Post-election. Day 1.

My day started at 4.35 in the morning (courtesy of Chinchilla Jr) and it was fun to watch Internet go crazy then already. Adequate people turning into drama queens, throwing vain promises, emphasizing meaningless opinions and foregoing facts. All out of sudden the world feels like it's not just a freaking manager of a country has been elected on a 4-year contract basis, but a point of no return has been reached for the entire mankind. It's amusing how close to heart people take the results of the election, and irritating to see how much time and energy they spent on whining, complaining and projecting gloom and doom.

Funny how quiet everybody was this morning. Gym was awkwardly soundless, no usual chit-chatting, and people on treadmills, elliptical and bicycles were staring at the screens watching culinary shows, movies - not the actual news though! (Colorado voted for Hillary).
No discussions of the results in the changing room. Quiet.
Uneasiness in the air at the library - I had to use their Copy  - a librarian I asked a question almost whispered the answer to me. No discussions, no mentioning of anything.

Driving to Granite Tower in the Downtown - people are jumpy, careless. On the bright note- the construction on Business School building of UC Denver is nearly finished :) Going up to the 28th floor I see for the first time mentioning of Trump's twits on the screen in the elevator TV. Recruiter's office - no small talk; unless a receptionist answers the phone, it is quiet.
At daycare - no jokes, no comments about the Elections between the parents or the teachers. There had been none even with our nanny this morning!

And so throughout the town -  no discussion of "last night". Denial? Anger? Trying to bargain - coming up next?

Came to Bonfils after not-so-smooth morning

with not-so-smooth news, and the reception lady told me I should have received my 1 Gallon donor badge on my last donation. And she did give me a badge that did read "1 Gallon Donor" (which made me picture a plastic 1 gallon milk jug filled with blood). There was something funny and comforting about it :)

Got another article published by ReFresh School - this one on making time, playing with a couple of potential new topics in my mind now. ReFresh has also published my short profile in social media while I was in FL - extremely nice of them!

Went to a corporate Cooking Class event with Von Zobel. Being in a industrial kitchen was quite a throw back to Glion days. The company in the kitchen and wine made quite a difference though :) In fact there was such a substantial amount of wine consumed that night, the good shape of the participants could have probably been attributed in greatest part to the French cuisine with its abundance of butter - we had on the menu ( slash - cooking instructions). Almost felt jealous to a lady I met on the even who had 2 sets of twins (3 years apart). 2 sets of twins!!  My pregnancies would have been twice as productive now, and there would have been no vital life decisions to be made! :)(Dear Royal Family, what are your plans on Royal Baby 3#?)

On Saturday we made it out to a concert of ex-Moscow String quartet, which is a trio now, bringing in the Cello and 1st Violin from the Quartet. Shame. We could never make it to  their last performance as a quartet. Almost felt jealous again - to Rachmaninov this time :) as well as for all those who have an undoubted talent that - apart from creating - helps them expressing their feelings, going through tough times, keeping their sanity and self-awareness at the same time.
Time to develop at least one talent. I have a lot to say :)

Anna Maria - definitely a great place to live a quiet, slow-paced life.

Although Chinchillas  tend to disagree and use a brief family vacation for running around by ocean-side, scream (especially when refusing to go too close to the ocean) and enjoying the pool. The latter though, seems to have been their favourite pastime: splashing in the pool completely naked and running around the pool with one toy or another, also... aerating their bottoms. Ocean, beach buckets and towels, sea shells - we're just like a real family on a beach vacation now.
And 3 hour flight feels like a piece of cake now after almost 24 total hours spent in International traveling each way this summer!

As for Von Zobel and I, we finally tried bicycles with child chariots - and they did turn out to be a fun and convenient way to get around the island with kids. Apart from all the loading and unloading the kids, and buckling them up, of course - Chinchillas did not enjoy this either. Should we buy a couple in Colorado though, we would stick to riding mountain bikes with hand-brakes (yes, our bicycles in FL were old-fashioned!), but the little "honking" parrots on the wheel were a good idea and made Chinchillas laugh.

A Full-bodied polar fox.

Lyolik telegrammed it to me the other day, with a brief annotation Полный Песец , which was such a great laconic description of my life right now I could not help setting it as my laptop desktop.

*****

Sometimes it becomes hard to just pull myself up off the floor and go and do anything useful at all.

In the midst of job search.

