The problem with the past weekend was that it was soooo good! This was a God-given September, and the last weekend was the biggest gift, with the sunny sky, almost no wind, and the upper 70s.
I could not have it waster! Besides, I had some activities planned a while ago, and I didn’t want to skip them. And I am very happy with how it went:).
A long bike ride:
I saw Jupiter – more than once!And a supermoon!Long bike ideI saw maples turning redThe bees were on my balconyI was on the Historic Houses tourAnd I closed the season at the beach!Although it was almost 80F, the water was cold! I got into the water just out of principle – I had to close the season! And I said “Thank you” to the Lake!
There was also clinic escorting, and Georgia Apple Cake, and visiting with mom, and lots of other things, and talking with people, and many things which I wanted to do and didn’t have time to, but I still think I had my priorities straight.
Just a couple of days before the weekend, Vlad called me and said that he was going to be in Chicago on Sunday. He had a work event on Tuesday but decided to come earlier to catch up with friends and family. Because of that, our beach day was naturally divided into two parts: in the morning, we went to the big playground in Loyola Park, then we went to meet Vlad for lunch, (and stopped at the Glenwood Sunday Market for fruit popsicles) and in the afternoon, we went to the beach again.
The weather on Sunday was … interesting. Very strong winds with temperatures barely above 70F, but the lake was as warm as the Midetarranian Sea. And the waves! The lifeguards were not supposed to let anybody into the water, but how can you control the force of nature?! They were making sure, however, that everybody stays really close to the shore.
There was an outdoor class of rhythmical dances, and I sent Anna to have fun 🙂
I bought a new set of beach toys, so not only Nadia and Kira were having fun, but Anna was equally (if not more) enjoying building the sand Tallinn Castle.
Granted, Vlad’s surprise visit was a treat, and we all had a very good conversation. Too often, it happens that when we do not talk for a long time, we start to feel like strangers, not knowing what to talk about. It was not the case this time 🙂
Both Anna and I agreed that it was the perfect Chicago/Rogers Pak weekend, and without it, summer would be incomplete.
I didn’t have a single day off while Boris was here. First, I just took a week and a half of vacation, and second: there was too much work! I was glad that Lena and I chose this weekend for our visit – it gave me an opportunity to disconnect from work almost entirely. Granted, I was doing a lot of “other” things, but it was still a disconnect.
Today I took the morning off, and Boris and I went for a relatively long bike ride in the morning (the weather was absolutely perfect!), and when we returned, I told him that I saw the waves on the lake while we were biking, and I want to go and jump in these waves before the lifeguards come. Boris does not understand the joy of jumping in the waves, but he walked to the beach with me and took some pictures of me in the waves.
I typed the title of this post on Thursday morning and didn’t move any further :). Life after the return was intense :).
There are a lot of things going on at work, including some reorganization and interviewing people for an open position. The to-do list is so wast, I do not even want to start on it. Let me rather tell you what I have done so far.
The was this amazing concert on Wednesday which I already blogged about. I went to the youth shelter on Thursday night. I was asked to make pizzas, and some of the youth were so excited waiting for my coming that they made most of the prep by the time I arrived. There was one new staff whom I liked a lot. One girl who did a TickToc recording from out previous cooking asked me whether we could do it again, and I said yes, and we had a lot of fun with that! She asked me about my heritage and what I had for dinner when I was a child, and we had fun chatting about that.
I biked along the Lakefront. I went to the beach and soaked my body in the lake. I received both my CSA deliveries. And I am on my way to the clinic escort.
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 :))
The longest bike ride of this season so far, 25.34 miles. For Bike the Drive, I signed up for a 30 miles challenge, but I should also add about 3 miles to get from my house to the official start and 3 miles back :). I will have at least two stops on the way, including the breakfast, so I am pretty sure I can make it with no problem. Today was not a stretch.
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.
I finally stopped procrastinating and started to work on the second edition of our optimization book. Before today, I struggled to update two paragraphs from the intro (and I am still unhappy with how they look, but I pushed myself to move forward with the promise to return to the intro later.
Only after I started I realized how much it bothered me that I was not moving! In my defense, all of mom’s immigration stuff which we dealt with this week, was more than enough to completely abandoned other activities. Hopefully, everything will be over tomorrow, and then I will write a complete report.
Another good thing about today was that I finally went to the beach in the evening and dipped myself into the lake, officially opening the swimming season. The water is cold! The way spring was this year, I think it will take a while for a lake to warm up. It’s still such a joy to be by the body of water, that I can’t complain!
Hettie's Reflections 