As it is clear from my last several posts, I am on my way to “back to normal.” However, something has permanently changed; in some sense, it is a “new normal,” and I am trying to figure out how the past several months have changed me.
One thing is that I feel removed from “ordinary human feelings,” and I am unsure whether this is here to stay with me. Since October last year, I have been so focused on Prairie Postgres that everything else has become non-essential. I blame myself for not contributing to election campaign, not doing canvassing, not talking enough about the issues. I was among many who didn’t do enough. I definitely didn’t have “cycles” for that, but still.
My decision matrix, my Eisenhower quadrants, were skewed to the sole purpose of making sure the Chicago conference happens, and the Chicago community is not negatively affected. I consistently find myself at a loss responding to “how are things with you, what’s new in your life?” I mean people, who might not be my closest friends, but who know me well enough or care enough so that I can’t reply: “All good, thank you for asking.” Still, I understand that it would be the weirdest thing to start answering such questions with what is really on my mind. Because the honest answer would be something like that: “For several months, some people were trying to make my life incredibly difficult to the point I was afraid to check my email, and they were trying to stop me from doing things which were important to me and to my community. There were many times when I wanted to quit and walk out, but I did not give up, and now everything is good, and nobody is after me.” And that’s the first, second and third most important thing in my life.
I know that I didn’t talk enough with many people who care about me, and I care about them. There were several months of ignoring emails, skipping events, and telling myself that I will have time for all of that later. I can only imagine how many of my friends, especially my “remote” friends think that I forgot about them, or that their lives are not interesting to me anymore.
Looking back at the past several months, I do not know how I did it :). When i was at the PGConf.dev, and when I attended multiple meetups last week, many of those to whom I told about my not-for-profits reacted: oh, you got 501(c)?! Congratulations! Or asked me: is it your full time job? So, I guess, I did something good, and something to be proud of.
Still, I want to get back to “being human,” but Prairie Postgres would still remain not “one of the things” I am doing, but “the most important thing” I am going, and hopefully the thing that outlive me :).
The past several days, starting with my return from PGConf.dev, were densely filled with various community activities.
On Sunday, I went to the Chicago Code and Coffee meetup (I planned to do this for a couple of months, but ran into a conflict each time).
It was as loud and loosely organized as it could possibly be with over three hundred nerds in one not-so-large space. The Capital Cafe decided to sponsor the meetup with free drinks, and everyone took advantage of this opportunity. I thought I would not survive in this noise level, but the organizer allowed me to speak immediately after the volunteers, so I was able to advertise my events and myself :). As a result, I have several people joined our new user group, and several RSVPs to Tuesday event.
On Tuesday, I hosted a second meetup of Prairie PUG. Inspired by what I saw at DevOpsDay Chicago, I announced the Developers’ Summit and invited application developers who use Postgres to discuss their pain points and possible solutions. I planned this event for a while, but had to postpone it several times. Finally, i was able to make it a reality.
It went really well (I neglected to take pictures of the group discussions, and only took some during the final presentations, but it was a definite success). The conversations continued after we were done with the “official” part and went back to the cafe for remaining pizza.
Then on Wednesday, I went to yet another meetup! it was the 10th anniversary of AWS meetup. I was planning to start attending this meetup, but for one reason or the other, it never worked. It almost didn’t work this time as well, because there was one more event on the same evening, but I decided I can come for just an hour, and it will be better than nothing!
I came, and talked to the organizers, and also found out that several of the Postgres meetup members attended the AWS meetup as well. I talked with several people, and told them about Prairie Postgres, and distributed my flyers. I saw that two more people joined my meetup next day, so it was not completely useless!
Another event I wanted to attend on the same day was a local CAPS beat meeting. I consider these meetings of police with local residents very important; it was unfortunate that I had so many conflicts this year and could barely attend any of them. This time, I was a little bit late, but was still able to sit through most of the meeting. Out Beat representatives talked about the crime statistics, asked about the incidents we observed on our blocks, explained which apps to use to report crimes, potentially dangerous situations and problems which do not require police involvement. I picked up several flyers for future reference.
I think it was my mistake that I ignored all “other” meetups in the past, and I am glad I started to change it. Overall, I feel like slowly starting to get back to my “normal self.”
I was shopping for plants outside the Charmer’s (yes, they are a flower shop in addition to being a cafe). A group of bikers exited the cafe and walked towards their bikes. I overheard them continuing their conversation:”… and look, maybe you will live here one day! It’s a nice place!” I couldn’t keep from smiling, and one of them saw my smile and asked: “Do you agree?” I said, “Yes, that’s the right place to live!” They turned to me: How long did you live here? Did you live in other Chicago neighborhoods before that? Ans I told them that that’s one of the best decisions I made, and I didn’t regret a single day!