Funny enough, the most interesting, promising and juicy positions are in the middle of nowhere. Near Broadway and the 17th, that is. Recruiters are aggressive and email almost daily. Companies in search of personnel email daily in and out of sequence, offers being from staff accountant to manager of logistics.
Employers inquire about Excel skills - Pivot table & V-lookup.
Recruiters  sound exited about Customer Relations and Project Management experience.
I am being aggressive in my inquiries about salary, benefits, location and flexibility. That must have come with experience. And because I have no other choice but to make it work my way, probably.
Employers want a plain AP/AR person, to be compensated accordingly.
Recruiters encourage to come to them for applications to any worthy position, since they have vast network of growing and high net-worth clients, and to never submit application to the same position more than once (wasn't it how I got my first official job? Three times was a charm...)
I keep thinking of how to integrate a full-time demanding position into my life schedule, or rather - how to construct a new schedule where there would be time for meetings, business trips, toddler swimming lessons, parents' nights at kindergarten and ways to take care of my boys when they are sick without compromising my professional attitude at work.
Employers say "Hey, we have a Sales Managers position at our Insurance Company you might be interested in!"
Recruiters say "Hey, we are going to send your resume to an Oil&Gas company"
I say "No, thank you". "Yes, thank you!". Can't waste any more time. Can't waste any more time on something that I won't be able to leverage in the next 5 years.

I hardly ever have repeating dreams.

If I ever had, I can't remember them now.
Now, twice this week with slight variations, I've seen myself coming to an interview in some 20+ floor office building; second time - a hotel, but still being somewhere on 20+ floor. The interview goes as normal, but for some reason I bring in my teal laptop bag full of my lehrstoff, the bag is heavy as usual, but I keep carrying it on my shoulder as the interviewer shows me around after the interview. And once we say goodbye and I walk outside I find myself walking on a glass floor, above the offices, next to the building's wall but with no wall outside.
I walk till I see there is no exit on this side, neither a way to get back inside the building and turn around to go back.
But by this time the width of glass ledge is only about a third of what it used to be.
I keep walking, and this time there is no way to get back into the building at all, as the ledge is getting more and more narrow as I walk until finally my laptop bag starts to gets hit by the wind gusts and pull me down and make me start losing my balance.
In the second dream though, a woman, another interviewee appears behind a window to ask how my interview was and say good bye. I can't help thinking what a moron she is - seeing that I can neither move on the thin ledge anymore - in my high heals and a heavy bag, but not offering any help. So I smile and ask her ironically:
- Could I please trouble you with opening this window?
She shrugs, face is blank. Clearly, she can't understand why I would ask her that.
- If that's so crucial for you...
"Of course it's crucial for me!" - I think, annoyed. Try not to fall down while she opens the window out - right above my head, barely manage to lift up my heavy laptop bag and start to climb in.

Little Steps to just moderate progress

When after having cried and screamed "Mama no!!" for 10 minutes in the pool, your three year old finally masters jumping into your arms from the side of the pool, and smiles, and glances proudly at the baby girls nearby.

When after 2 days of having mental meltdowns and being enormously tired you see that Audit problems finally start to make sense and the scores begin to go up.

When having just recovered off to the whole family cold Marathon you can run your daily 5k again, even with that uneasiness in lungs.

 

When your 15 month old's bottom left molar finally shows and he can sleep through the night without painkillers, and even go through the day without teething tablets, crying in pain and trying to lay his head on your shoulder and whine every time you pick him up.

 

When instead of running away after 3 minutes of listening to you reading a book before bed, your 3 year old reaches out to his shelf, grabs "Buratino" and asks you to read him. And then listens for half a dozen pages.

 

Many little steps. Just keep on taking many little steps until things get better.

 

Found on smb's FB account. Note sure about credits :)

This beautiful sunny morning my native country

has given me  yet another wonderful gift: a six-meter high fence. Simply speaking, Russian PM and ex-president has blocked me on Twitter.
My best guess is that was somehow supposed to teach me a lesson in how to ask a politician uncomfortable questions in public place (social media). Yep.
My best guess #2 is that many people who know me personally would love to be able to mute me in critical moments simply by pushing a button.

Amoung that dozen of books I got on Library book sale for just only $20 (mainly for Chill Sr)

I bought a small hardcover edition of Orwell's Animal Farm and finally got to read it. Sad, predictable, very sad and very predictable. I wonder why we have never hear of it in our Literature classes in school, let alone it being part of the school program. The 90-ies were the perfect time for studying works of this kind in school - things would have probably been different now, had our generation been raised able to be self-conscious, reasonable, critically thinking and analytical.

