But then I was stuck with saving the world, and her flight arrived earlier, and by some miracle, her luggage came out very fast as well.
With all that, she waited for us for twenty minutes! At least, the weather was warm on Wednesday, and she just sat on her luggage in the sun reading a book. Nobody wanted to go out for dinner, so I made a quick meal and went to bed.
The next day, the actual work had begun.
Saturday was the day of St. Patrick’s celebration, but I did anything but that. In the morning, I was in the clinic escort, and then I walked to the CAC because I wanted to see two new exhibits and buy Chicago River Cruise tickets for people coming in April.
Unfortunately, the shortest way from the clinic to the CAC building is along the Chicago River, and unfortunately, that was precisely when they started to dye the river green!
A side note: two years ago, when I was in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day, I was shocked to see how calmer and more civilized the celebration was there!
The last two shots were taken from the windows of the Chicago Architectural Center, and my goal was to see the Constructing Hope: Ukraine exhibit.
This exhibit showcases the work of grassroots initiatives to support short- and long-term Ukrainian reconstruction efforts. While the exhibit space is filled with first-aid sheltering kits, Co-Haty project works, and design ideas, the video monitors screen the footage of the crews asserting the damage to the buildings, women crying over the ruins of their homes, cursing the invaders. To be honest, that left me with hopelessness rather than hope, but that was how that day went.
By the end of the day on Saturday, having clinic escort in the morning, then seeing this exhibit, and then watching Under the Grey Sky, I felt like there were so many real threads in the world that all my troubles and fights were absolutely not important and I have no right to be upset about them.
I still do, though 🙂
I met many new people at the conference, including two people who currently live in Chicago and one who lived in Chicago before. When I said that I live in Chicago, all of them immediately asked the follow-up question: Where in Chicago? To which I proudly replied: Rogers Park.
There is probably nothing to be especially proud of or make a big deal of, but I love how much Chicago neighborhoods define us! I love how many questions are answered by this one reply: I am from Rogers Park, that’s my neighborhood!
And while we are on the topic of Chicago, I shamelessly promoted the city to the international conference participants, so I hope more international speakers will come to us in the future!
I almost never post the views from the airplane window, but I like that one!
This New Year’s Eve, the Metra schedule was less convenient than last year; the fireworks were at least twice shorted, and Mayor Brandon Jonson didn’t give a speech before the countdown. But the weather was better, and there were way more people out!
Last time I wanted to go to the Starbucks Roastery I found it closed, and was very disappointed, especially because the weather was awful, and I would never thing about walking in such weather if not for holiday martinis.
On Thursday it occurred to me that it was possibly the last opportunity in 2024 to get to the Roastery. I was going to a CSO concert in the evening, and also I had a ticket to the Art Institute lecture right before that, but I could still fit an eggnog martini before that!.
I ended up leaving work a little bit later than I hoped, and then waited for martini a little bit longer than I thought it would take, and then I went to the second floor to get food. After I finally set down I realized that if I still wanted to get to the lecture I would have to hurry up and would still be a little bit delayed. Having how the week was progressing, and having that I had something to celebrate (the PG Day Chicago website was finally up) I decided not to rush!
Continue reading “Starbucks Roastery Reserve”From Chicago Sun-Times:
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration spent $814,000 on a giant fence as part of an effort to shut down one of the city’s largest and most visible homeless encampments ahead of the Democratic National Convention, City Hall records show.
The massive barrier was part of an “emergency” effort to permanently lock out unhoused people from the location near the United Center, where the convention was held, the records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
The Johnson administration had refused to say how much taxpayer money went toward blocking off the green strip of land between the 1100 block of South Desplaines Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway just north of Roosevelt Road, until after the nationally televised gathering was over. The Sun-Times has been asking for those records, which should be public under state law, since July, when that tent city was cleared of its residents, the tents and the items they left behind.
Foto, travel, St.Petersburg, Stokholm, Tallin
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