On family history, parenting, education, social issues and more
Author: Hettie D.
My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996.
I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future.
I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life.
As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.
I never experienced anything like that! And from what I hear, it’s not just me – the hazardous air quality situation is the worst ever experienced in Chicago. It had dramatically worsened during the night, and I didn’t realize what was happening when I got out for the morning bike ride.
The smell of the air was awful, and I didn’t realize how “global” it was. The picture taken from one of my favorite spots shows a complete disappearance of the skyline.
When it was time for the girls to go to camp, they asked for masks, and they were not wrong. The situation became even worse later in the day, although I still hope that it will become better by Saturday, as the forecast promises!
Anna & Fam traveled to Chicago from Michigan, which meant there was an abundance of fresh fruits and berries sold everywhere in mass quantities. Anna figured out it shouldn’t go to waste, and the four of us will consume it all, but it didn’t appear to be realistic, especially because I also stuffed the fridge with CSA delivery and other fruit and vegetable purchases.
I will check with Anna, but at first glance, there were at least 10 lb of perfectly ripe peaches, a box of at least 5 lb of blueberries (I actually think more), several pounds of both red and Rainier cherries, red currants, cucumbers, peppers, and raspberries. And most of them didn’t fit in the fridge!
It was only yesterday that I managed to fit the remaining goods into the fridge, and before that, I was making Finnish blueberry-rye cereal for breakfast for both of us, and we gave a lot of fruits to Igor and my neighbor downstairs. My next-door neighbor just returned from Michigan herself 🙂
Nadia and Kira are attending the Drama Camp at the Lifeline Theater this week. Anna is trying to work from home, and I am trying to work whenever the opportunity presents itself 😂
The challenge is that the camp drop-off time is 8:50, and pickup time is at 3 PM, and it’s about a 15-minute walk from my house, so it’s only 5.5 hours of work in between. Yesterday, I worked from home and picked the girls up so that Anna could do more work during the day. Funny story: when I came for a pickup and the counselor asked for the kids’ names, I almost said, “Anna and Vlad” 😂. After the camp, we went to the beach, and when Anna was done, we switched :). I think the beach is the best thing in this whole arrangement! The water is warm, I bought two new bags of beach toys, so even the 90s (which is going to be the case for the whole week) feels manageable 🙂
While I was in Helsinki, I decided that my biking injuries were not healing fast enough, so after I returned, I went to physical therapy. Funny that I thought that my hip injury was healing slower and causing me more problems, but I soon realized that it was the opposite. Just after one visit to PT and doing exercises for a couple of days, I could run to catch the bus again:). It’s not healed completely, but the most important thing that affected my quality of life has improved.
The hand is healing more slowly, most likely because I use it all the time and often forget that I should be careful. When I went to PT for the second time (on Friday), my favorite physical therapist was in, and he did so many exercises with my hand, and it hurt the next morning. However, I see an improvement! It might still be a couple of weeks, and I still have bruises everywhere on my right side, but the progress is undeniable 🙂
Artists of the Wall is an annual Rogers Park event. I never participated in the actual painting, but I always loved what others had created. Anyone (although it is mostly local residents) can register to paint one of the sections of a 600-foot-long wall located by the lake near Loyola Beach. The Artists of the Wall Festival has been taking place since 1993, when neighbors banded together to cover up graffiti on the wall. Each year has its theme, but it’s usually broad enough to cover pretty much anything you want to paint.
This year’s theme is We Are All Neighbors.
First, last year’s paintings are covered with white (my mom’s photo), and all the slots are marked.
Then, for two days, participants create their paintings (sometimes, people come later to finish).
I saw this show on Wednesday, and it was absolutely perfect! Everything: the play, the music, the lyrics, the characters, the singers, political relevance… They said from the stage that all characters were realy people, and we caoul look them up.
And that’s what I am going to do – there are too many good stories that I want to know about!
I think I already had at least three announcements that summer is finally here, but it was still “not exactly”, because the lake was cold, and the temperatures were not getting to their summer level, and during the heat wave, I was away:).
The latter one does not imply that I wanted to be here during the heat wave:), but only after I came back, and was finally able to go to the beach after work, I could feel Chicago summer in full; the way I love it. Chicago summer at its best is the reason I never want to be away, at least in July and August.
On Tuesday, I finally went to the beach after work, and it felt super nice. And yesterday, I took a late break at work (I do not care what it is called, and why I am taking a break shortly before most people leave home; it’s just the time when I actually can take it!)
When you come to the office at 6:30 AM (no, I didn’t work, I had a virtual training session)And then take a break at 3:30 PM, and walk the Riverwalk, and hear the music from the fun boats and from all the cafes you passContinue reading “Summer!”→
I came back to Chicago on Saturday evening and had tons of plans for Sunday, which were only partially realized. One of the things I’ve done is watch the Wild Party movie at the Siskel Center. It was the first movie of the 20th Century Queer series, filmed in 1929. It was definitely an interesting one, especially in how openly it presented bisexual characters, and their balancing between lesbian and heterosexual relationships. You almost think that you are imagining things … except that you are not! Dorothy Arzner, the film director, was an open lesbian, and somehow, in the 1920s, it was still OK to make films like this (or nobody figured out yet that the homoerotic topic should be tabooed).
Now I am curious whether there were other movies like that!
On Friday, we got up at 5 AM in order to catch the 6:30 AM train to Narva. This time, we didn’t mess up with the buses, and took the right one, and didn’t even miss the stop, and were at the cemetery at 10:15 AM.
The weather on both Thursday and Friday was much better than forecasted. On Thursday, it was just sunny with no rain. On Friday, the rain was starting and stopping, but it was still light enough that we could walk around for a while, and we took shelter at a bus stop for only the last 30 minutes.
I was sure I would find the grave immediately, but I got lost again, and after wandering “somewhere close,” I asked a lady tending another grave if she could help me. The lady looked at the photo on my phone, but couldn’t recognize it, so I kept moving in circles, until she suddenly called me: Woman, woman! Here it is! I realized I completely forgot this way of addressing strangers (woman, girl, man, etc.).
Anyway, I found it. And now that the lot is cleaned up, I see that more repairs are needed, so we’ll have to figure out what we are going to do with it)/
Same as last time, Boris and I walked from the cemetery towards the village center, and passed the wood where I used to go berry-picking.
Once again, we stopped by the house where I spent three summers of my childhood. This time, however, it looked like there was a massive construction in progress, so I suspect that next time I visit, this house won’t be there anymore. Well, I am glad I had a chance to see it!
We had an extra hour and a half in Narva, and the rain stopped again, so we walked to the fortress (the view is so breathtaking that I can’t stop looking!)
Another 3-hour train ride to Tallinn, walking under the pouring rain to the ferry terminal, and a two-hour ride to Helsinki (this time, comfortably sitting in the cafe).
Boris believes that as long as someone remembers a person who passed away, this person is not completely gone. For him, that’s the reason to take care of this grave and keep visiting it. I do not hold this belief, but still, somehow, it’s important for me not to abandon it after I found it.
Hettie's Reflections 