By the way, I still love book sales and am so happy to see book sales as part of US's culture and events! This time I tripped over Bulgakov, books of beginner's Japanese and Latin (seriously?! When would I have time for all this?), bunch of country travel guides... had to restrain myself and take none of that, of course :)  I still sometimes joke of having had a "hungry childhood" when being pointed at my excessive love for fresh fruit and veggies or some peculiar gastronomic preferences... but I definitely always had books in abundance as a kid - more in our home library than I ever read, - yet here I am :)

HIghlights of August.

Studied for Audit like there's no tomorrow. Came to the exam to discover the system logged me out and would not allow override from any of the Prometrics staff. No, my login was not hijacked by a CPA-test-taking genius who decided to pass the test for me :) Lost some of the planned-for time + concentration waiting though...

While donating blood got into a conversation with a Bonfils staff member over politics, volunteering and education. Specifically, he turned out to enjoy watching videos of Putin finding him interesting and funny. Later, with a typical American self-awareness, embarrassment and apple-pie-ishness he complained how the world history in American schools is still biased towards American participation in key world events and wars. I had to reveal the level of knowledge (or ignorance) the majority of Russians of well post-school-age still have about the USSR's involvement into WW2, the allies' involvement and the amount of help offered to USSR during WW2 - even Von Zobel's grandma's name and story came up, and the fact Russia still has a whole separate WW2 dates, history and even a V-Day.

Chinchilla Sr started daycare, 3 days a week . It goes unexpectedly well so far: girls in his class come to him in the morning to ask: "What's your name?", "How old are you?" or "Do you like my dress?", the teachers are learning Russian, Chill is giggling at the teachers suddenly switching over to Russian for him (as in "Net!", "Nel'zya" & "Ne trogai!" - being the first things they learned),  Chill seems to have taken monopoly over the communal watering can and enjoys watering their little garden, and when I come to pick him up - he beams, runs to get his lunchbox and the bottle from the classroom, packs himself in his car seat, grumps "Gde min'-min'?!" ("Где ремень?!" - where's the seat belt?) as he's looking for the seat belt and fastens himself, demands "Mom, give me juice!" and as soon as he gets a pack of organic juice - he's all ready for the trip home. He has started to twit more on the way home about things he did that day.

He also had his 3rd Birthday celebration; two actually - the latter smaller one was for family only. This year he did enjoy running around and doing activities with other kids at the kids center, blowing out the candles on the cake (so much he accidentally did it a couple of times for the co-Birthday boy we shared the party with) and playing with the balloons. Chinchilla Jr. surprised everybody at the party by dancing with a balloon in each hand - as if it was his Birthday :)

Another unexpectedly good thing was that I did not lose shape much after Europe, and went back into my morning 5K routine pretty quickly. Thinking about increasing this number to 10: gradually, very gradually...

In the end of this month I crossed out the old goals for this year and wrote down just 5 ones, but more precise  and much, much more crazier ones.

The truth about transatlantic travelling with 2 toddlers is that

at some point you can find yourself carrying a suitcase and a bad and fighting with a (nearly) 3 year old who wants to pull a carryon suitcase his weight and almost his size. Or - carrying 3 bags and having an exhausted 1 y.o. passing out in your arms, so you have to carry him as well because the airline insisted on checking in the stroller at the same time as the rest of the baggage and not by the gate.

The flight to Reykjavik thus did not go too well: chinchillas were exhausted, angry, throwing tentrums in the plane and completely unable to sleep and unwilling to play. The flight in Reykjavik was delayed and we got some extra time to enjoy overcrowded space with overfilled trash bins from which chinchillas constantly tried to pull something out and either put in their mouths or pretend to do so to see parents' reaction(always negative).

Coming back to my town-base is always great: I get transportation flexibility and (relative) freedom of movement within the town, the variety of food that works for us and ability to get it any time, and this year I absolutely appreciate my kids sleeping in a house where an A/C can go on on a hot night, and going back to my gym again! Yep, the little joys of  middle class :)
The weather is still very nice, the tomatoes are ripening and the outdoor pool is still open to kids' fun and enjoyment!

