Month: November 2025

About Political Situation In Chicago

The first thing I noticed when I returned to Chicago was that helicopters were gone! No more dreadful sounds day and night. Gone!

I might speculate that the government shutdown limited funds for helicopter raids, but I prefer to think that ICE simply does not have the time for that, as it is trying to defend itself in multiple lawsuits.

OMG, how much I love the people of my city! I worried when I observed the initial silence as a response to the Trump administration’s actions. It seemed like everyone was paralyzed by fear. I am so happy to see that everyone remembered that there is power in numbers, and 200,000 people can’t be put into custody. And I love that our governor is keeping his promise to fight Trump in court.

Just a couple of today’s examples: an ICE agent charged with drunk driving. I copied the whole article from Tribune, and note this part:

The Trump administration repeatedly has referred to drunken driving as a justifiable reason for non-citizens to be detained and deported

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is facing drunken driving charges after police said his car jumped a curb and crashed into a hedgerow in the west suburbs.

Guillermo Diaz-Torres, 33, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, will be arraigned next month in DuPage County following a one-car crash in Oak Brook on Oct. 26. Police allege he failed several field-sobriety tests, including balancing, walking in a straight line and reciting the alphabet.

If convicted, Diaz-Torres could face penalties ranging from probation to up to a year in jail. Throughout its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration repeatedly has referred to drunken driving as a justifiable reason for non-citizens to be detained and deported.

Operation Midway Blitz — the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s mass deportation effort in the Chicago area — was launched in honor of a young suburban woman who was killed by a man accused of driving drunk while being in the country without the legal paperwork.

According to police video obtained by the Tribune, Diaz-Torres told officers he had just finished working an 18-hour shift at the ICE holding facility in Broadview and was heading straight to his hotel in Lombard. Though it was nearly 2 a.m., and Broadview is less than 10 miles away, Diaz-Torres couldn’t account for his whereabouts during the roughly 90-minute period after his shift ended and said he didn’t know which direction he had traveled after work.

“I have no idea, sir,” he tells police on the video. “I’m not from here.”

One more:

A federal judge in Chicago today issued a sweeping injunction that puts more permanent restrictions on the use of force by immigration agents during “Operation Midway Blitz,” saying top government officials lied in their testimony about threats that protesters posed and that their unlawful behavior on the streets “shows no signs of stopping.”

“I find the government’s evidence to be simply not credible,” U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said in an oral ruling from the bench, describing a litany of incidents over the past month and a half where citizens were tear-gassed “indiscriminately,” beaten and tackled by agents and struck in the face with pepper spray balls.

Also:

The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Public Media petitioned U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to release the recordings, which were filed under seal as part of a lawsuit led by the Chicago Headline Club, a nonprofit journalism advocacy organization, and a consortium of other media groups. The journalism organizations allege federal immigration enforcement officials have systematically violated the constitutional rights of protesters and reporters during Trump’s mass deportation mission, which began in early September and shows no sign of slowing down.

I watched some of them! Thinking about whether to save them here for historical records! Let’s do just one for now:

We will continue to resist!

Lyric Opera

Second day back to Chicago, and it’s a really long day! Escorting before work, work, nail salon, meeting with a friend for a quick bite before the opera, and finally – a Lyric Opera performance: Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci – two operas in one evening. Now that it’s already way past 11 PM, I realized I made a mistake – I should have taken Uber back home. But it’s still warm outside, and I hopped on a bus just after I got out of Lyric, and I thought that I would be home before eleven. But then, I waited for a train at Lake for 15 minutes, and now we are stopped due to the police activity on Howard – do not ask why we are sitting at Thorndale!

OK, we started moving!

Anyway, it was awesome that my friend Elina could come with me, because she does not go to Lyric as often as I, and it is always great to share the joy of music, conversation and an intermission dessert at Florian 🙂

I Am Back

Back to Chicago, that resists. Back to my Lake. Back to being busy, getting up at 4:30 AM, and having a whole week of after-work activities.

Each time I am returning back from Finland, I promise myself to get six hours of sleep every night, and each time, it does not last for more than two days. I suspect, it will be the case again this time.

Recently, I read in one of the articles about aging, how important is it to get enough sleep, and that if you think that you need less than eigh hours, you are fooling yourself, and you should make an effort ti sleep longer, and that there is no such a thing as too much sleep.

For me, it defeats the whole point of living longer: I want to live longer, so that I can get more out of life, more experiences, more impressions. What’s the use of a long life if I would spend a bigger portion of it sleeping?!

Being Married In The USSR

When Igor and I decided to get married, there was no question that I would move in to live with him and his mother and stepfather. Having our own place was absolutely out of the question: as I mentioned earlier, the housing market didn’t exist, and only a very small fraction of people rented; the vast majority lived in their “given” apartments. I didn’t have a room of my own: I shared a room with my mother in the same gigantic apartment on Galernaya Street – my childhood apartment. Igor lived with his parents (as everyone did), but he had his own room, so I was supposed to move there.

That might explain the alarm of his parents: all of a sudden, they were getting a roommate. One thing we did a little bit differently: I said from the start that we would have our own household, meaning that we would cook separately and have our own budget. I was used to that situation because that’s how my mom and I lived in one apartment with my father’s relatives, but for Igor’s parents, it was something unheard of. To their credit, they didn’t make a big deal out of it.

