My friend, who moved from Chicago to Boston last year, was in town last week, and we went to the Art Institute for the Thursday evening hours. We saw an exhibit I hadn’t seen yet – “Radical Clay,” which presented the works of Japanese contemporary female sculptors made of clay/porcelain.
The exhibit is small, but all the artworks are extraordinary! Here are some pictures that I took and some from the official webpage.
Time will tell whether it was a good idea to try to accomplish the impossible. For the whole week, I would go to bed about midnight (except for Saturday, when it ended up being 1 AM Sunday)and wake up at my usual time, which is between 4-30 and 4-45 AM.
At work, having been in the office for only four days between two weeks of time off, I had endless meetings and then worked after hours trying to do some actual work. I was planning my presents, ordering things, writing the cards, etc. In addition, I had many problems with my conference website, sending tons of emails trying to correct them and meeting with the Talk Selection Committee. I had to prepare a million things for the upcoming PG Conf EU week and manage several 2024 conference submissions.
I took Friday off, and I decided not to go to the Corporate Christmas Party because otherwise, there was no way for me to bake my Christmas cookies. I want to be very clear here: this was not a sacrifice on my side; these are my priorities, and I would be way unhappier if I didn’t do cookies this year.
Lena also took Friday off and left work earlier on Thursday to drive to Chicago so that we could start baking early Friday morning.
I do not recall whether I mentioned it, but this year, due to all of the time constraints, I decided to utilize the Tree Santa company for my Christmas tree delivery because I knew I wouldn’t have time to go and choose it. Since Friday was literally the only day I was at home, I also scheduled the tree delivery for Friday.
It turned out the tree was too thick to fit into my tree stand, so they had to give me one of theirs, and it was not as nice as mine. As for the tree itself, it was fine, but the shape was not as I liked it (too thick in the middle), and the top was “tripled,” and Lena and I spent a lot of time trying to put the star on it.
At 5 PM, we called it a day and went to the Christkindle Market and then to Millennium Park to see the Chicago Christmas Tree and listen to the carolers.
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 :))
On Friday, I had a night out with my friend who is moving from Chicago to Boston. By the time I return from my trip, she will be already in the process; that’s why we had our little farewell on Friday.
We had dinner at Forte and then watched 1776 in the CIBC Theater, and it was a perfect Friday night! I have not been to Forte since it reopened after remodeling and was renamed Forte from Tesori. They went to a smaller selection than the previous menu, but everything was of excellent quality. Also, they serve Vanille desserts, and I forgot about it until I saw it!
The show was great! I love this musical, and this production has an additional twist – all male parts are sung by women, and this is done in such a compelling way that ten minutes into the show, you forget about it and focus on what’s going on on stage.
It was a wonderful night indeed!
I wanted to say that it was the first good night of the week, but I immediately corrected myself because I had other good things this week, like dinner in the youth shelter and Chicago PUG. And a very fun recording of my talk. I don’t know what to make out of this week. I am sitting in the Field Lounge of American Arilines (yes, after an hour wasted last night, I checked-in at the airport with no problem, checked-in my luggage, and had some time to sit in the lounge). The food here is really awesome, so I decided, I will skip dinner on the plane and eat here. So yet another time – something stressful and then something good.
It feels like the whole birthday week with Boris being here since the 14th, with so many birthday wishes and things I’ve done during the week. On Saturday, Vlad and Anna organized a big party for me, and many of my friends came.
There were some dramatic moments with an original venue going out of business and too many people being unable to come due to COVID (either being sick or quarantining or deciding not to risk). Still, it was a great event, and I am very thankful to Vlad and Anna for organizing it!
I think there are more pictures around, and if I finally collect them from everyone taking pictures, I will post more :).
My tree will come down on the upcoming weekend but I still receive Christmas mail! Looks like the flight cancellations and the rest of the mess right before Christmas also affected mail delivery, and my parcel from Germany sat in ORD for at least a week!
I finally received it yesterday!
There is such a variety of cookies, and the ones I tasted are awesome, and out of twenty, only one broke!
Here is a Christmas card from Japan, which also made it this week:
Also, a card from one of my few still-sane Russian friends made it to that side of the pond! It looked like it crossed the Atlantic swimming on its own, so the card itself was almost destroyed, but the ornament inside survived, and I hung it on my Christmas tree:
I am going to take the last picture of my cards display on Saturday, before removing them and storing them.
I waited until 9 PM, but nothing came with today’s mail. Most likely, our house was skipped again, and all the mail I’ve seen for the past three days in the “Informed Delivery” will arrive on Tuesday. I know that at least three more Christmas cards are there. But many arrived in time, and my fireplace looks very festive –
And I received a parcel form New Zealand, with cookies, and the best woolen socks ever, and a summery Santa!
I am so thankful to Lena for coming and helping me this weekend! I don’t know what I would do without her! Also, four people were helping us to decorate today, and I do not know what I would do without them!
Lena’s gingerbread cookiesMy Outrageous Double Chocolate Cookies in makingAnd ready to go into the ovenContinue reading “634 cookies!”→
Lena and I worked so hard that we didn’t have time to take pictures. We took two breaks – one to walk my mom home after she stopped by (also, we somehow ran out of butter and needed to get some more, and the closest grocery was by my mom). That break was unplanned, and the one we planned was to go to the Loop to Christkindle market and see the Chicago Christmas Tree. to our huge disappointment, there was a long line to enter the market, so we didn’t go: and there was even a line to come closer to the Christmas tree, and we made it 🙂
Lena gave me this t-shirt last ChristmasLena and I by Chicago Christmas tree
Hettie's Reflections 