New Field Museum Exhibit, And How I Took My Mom There

Last week, a new exhibit, “After the Age of Dinosaurs,” opened in the Field Museum. There was a members-only access event on Tuesday evening, and after a long break, I decided to give it a try and take my mom there. I was encouraged by the suggestion of her caregiver that she could travel with her to the museum, and I can come there after work and meet them right there. That way, her caregiver would also have a chance to see the exhibit.

We planned everything seemingly perfectly, but since my mom walks slowly, and they had to switch from the Red line train to the bus, this trip took them a very long time. And my mom felt it even longer.

Then she had to eat something (I planned on that, because I knew that would be the time for her to eat), and it also took a very long time, and she could not choose what to eat, and then she asked how much did it cost, and complained that everything is expensive (even though she didn’t have to pay anything).

When we entered the exhibit, she started to ask how “they” (who put up the exhibit) knew what things looked like 66 million years ago, and then said that they just made things up since there was no way to know. I tried to remind her that she learned about different geological periods of the history of the Earth at school, citing the archeological discoveries and radiocarbon dating, but it didn’t look like she remembered.

The same went for the fossilized plants. The exhibit showcased some prehistoric plants that were distant predecessors of the plants we use widely today, such as chocolate trees or apple trees. She asked skeptically, “How did the scientists know these were the prehistoric apples?” and ultimately concluded that “they made it all up.”

Possibly, this is something trending on the Russian internet these days; I know that the theories of “everything is made up” emerge from time to time.

After that exhibit, we briefly saw the Reptiles exhibit, and I just walked her directly to the actual live reptiles, bypassing all the displays with scientific information.

I got Uber home, and on the way back, she was saying that “she does not understand why there were so many people there, why they were interested, why there were so many children, and why parents explained something to them and they seemed to listen.”

I don’t know what to make of this experience, except that it should be Uber both ways. I am afraid that if I were to stop taking her anywhere, she will mentally decline even more rapidly than now. However, if she is unable to process any new information, I am unsure what good it would do. So still figuring this out.

End Of Summer

It was a very good end of summer. Oftentimes, when Boris is here, I end up being even more tired than “normal,” and after he goes back, I feel like I need to catch up with life for at least two weeks. It didn’t happen this time.

I took last Friday off, making it an “extra-long” weekend, and for these four days, I managed to remove myself from work almost entirely. We were doing all sorts of “normal” things; I don’t know how else to say it, but I truly felt like I had four days off, not four days to catch up on things.

I was sad that it became sharply colder the next day after Boris’ arrival, but that’s the weather he likes, and if it were warmer, we might not be able to bike as much as we did. Biking was amazing; I believe it was the first time since I moved to Rogers Park that we biked together, and I didn’t worry about him not seeing the cars. Both of our new bikes are great, and after a whole week of biking together, I’ve completely come to terms with how much they cost.

On Labor Day, the warmth had partially returned, and I went to the beach immediately after I saw Boris off. To my surprise, the water was still warm! As my neighbor commented, the wind was from the East, so all the warm water stayed in. Thank you, Lake!

Past Birthdays

August 23 was Vlad’s and Anna’s 34th birthday, and I had plans to publish a historical post about this actual date (I already have one on my timeline, but without many details). However, I had too much life for a lengthy historical post (it might come at some point in the future, maybe next year when they will be 35 :)).

For the past month, I tried to arrange Vlad’s visit to Chicago, which is as challenging as you could imagine, given his work schedule and his ambitions. I am very thankful that he was able to make it, even though it was for less than 24 hours. Boris and I haven’t seen him for over a year, so I tried to make it happen when Boris is here. When we were discussing the schedule, I said that any day except for Tuesday would work, and of course, the only day Vlad could make was Tuesday!

Anyway, we met for an early dinner at the Gage to celebrate Boris’ 75th and their 34th birthdays, and I presented the T-shirts designed by Boris for the occasion:

SNAP Renewal

My mom knew that her SNAP was set to expire at the end of August, and she was nervous about what would happen with the rest of the money she had left there. I told her that SNAP will be renewed, but I knew it was not automatic (not like her Medicaid, which is almost automatic – I just had to confirm online that nothing changed).

As I already mentioned many times, the IDHS site is far from being intuitive, so I could not figure out how to reapply until I received a paper letter explaining that :). Fortunately, when I took my mom to apply for SNAP two years ago, she signed the papers allowing me to be her legal representative, so I receive copies of all communications. I submitted the application, and the system replied that since I indicated I can’t come to the office due to work constraints, they will schedule a phone interview. I worried that I would have to leave the office and sit with mom waiting for this call at the most inconvenient time, but when the letter with the interview date/time arrived, I realized that they don’t need my mom; they can talk with me directly, and that was a relief and a huge time saver.

It turned out that at some point during the submission process, I indicated a preference for oral communications in Russian (leaving paper communications in English). I think that was when I was unsure whether my mom would have to be present. I thought that it would mean they would bring an interpreter on the call, which would make things worse (that’s why I usually do not check this option). But this time, a miracle happened! The person who called me was an actual Russian speaking person; I guess at least partially because of a large number of Ukrainain refugees, this option has become available. And because of that, the renewal took just 5 minutes. She asked: so, you reported no income for your mom? I replied: yes, let me tell you the whole story. My mom used to receive her pension and use it here, but since the war started… I didn’t even have to say another word. She said: Ok, I am putting the notes here. She will receive a renewal in the mail in a couple of weeks. She even explained to me about the cash assistance (my mom can’t get it until we reapply for SSI, so her explanation saved me some time).

The fastest renewal ever!