That’s in case you didn’t notice this abbreviation for those three and a half years I lived here. Not everything is rosy in RP, but I am so happy I moved here!
On Monday, when Nadia and I were walking back home from the Common Cup, Nadia noticed a new mural – I remember when the contest for the new mural was announced, but somehow, I passed by in a hurry several times without noticing what exactly was painted.
Below is the new mural – all three parts, and that’ all you need to know about RP!
Actually, there is one more thing you need to know! On December 25, when I walked from the Jarvis Red Line station to the back entrance of our building in my red coat carrying half-empty red luggage, I heard, “Merry Christmas, Hettie!” three times!
Glenwood Art Fest was this weekend, and I could not make it there until today. On Friday and Saturday, the rain randomly stopped and started, and when it started, it would pour! I got completely wet at least six times during these days!
But today, the rain finally stopped, so I took my mom and went there. Yesterday, when I was exporting, one of my fellow escorts told me that there will be “The Twelve Night” performed at 2-30. so I planned to be at the fest before that, and the timing was perfect.
OMG, they are so good!!! That’s how you should do Shakespeare – on the market, with no mics, with very simple props and costumes. Loudly. Over-expressive. Almost vulgar, but not. To the lough and joy of the audience.
Also, I really liked how they decorated the underpass under the CTA tracks!
I had a total of five days off work, including two vacation days I took on July 3 and 5 to help my friends feel at home and show them all of the Rogers Park highlights. I think I succeeded: they love it here!
We went to the beach several times (actually, at least twice, they went without me).
On July 4, we went to look at the Artists of the Wall:
We went to Devon Market and Morse Market (and to get to the former one, I made sure that all of them had a bike they could ride. My friend Natasha didn’t ride a bike for several years, and she never did biking in the street traffic. I could understand her anxiety – I felt the same way when I first biked in Rogers Park, but she survived :).
This morning, we went for breakfast to the Common Cup:
And then to the Glenwood market, where we got purple and yellow beans, Benison bakery pastries, Mickii’s cobblers, flowers, and tart cherries. And Natasha got herself a new neckless, and then we all got different flavors of popsicles.
And then we went to the Art Institute, where, to my deepest disappointment, we found the Ryan Canter closed because of the NASCAR race – don’t ask what it has to do with that! However, Sonia compensated this loss with another round of slashes in the Crown Fountain:
Tomorrow, I will be back to work, but I think my friends will find their way around and things to do!
The article about new communal living: Link to the article. I know some people who are exploring this idea, and frankly, it’s much better to share a home with like-minded people than with those who happen to be your relatives. Of course, the ideal situation is when your relatives are like-minded, but this does not always happen. The full text of the article below:
Nothing special happened last Sunday, but the whole day was amazing. I enjoyed each moment, and once again, I couldn’t stop thinking how fortunate I am to live in Rogers Park—there is no other neighborhood like this!
I started my day with a long bike ride. We are at the start of two months of early sunrises, and I do not want to miss any of these mornings!
Monroe Harbor
Even though I left the house before sunrise, a long bike ride was indeed long, and when I came back, it was already 7-15. I just had time to shower, and got out of the house. My plan was to have breakfast at the Common Cup just because I wanted to try it for a while, and I never did. I was not sure how crowded it would be in the morning right before opening, so I ordered in the app while I was on my way there. When I entered the coffee shop, I found that:
They were just finishing my order.
There was nobody inside. except for myself.
I sat down with my cappuccino and my quiche and enjoyed. My next stop would be at Glenwood Sunday Market, and I still have some time to spare. Several customers would come in and out, both for takeaway and dining-in, but the place was still far from being crowded. I walked to the counter to ask were is the garbage – I could not spot it around me. A person at the counter was taking an order, and just as I started asking, a customer turned to me, and I saw that it was our Alderwomaan Maria Hadden! It was unexpected (her office is just the next door, but it was Sunday!), so I was like: Oh, hi, Alderwoman Hadden! And she was: Oh, you are looking for a garbage? Let me show you! And she led me to the opposite side of the caffee, where the garbage can was. I asked her: are you going to the same place as we all are going? And she said: yes, of course, to the market!
I walked to the marked fifteen minutes before opening. Everything was set up, and nice, and fresh, and the sun was bright, and it felt like a holiday.
Shortly, the opening ceremony started, and all of the officials talked about how our Glenwood market is a thing they are bragging about, and how it is a center of community, and people get together there, etc.
And then the ribbon was cut, and the bell rang, and people disbursed to their favorite vendors. I went to the south corner of the market to check in with my favorite all-natural popsicle makers:
And then got my flowers!
Now until the end of October, I have no problem having fresh buquiets every week!
That was enough to make it a perfect day. The rest of the day just rolled!
Hettie's Reflections 