Later I learned that they were absolutely sure that we rushed to get married because I was pregnant, and since I got pregnant shortly after the marriage (that’s what we wanted, or rather, I wanted and Igor agreed), they were still sure it was the case, and were surprised at the end. After our son was born, we overheard Igor’s mom saying to somebody over the phone: nine months and six days! That was the time between our marriage and the birth of Igor-junior.

Igor’s parents had a washing machine, which not everyone had at that time. What I learned, however, was that they used it in an interesting way: they would turn it on once a month or so, and do several washes. Since there was no custom of daily clothes changing, everything was worn for several days and required more than a quick rinse. Igor’s mom used to soak everything in the bathtub before washing. The soaking could take a couple of days, and during this time, it was not possible to take a shower 😂. I was alarmed only the first time, but later I got used to the situation.

A more challenging thing was that Igor’s mom had almost all of his clothes in this dirty laundry pile just before our wedding, and then she got upset with him. I forgot about what, and she pulled all of his dirty laundry out of the big pile and handed it to me; now, I was in charge.

Needless to say, I found it absolutely normal. The only thing that bothered me was the fact that it was very difficult to hand-wash the clothes, which stayed in a dirty pile for weeks. I spent a long time scrubbing the dirty shirt collars, and fortunately, I never had to do it again, since I washed everything right away.

The only chores we did together with Igor were shopping, at least sometimes. I was doing cooking, dishes, laundry, and ironing. I didn’t think something was wrong with that: that’s what all wives were doing, it was normal, expected, and was a source of pride: I am a good wife, and I can “serve” my husband well.

It was all fine during the first six months of our marriage because I had just a few classes left in the University, and was finalizing my thesis, so I could focus on “being a wife.” I still worked on some tasks Boris gave me, but it was far from being “full-time employed.” Later, when I started working, things became more challenging.

My historical posts are being published in random order. Please refer to the page Hettie’s timeline to find where exactly each post belongs and what was before and after.

Palatine Protests

Igor told me about Palatine protests and showed his photos, and it was only later that I saw the news about the incident that prompted the anti-police rally. The news cited “about 20 people,” but since I already saw Igor’s photos, I knew there were way more people.

I am really proud of Palatine’s community, and I feel that our family contributed our small part to Palatine being vocal about any injustices.

Below is Igor’s article from Journal and Topics about the rally, and I think it explains everything perfectly. My Palatine friends, you rock!

Continue reading “Palatine Protests” →

Things I Always Notice In Helsinki

My local friends do not pay attention to many things that I marvel at each time I come. For them, it’s a part of their daily life, and for me all these things are a never-ending source of a “good envy,” things I hope to see in Chicago one day.

  • Seven-year-olds taking public transportation by themselves with confidence.
  • An abundance of family-style buffets pretty much everywhere; the ability to choose what exactly and how much you put on your plate
  • Absence of homeless people. I know that I do not see them, not because they are artificially “hidden” from other people’s sight, but because it’s almost impossible to become homeless in Finland.
  • Stainless steel public toilets everywhere. I can write a large blog post just about these toilets, their perfect design, their unbreakability, their convenience, and ease of cleaning. And yes, I saw them being used for different purposes, same as in Chicago, but still.
  • The widest network of bike paths, which allows you to get by bike anywhere and safely.
  • An abundance of public spaces that are used by everyone.
  • And one more time about unhoused people, because the housing crisis in Chicago is becoming worse every day. In Helsinki, people do not need to use bus stops for living, do not need to pull around the city all their possessions in a grocery cart, and do not need to use library bathrooms to wash themselves or take a nap in a safe space. And just to be clear, I see poor people in Helsinki. I see people scavenging the garbage cans. An antique shop next to Boris’ house in Helsinki distributes stale buns (unsure from where) every morning, and I see people lining up two hours ahead of the distribution time.

And I am not even mentioning the healthcare, eldery care, and many other things. I do not think I will see it all happen in Chicago during my lifetime. But I will do what I can to make it happen.

Last Day In Helsinki

Yesterday, we were trying to do everything we didn’t have time to do during the past two weeks :). We went for a bike ride, which was great, especially because I might not have an opportunity to go for a bike ride for a while (looking at my schedule realistically).

We went to Regatta in the afternoon, and they were serving glögg in addition to their usual coffee and hot chocolate, so we ordered glögg and blueberry pie with vanilla sauce and enjoyed being inside this little fairy tale, as always.

And I can never miss their outdoor creativity!

When it became darker, I went to see whatever Christmas lights were already up:

To my surprise and delight, I found that not only Stockmann Christmas display was already up (it was not up five hours earlier when I went to get chocolate!)

And then I spent two hourse packing, and ended up with two luggage pieces!

Bach Messa In Si Minor At Toumiokirkko

I am so glad we went to this concert! Boris was doubtful whether we should go, and with it’s been raining non-stop, it was very tempting to saty at home hybernating. I am so glad I changed my made and made an executive decision to get us tickets!

After the concert, when I was energized beyond the level any espresso drink can deliver, Boris told me he underestimated how new this experiense would be for me. And actually, I do not think I ever heard Bach in a church, believe it or not! The boys choir is absolutely out of this world! (That’s a different music, but I just can’t get over them!)

And on the way home back from the concert I saw that Helsinki is being decorated for Christmas – not the full regalia, but getting there, and I hope to catch a glimpse of it tonight!