The start of the theatrical season also means that I am walking around in the dark and taking pictures of our amazing city, probably for the hundredth time!
Chicago At Night
Tag: chicago
Girl’s Weekend – Saturday
We planned this last August weekend as a “summer in Chicago” thing because, last summer, things ended up so busy that we didn’t have a single beach day together. Also, we wanted to go together to Chalk Howard and create a picture on asphalt together.
We had that and much more, and it was overall a very happy weekend without which the summer would be incomplete.
Initially, we wanted to go to Chalk Howard twice: to draw our own thing in the beginning and then to see what other people had created in the evening, but we ended up doing just the afternoon because everybody was tired by that time.
Grant Park Concert
This summer, Grant Park Music Festival almost didn’t happen for me, with several severe storms ruining performances, me being away twice, me being busy, more storms, and more extreme heat. Yesterday, Boris and I went to the concert, which was almost the last for this season: there will be two more on Friday and Saturday, be we will be away.
And this “first and last” concert was perfect! That was the only time this season I watched Carlos Calmar conducting and listened to his commentary on the program and the composers – always funny and insightful. The program was great, consisting of little-known pieces. The weather was absolutely perfect, just warm and sunny enough not to be too hot and too sunny. And after the concert was over, we headed to Amorino and walked in right before the rest of the audience realized that it would be the perfect ending of the night and crowded the place!
Life is beautiful, and all the stress of the week was lifted :).
Grant Park Music Festival
Finally, after so many bad-weather-rain-too-hot-too-busy – finally, a perfect concert! Cirque Returns presented Troupe Vertigo aerialists’ stunning performance accompanied by classical music. The most extraordinary part was their “Carmen Cirque Spectacular” – a half-hour of extraordinary stuns accompanied by Bizet’s Carmen music.
Unfortunately, I can’t find any videos more than 20 sec long online; if you find some, let me know!!! No words to describe it, something very unique that I haven’t seen before.
Also, after the first number, the conductor announced that Mayor Brendon Johnson was there!
It was a very short speech: Brandon Johnson shared that all his three children play musical instruments (viola, cello, and violin) and he should probably learn to play something to be adequate. He reiterated how important is to make art free for everybody, and how this “free” requires a lot of resources, and he said that the city will continue to support the festival.
As usual, a final look at the lawn before leaving:
:)
Lena In Chicago
My friend Lena, who used to live in Palatine, and now lives in Ann Arbor, is in Chicago again!
She is my only friend who moved away a while ago, but still,l we not only keep in touch but visit each other regularly. Moreover, through the years, we came up with the annual visit schedule: she visits me for Christmas cookies baking, for the Chicago Botanic Garden Orchid Show in spring, and for one summer weekend, and I visit her at the end of summer.
This time, in spite of completely unpredictable weather, we had an almost perfect weekend. The only item on our agenda that we didn’t check was a Millennium Park concert, and that’s because of the rain – again! Actually, I am sort of proud of us because we waited for the first rain to stop, still went to the Riverwalk, had a nice dinner facing the Chicago River, and then looked at the forecast and saw that the rain was about to start again, and when back home instead of tempting our good fortune :).
We visited the Art Institute, saw the Van Gough exhibit and Japanese drawings, had lunch there, went to the Lurie Garden, then – to the Field Museum for the Kings of Europe exhibit and 3D dinosaurs movies, and then to the beat the rain and still made it to the Riverwalk 🙂
Today, we went for an early morning bike ride, then, after breakfast, went to the Glenwood market and then – to the beach.
Finally, it’s that time of summer when the lake is warm, even in the morning. I think it was the first time this summer that I could lay on the sand and do nothing for an hour!
(I am still three chapters behind in the book, and still have piles of work, but I am glad I am not giving up on my summer :))
Another Crazy Week Weather
One thing is for sure – Independence Day was perfect weather-wise. My friends visited Chicago during the holiday week. They stayed in a hotel on the Near North, and I volunteered to give them a city tour on July 4 (having that most of the museums were closed anyway). It turned out that not only museums were closed! We could not get in neither Chicago Cultural Center, nor Rookery building Foye, nor Chicago Fine Arts Building.
Nevertheless, we had a great walk around the city in a perfect weather, and then I took then for the Brown Line Loop to see the city from the unique perspective, and then I we went to Rogers Park and I showed them how I live, and how close the lake is.
Although it was a perfect beach weather, the beach was so packed that I didn’t think I could find any pleasure and enjoyment being on the beach on in the water, co after I saw them off, I returned to catching up with life :).
Then, there was 90F on Wednesday followed by this horrible thunderstorm that started during the concert. I still can’t get over of how bad it was, and how quickly everything was flooded, and my mom had such a horrible experience (in addition, she could not sleep the night before that because of the illegal fireworks).
And then there was Thursday, when it was barely warm (lower 70-s), but since the lake was already warmed up, it was a beach weather, and it was such a fun to jump. in the waves!
Summer is the only time when I try to work from home one or two days a week to be able to have a lunch break ar the beach!
Thoughts On What’s Happening…
SCOTUS decisions … I do not even want to talk about it. During my escort shift on Saturday, we talked about what happened last week, and the verdict was unanimous: we don’t know what was worse; every day was just new craziness. However, I think that the end of affirmative action is the worst. I don’t know what universities will do. I do not know how in the world these judges could think it was a great idea… How were they thinking?!
… upon returning from Finland, I started to go to the beach each time I worked from home. Same as last summer, it is a most satisfying relaxation, even if for a very short time. Most days, the Park District Day Camp is out there. Each time, I pass a large group of eight-nine-year-olds playing in the sand, splashing in the water, building castles, hugging and piggy-backing, all skin colors mixed – a perfect emblem of Rogers Park. I hope these beach memories will stay with them for the rest of their lives…
***
So, the recent events didn’t bring Ukraine back to the front pages… They brought Russia to the focus of attention. Since the start of the war, I have become used to the adverse reaction to the fact that I am Russian. These reactions subsided through the last year, but on Saturday, I had it again: “You are dangerous; what are you guys doing?” I replied to the effect that “it’s them, not us,” because I do not want to be associated with the fight between two evils. Maybe I am not expressing it clearly, but I would be instead blamed for Russian aggression toward Ukraine than the mutiny and what’s not. I am sad that people focus more on Russian internal affairs than the war.
***
We had heavy rain for most of the weekend, but especially today, and our gym flooded again! Less damage that time, but still…
And working on the book – lots of tedious tiny things…
This Week In Chicago
Although I arrived on Saturday and, technically speaking, could attend the Pride Parade, it was not on my mental list, so I ended up not going there. Instead, I tried to catch up with tons of little things and was petty successful with that.
Some Pride in Rogers Park:
Saturday Morning
On my departure day, I went biking early in the morning, and first time dared to venture from the bike path into the Loop (there is very little traffic thee Saturday morning, and I decided I needed to start from something!)
Hettie's Reflections 