Slovenia of this year is hot, beautiful and delicious

Although energy and time consuming at times too - this being vacations with 2 toddlers and 2 parents. The Bled lake is beautiful and absolutely unchanged in the past 2 years; Chinchilla Sr went into his bell-loving phase, identifying every church on our way as "Kolokol! Bom-bom!". Chinchilla Jr is running around fearlessly (all the fear having being transferred to his mother who is trying to catch him by the collar before he dives into the lake), falling down and trying to snack on something dirty - the dirtier the yummier! Both kiddos are happy with the routine of walks, swimming pool, playgrounds and good food. Besides, the need taught them how to share the Bob stroller and a waffle ice-cream cone. And I realized how un-used I got to playgrounds with pieces of broken glass, cigarette butts and shiny candy bar and ice-cream wraps. And yes, apparently no one considers bringing toys to playground either :)

The Lake Bled holidays reminded me of typical European fests with... a bunch of everything and a crowd of people on top of that :)  Found a new great restaurant near the lake. Managed to use local buses to get back to the village from the lake: if you're alone with 2 little kids, either a bright smile to the driver or looking worn out by two kids will qualify you for driver's full help with loading and unloading the stroller.

Got some weird unidentifiable stomach virus, which led me to involvement with Slovenian healthcare system, having my passport taken from the ER room by mistake (!) by some US boy (!!) that the ER personnel had no contact info with (!!!). Got  the best medical advice form the doctor on duty: "Enjoy life and be happy!". I wonder if it bears a connection with my physician conclusion that I do not rest enough and should absolutely start sleeping more?..

All in all - a very interesting experience - spending over a month abroad, and that's over 10% of the year. Where will it go from here?

Streets of Ljubljana.

Graz was on our travel list for quite some time,

So we were glad we could finally make it there.

Having spent a day in Graz (+ all the driving time to Austria and back) we did not make it to absolutely all sights and museums we wanted to visit, however managed to fit it quite a bit: climbed up all the way to Schlossberg, wandered along the shady alleys tried to find US & Canada on the plastic shields on the top of the castle pointing to various cities, but could not and concluded the directions were depicted in the 13th century before Americas were discovered.
Took pictures of the Clock (Glock) tower from different angles from the top, walked downhill and took pictures from different angles from the bottom of the hill. Then caught a group of pleasant German-speaking ladies and asked them to take some more pictures of the Clock-tower with all four of us.
Scared a café waiter (as well as the rest of our group) by my German. Scared myself with the thought that although the waiter did ultimately understand me, I had just uttered an Americanism in German, for "Wir sind fertig fur die Rechnung" say the Germans not.
Cooled down in Mausoleum and climbed up vintage stairs to yet another Tower with bells. I could not help taking pictures of BOMMM! for Chinchilla Sr, he's going through his bell phase.
Dropped by a pharmacy, left with a bag of sleep, cold and immune support remedies.

 

 

Dropped by Hoffbackerei  Edegger-Tax, left two strudels.

Rushed to the Glockenspiel to see the figures dance. Left thinking each one of us could do better dancing after such a huge stein of beer.

Found on the map Toys R Us (!!!) just 7 minutes away from the Graz center, rushed there, came back within an hour with half a dozen of toys, sidewalk chalk, toddler bottle and a teether. I was greatly impressed by their inventory, and not as impressed by their prices...

Had time left to have another 0.5 l beer.

On the whole Graz gives an impression of  a typical town that used to be pretty well-off to have its center done in beautiful architectural style, and with quality good enough to last hundreds of years. While the parts remote from the center might not be that interesting, the proximity to the center does reveal the contrast of the streets and squares being more spacious, and the houses - more interesting in ornaments and brighter in colours.

Udine is completely full of tourists

 and does look like a good mix of Rome and Venize (just as tourists guides warned us!). In fact, as you cross the border (hm, absolutely no one at the border on Saturday morning) you can tell you are in a different country.

The city center is clean, hot and hosts a nice flee market. We walk around glancing at some interesting items: some Russian china and tableware, souvenir mock Faberge eggs, binoculars and flasks with Nazi cross?.. I do wonder who would buy such things even in this part of the world.

The stores are packed with people. We end up stocking up clothes (while time permits) in large stores carrying both men's and women's clothing - to get our tax free paperwork completed :)

A granny in the coffee shop we got our first shot of double espresso/cappuccino in seems to understand my Italian and gives me a sweet smile. The owner of a little basement-type café in a little street just steps away from the shops barely understands English and does not speak a word of it, so with some help of our limited Italian and improvised sign language we end up with great wine and a simple but delicious mortadella sandwich. By the way, you could kill somebody with that  huge stick of motradella...

Gelatto is yummy, just like Slovenian. Sprits in the little café above a creek we have our light lunch at - are a killer. Literally, whatever they add to it that looks like soda and not proseco - is not soda at all. I realize it when we start talking about a couple of German cyclists that join the rest of their group late, I suggest that's because they got lost driving around a krožišče  and I totally lose it.

On the way back home I keep thinking that it's a shame we won't make it to Florence this time.