New Bycicles And The Rest Of The Weekend

I had been wanting Boris to get a better bike for Chicago for a while, and he found a bike shop on the Near North, with a great selection and some discounts. Since he won’t be here until the end of August, I suggested he talk to Anna and delegate her to choose a bike for him from his list of preferences.

It all sounded very reasonable (after all, we had nothing planned for the weekend), but it ended up being a near disaster. I think at least half of the disaster was that the girls were still tired from Friday, but woke up on the inertia of early rising during the week. Boris and I thought that Anna could take the bikes into her van, but the girls said they wanted to take an L-train. There were a couple of minor disasters in the morning, the most significant of which was that Anna realized she had forgotten one part of the equipment to attach Kira’s bike to hers in a tandem manner. While she was figuring this out, I took the girls to the Artisan Market at Jarvis Square. We ended up leaving for the bike shop later than planned, and when we arrived, we found out that they were not allowing us to have an actual test ride; we could only use the mount on the shop floor.

Next thing, when we settled on the models for both me and Boris, the associate told us that they will assemble the new bikes for us (we could not take the bikes we tried), and it will take about an hour. I was ready to go home and come to get the bikes later, but Anna suggested we go for lunch somewhere close by, and then pick up the bikes.

The girls where already tired and acting up, and when we came back to the shop, the bikes were still not ready, and we had to wait for another half-hour. Retrospecitvely, I should have bought both bikes online, and we should have taken a van to pick them up when they were ready. That way, the girls won’t be so tired, and we could have some beach time.

The good part of that day was that later in the evening, Naida and I went for a bike ride. She is doing absolutely amaizing for a eight-year-old, especially for city biking on a Saturday night! My phone reported the 9.1 – 9.3 Mph speed! and she was excellent in following me at all turns and navigating the streets in general.

I rode my new bike on Sunday early morning (all the way to Monroe Harbor)

It is faster than my old one,and less bumpy, but somehow it looks like the seat post is too short. I can adjust the seat to the hight I need, but it goes below the “minimum” line; this is pending me calling the shop.

We walked to the Common Cup for breakfast, and then to the market, and made sure to show Anna new Rogers Park murals (the girls already saw them when they stayed with me earlier this year)

And finally, we had a couple of hours on the beach.

Next time, we should do more beach and more biking!

Beauty and the Beast

The Beauty and the Beast show was a part of my subscription. If it won’t be the case, I wouldn’t suggest taking the girls there, but since it was a subscription, and it was running on the week they were here, it was difficult to resist. I changed the tickets from Tuesday to Friday, and got the extra three.

The show was absolutely out of this world! Amazing! Nadia really enjoyed it, although it ended too late, and she was tired. Kira was scared in the beginning, and then fell asleep after the intermission, so it was not a great experience for her. Also, it was a rather long day: the last day of camp, then I took all three of the girls to do nails.

Then we had dinner at Ryo Sushi.

That’s my Mango California roll – so good!

Then we went to Amorino for gelato flower, walked a little bit at the Millennium park, and finally went to see the show.

Below are some official photos:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Broadway In Chicago (@broadwayinchicago)

The Week’s Recap

I believe it was the longest time both my granddaughters stayed in my house. I think, overall, it was a very good experience, although Anna and I have a long “lessons learned” list.

Two things were completely out of our control: the aftermath of the NASCAR race and the buses’ rerouting, and both our work situations – none of us could take any time off or have a shorter workday. When we plan for next summer, we will choose a different week (or a camp closer to my house).

Life Is Getting Better

Today, the bus routes to the Museum Campus have finally resumed, and everyone is much happier and full of energy. I hope that at least two-thirds of the camp will finally be the way Anna and I envisioned.

My work crisis is still in progress, though :), and all the other millions of things which need my attention still need it!

Field Museum Camp

Anna, Nadia, and Kira are in Chicago this week, and the girls are attending the Field Museum Camp. That’s the thing Anna and I were looking forward to for years! Unfortunately, this experience has been affected by NASCAR race! I should have thought about it, but when we made this decision in January, neither me nor Anna connected the dots! The race happened during the Independence day weekend, and on Monday, there was still no access to the Museum Campus. Not only the busses were rerouted, but even the sidewalk was closed, so on Monday, the had a long walk around to get to the camp.

In general, Monday was quite havotic, because they arrived late on Sunday, and Monday morning was packing lunches and snacks, figuring out breakfast, and getting everyone out of the house. In addition, this week is presenting a major work crisis (and in addition I am severely behind on all my non-work professional activities).

Anna comments as a postitive thing that the girls do not fight with each other (I agree), and having fun at the camp, but it’s definitely more stress for Anna than I hoped!

Member’s Night at Aquarium

On Friday, I left work earlier and took a train to Milwaukee to pick up Nadia and Kira for the Shedd Aquarium Member’s Night. We already did it multiple times: Anna brings the girls to the train station, I get out, pick up the girls, and hop on the same train. That works great because the wait is minimal, and there is no risk of missing the train: it’s actually the same train going back!

I have many reasons to be proud of my granddaughters, one of which is that they can walk a long distance without complaints and understand what it means to wait for a bus or for the museum doors to open. We ended up walking most of the way from the Union Station to the Aquarium, with only a short Red Line ride in between two strides, and they did great 🙂

The Shedd is undergoing a major renovation, but some parts are already open, including the former Rotunda reimaged as two exhibits:

These are two live ecosystems: one with fresh water and one with salt water, and some parts of the glass are magnifying. The best part is that the systems live and evolve, so the promise is that each time you come, you see a slightly different

Nadia’s personal achievement was that she finally touched a sea star 🙂 (not pictured). and a couple of creepy creatures we spotted – there were more, but we were very busy watching!